Stebbins Creek debacle AKA whose idea was this?

We have had our eye on Stebbins for a while after seeing some tempting photos of Tsunami and some other drops online.  Last weekend we were getting a good amount of rain and things seemed to be coming in, so we decided to give it a go.  I had reservations about running this one as the pictures didn't make it look too raftable besides the big drops, and the two mile hike in seemed like a bit much. Dan assured me that kayakers said it would be good, and that Tsunami would be epic, so we were off. As we got near the trailhead we realized that there was a lot of snow. This is a bad sign as it can mean a lot of the water is locked up and not in the creek.

At least this meant we could drag the rafts instead of carrying them the whole way. We parked a little ways from the trail head under a tree so we could pull out at the end of the day.  We knew we had a pretty big day ahead of us so we made haste in getting our stuff together.

Jon showing us how everyone would feel by the end of the day

We decided to strap the kayaks to the rafts so we would be able to have three people dragging each boat. The system worked pretty well but it was still a log ways to the creek. We spent a lot of time dragging the boats up hills, being dragged by the boats downhill, slipping into hidden holes, getting the boats over, under, and around trees, and other such fun activities.

 

After an hour or two we made it down to the tiny creek. This sign was a very welcome sight.

 

Oh yeah, did I mention the creek was tiny? Like not really raftable tiny? Like a nice three mile boat drag to compliment your two mile boat drag only this time with cold water and slippery rocks tiny?  The first quarter mile was awful for the rafts and kayakers. In the raft we were forced to get out at least every fifty yards or so. Finally we made it the first waterfall, and got out to scout and have a discussion. Ryan was of the opinion that the rafters should hike out and come back early in the morning to finish the run, or we would be spending the night there. We decided that the water would be even lower tomorrow and we might as well push on. We didn't get too many pictures as we were trying to make time, but Jacob got some video which I will be posting later. Within the next mile or so there are three or four bedrock ledges up to ten feet high. that are kind of entertaining, but mostly mediocre plop and drop affairs. There were still quite a few bouldery sections to deal with and boat dragging was more common than actual rafting. I should mention that we had more water than either of the Oregon Kayaking reports. We made as good of time as we could and soon got to Lethal Injection, which has always been a portage due to wood. Surprisingly, all the wood was gone and so we got to run the 7 foot bedrock ledge.  The next rapid is Tsunami, the biggie for the trip. One of the logs from Lethal Injection was blocking the entrance, but we figured we could just launch off of it into the first Drop. The kayakers each had their own plan, with Jacob seal launching from a rock directly into the first falls, and Ryan launching from a small island. Everything worked for everyone, but it made the best rapid of the trip into more of a pain in the ass than it needed to be.

Scouting

The rapid consists of a 18 foot falls/slide which drops onto a less steep slide into a six foot drop and over another steep 15 foot slide. Its kinda sweet but hard to paddle on as it is so shallow. We got spun by a rock in between the first and second drop but got it straight for the third and dropped off the fourth sideways. The other raft didn't spin but did get stuck and wound up dropping the last one pretty much on the bank. Both kayakers had good lines.

Ryan dropping the third tier

 

The rest of the creek went back to boulders. All the wood from Lethal wound up in Zoom Flume, necessitating a portage, though it didn't look too runnable anyways.  We wound up running Mad Dog Falls backwards in the dark, and taking out in pitch dark. It was not a good day.  Conclusion: Don't raft Stebbins creek. Even with twice the water we had it would still be not that great, especially for the amount of work involved. Hopefully I will get the video up soon.