Deer Creek (Lower run, IV~IV+)

Deer creek has two runs, upper (17 miles, class V) and lower (23 miles, class IV). I did the lower run with Jesse Costero-Good, Tom Hind, Andrew Guldman, Melody Schmit and Andy, when flow was ~500 cfs in the Memorial day weekend. The flow was a little low, and we needed 200 cfs more. For this run, we paid for a shuttle driver ($60 per vehicle). We took the driver to the putin, and the driver drove our cars back to his/her house. on the next day, the drivers left cars at the takeout. The putin road (Ponderosa way) was terribly bad road, which needed high clearance vehicle.

This was my first overnight trip on the river. Before this trip, I spent longer than 3 hours to pack slepping bag, sleeping pad, vivy, fleece pants, fleece long sleeves, foods, water, dry clothes, spare paddles, etc in two float dry bags. Jesse adviced me not to put anything in the front, because stuffs need to be located as close to my body as possible to make quick turn. It makes sense. Some infor for this run is available at cacreeks.com.

Nice view from the putin bridge.


Andrew in unknown class IV rapid. For a while, I could not get familier with the heavy weight of my boat by lots of stuffs.


Andrew.


I was pinned in front of the huge rock in the right half of this picture. The front of my boat went under the rock, and my boat stood vertically and fixed in the rapid. There was no way to escape other than swimming.


Andrew.


Tom broke his paddle in the bottom of the right drop of the picture.


Very nice beach for camping.


Andrew made nice roof with the green tarp and spare paddles. In that evening, we had short rain. In next time, I have to mimic his way.


Tom brought a big sausage. Looked delicious!


What creatures gnawed this branch? Beaver??


Melody entering onto the toungue in river left. The hole in the right looked sticky.


Jesse on the first boof of the Ishi falls rapids (V-).


This picture is right after the previous photo.


Double drop. The flow in the middle was a little low to run. I did not want to be pinned anymore. We except for Jesse portaged.


Jesse ran in the river right of the Double Drop.


Andy.