Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Speyfitter]

Anyone in here interested in pontooning the Chehalis Canyon? Never done it myself, done a LOT of research on it. I know the put in's & take out's, know of the major rapids to watch out for, and with a few basic safety preparations, I know this can be done. I have also talked to some guys who pontoon it fairly regularly. Was hoping to do it for Coho at some point in the near future? Keep in mind that this is no walk in the park, there is some serious whitewater in there - lots of class 3 with one rapid that at higher levels is considered a 4- by kayakers. Keep in mind however, that the river in the canyon IS pool drop, so if you flip, you and your boat will land in a pool and you can get everything back together.  Anyways, send me an email speyfitter@gmail.com

[Speyfitter]

I just want to add - that at certain levels whitewater canoers do this river, and the rapid that is considered class 4- can be portaged. And keep in mind the video I've seen of it - it's more like a 3 at lower levels.

Just upstream of the Morris Valley bridge near the outlet of the canyon there is that concrete abutment on river right that has a gauge on it with a ruler/gauge marker. IF you get close enough to it to read it, you'll see 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, etc. Kayakers will tell you low is 0.25, medium is 0.5 and high is 0.75 or higher. For much of the summer the river is well below 0.25. My understanding is good pontoon-able levels are anywhere from 0.25 to 0.50.

[Robert_G]

Don't go in any higher than Statlu Creek. I've done the whole river from the bridge below the lake to Morris Valley Rd. Its 26 km and took 6 of us almost 11 hours....and that was just tubing...no fishing.

I only did the entire river 1 time. Since then we've always gone in at Statlu creek. The reason being is because the entire river goes over a waterfall above Statlu creek. The portage is miserable and not to mention we did it in summer when it was dry. I couldn't imagine doing the portage when the ground is wet and slippery.

Statlu creek to the bridge is about 5 hours or so of just tubing. I would think plontoon might be a bit faster...but probably not too much faster...maybe 1/2 hour less time at best. At this time of year I would strongly recommend not doing the entire river.

[Speyfitter]

Robert,
I've seen the Statlu Put in and my understanding is you need Statlu to be up a decent level to get down it to the Chehalis, and apparently Statlu can actually be more gnarly than the main stem Chehalis at times, depending on levels. My understanding is there is another put in that is past the Statlu put in. It is on the Chehalis about 3 - class 3 rapids upstream from the Statlu confluence. I'm told it's a little bit of a hike to get down to it so it might make most seriously reconsider the put in. I'd probably have to take the boat apart and put it back together down on the river for this hike in put in. And like you said - putting in at the Chehalis logging bridge is a no go. I've seen some pictures of major log jams up there, along with as you state, there are some class 5 rapids/falls in that section, along with upstream of the logging bridge as well.

Here is a relatively recent kayak video of a guy doing the Statlu Chehalis run. You can pretty well tell what is the Statlu and what is the Chehalis in this video. (Launches at the Statlu creek bridge).  I would argue that the Statlu in this video isn't exactly low but probably more medium like the Chehalis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNkFzKTp6N0

[Speyfitter]

Here is another Statlu-Chehalis video that looks like it's from the Vancouver Kayak club from this past Summer end of June at 9.5 (0.5) river levels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85xMDlArT0E

At about 3:20 in, in this video, is the "Landslide rapid" which is the class 4- rapid that was created from the landslide some years back.

[clujalolo]

I hear dropping the boat at the land slide is a good spot. Inbetween statlu creek and boulder creek. I just dont know how to get to that trail head. Doesnt seem to be as bad of a hike. Might need a 4x4 from what i saw when i was scouting the area this summer. But again i could be wrong.

And rapids arent so bad after that point.

[Robert_G]

Robert,
I've seen the Statlu Put in and my understanding is you need Statlu to be up a decent level to get down it to the Chehalis, and apparently Statlu can actually be more gnarly than the main stem Chehalis at times, depending on levels.

I guess this may need to be looked at differently.
Because we did it in the summer, getting down the Statlu was easy. The reason being is that the water was low, so we probably did more walking than tubing when it came to getting down the Statlu to the actual Chehalis River. The whole way down was walk a bit...tube a bit...walk a bit...tube a bit, so I can see where you are coming from. At this time of year you probably don't want to be getting in and out of your plontoon, where for us, getting in and out of a tube was easy. We were all wearing shorts and old running shoes. No waders or neopreme whatsoever....
I would still caution going much higher than the Statlu because you simply are running out of daylight. Once you get to the bottom 20% of the river...it all looks the same, and it is very easy to think you are close to the Morris Valley bridge when you could still have a long way to go. You find yourself a nice fishing spot with fish and its easy to forget you have an hour or more of plontooning to get back to your vehicle. ....and trust me....you do not want to be in that canyon in a plontoon when it's dark....been there done that.