The Big Quilcene - Olympic Peninsula





Joe Howard - Big Quilcene

 

The town of Quilcene was open for business and Joe and I were ready for some sweet, sweet OP goods.






Casserlys Cascade - Big Quilcene

   The Olympic Mountain range is a coastal mountain range in the Western most part of Washington State that rises almost directly out of the sea. While they are not especially tall, by normal means, they are rugged and dangerous in their own right. The Western slopes rise out of the Pacific Ocean and are the wettest place in the 48 contiguous states. The Hoh Rainforest receives between 140 and 170 inches of rain a year.



Big Quilcene - Olympic Peninsula

The Big Quilcene is on the Eastern flank of this amazing mountain range, and while not a rainforest, it still receives enough rainfall to maintain heavily forested foothills and dense undergrowth.

Mainly made up of basalt, sandstone and slate. This hills are covered in Sitka spruce, Douglas-fir and western hemlock, and garnished with a healthy helping of devils club.

The walls are this amazing smoothed over sandstone that boasts no handholds for as far as you can see.



Casserly's Cascade - Big Quilcene

One of the coolest things about this canyon is how remote it feels. The entire run is less than a mile from the road that you take to the put-in and less than 4 miles from HWY 101, but you could be on Mars for all you know. There is no trash, no debris (other than wood), nothing to mark the presence of Humans.




Big Quilcene - Olympic Peninsula



Boofs for days and days…

The first drop you come to is a small waterfall with a funky entrance called Casserly’s Cascade. Scout and portage on river left. I ran it right to left but got caught in the cave on river right. Joe had a much better line and styled it.

Joe Howard – Casserly's Cascade




Joe Howard – Casserly's Cascade




Joe Howard – Casserly's Cascade



Found this little guy in my boat after setting safety for Joe.


Joe Howard – Big Quilcene

After Casserly’s you have a couple class III’s before you come up to this. We elected not to scout but probably should have. The corner is completely blind and with how much wood we found downstream, it wouldn’t be too difficult to imagine finding wood lurking around the corner at the bottom of this guy:


First rapid – Big Quilcene





Joe Howard in the first rapid – Big Quilcene

  

First rapid, second half – Big Quilcene

  Couple more fun drops brings you to this guy:

Super fun. Run down the gut and boof the massive hole at the bottom. Stay left though as it backs up into the undercut wall on river right.




Joe contemplates – Big Quilcene



Joe goes for it



Joe – Big Quilcene





Stay off that right wall...

 


Same rapid from below.




Panorama of said rapid.



Another fun ledge, run right.



Joe leads the way. Scout from RR.

No OP trip would be complete without some form of strainer, wood sieve, wier, dam or other form of fun. After a few more class III-IV boulder gardens we pulled in to a small eddy on river right and got out to see what we were dealing with. What we found was an awesome drop that was completly ruined by rainforest sized toothpicks.



Log Jam No 1 – Big Quilcene



Log Jam No 1 – Big Quilcene

If you got your nose up high enough...



Log Jam No 1 – Big Quilcene




Log Jam No 1 – Big Quilcene

 Log Jam No1 is unfortunately placed. It's covering what promises to be a pretty cool drop, a bigger version of Uber Boof on the Cooper river. Even the run out rapid was ruined by an ill-placed tree limb. Portage on river left.

Then theres Log Jam number 2:



Log Jam No 2 – Big Quilcene



This spot was pretty hairy. Joe was leading and almost bombed over the lip here on far river left. Luckily there was a last chance eddy as this beautiful 10-12 foot slide ends in a horrible wood sieve. The portage is on river right up and over the log jam and then down the right side. With more water this thing would be coming at you pretty quick.

Log Jam No 2 – Big Quilcene




Log Jam No 2 – Big Quilcene



You can see the river left line from here; totally good to go. But just to the left is a horrible looking wood sieve. I think the right boater could make the move and walk away with another awesome drop under their belt. Not this guy.



Log Jam No 2 sneak line – Big Quilcene


From here out its pretty much quality boulder garden followed by quality boulder garden. I don’t know how many times I wanted to stop and take pictures. The forest is just amazing and the water is so clear!

This little guy had a fun smear move to stay off of a clam shell shaped rock in the landing zone of the ledge.



Unreal Scenery 

 

Last rapid in the runout of the gorge - Big Quilcene

 



Cool waterfall near the get out - Big Quilcene

 


Take out gage at the fish hatchery - Big Quilcene

 

Frankenstein needs a nose job

 

I could see how dangerous this creek bed could become with more water. Even at the flow we had on Sunday, we boat scouted a lot and ran a couple drops blind. I can only imagine what the eddies would look like with more current pushing through.

Several of the eddies above substantial drops (and one portage) were one boat eddies. 

Get out and enjoy the sun!!