Right outside of Oso, WA, this gem of a "Creek" lays dormant most of the season. Deer Creek flows into the North Fork of the Stilliguamish river and is in when Robe Canyon is looking a little meatie (6.5' and higher in Robe). This monster is an under appreciated and seldom boated must-do if you're in the area and water levels cooperate.
I had never heard of Deer Creek before, so when Ben called and said that Adrian and I should rally out Saturday morning I said "Deer Creek? Tha hell is that?"
But the goods were in store. I partied a little too hard the night before and was not on my A-game in the morning.
Throwing up at the put in. Deer Creek.
I spent the Friday night before this epic in Bellevue, tasting the fine brews that they had to offer. When Adrian called me to tell me he was on the way to come get me, I couldn't open my eyes. I thought I was blind for a good full five minutes and then I realized I had slept with my contacts in the night before and my eyelids where glued shut. I told Adrian that I didn't feel like boating as I started retching. He used some colorful expletives to make me question my manhood and then I agreed on the condition that he would let me stop to get coffee. He agreed. When Adrian finally found me at a friends dry cleaning business I could barely walk and had to empty my stomach twice on the way to the car.
Adrian and I met up with Ben, Joe and Kiwi Mike. Kiwi Mike opted to drive us up to the put in. The take out is easy to find. Right in the town of Oso where Deer Creek connects with the North Fork of the Stilliguamish river. There's an old railway bridge you can park next to and it seemed pretty legit ie, no broken glass.
Hudson. The only rapid name we knew.
We got lost a couple times trying to find a good spot to start hiking. No one in our group had actually been on the run before and only Ben had the beta. It was snowing pretty heavily and the body heat in the back of Kiwi Mike's van was making my head swim.The hike in is just as brutal as the logging roads you have to drive up to get to the put in. I would venture its about a mile from where we parked the truck down to the water. More than 50% of that is on a very steep, densely forested hill. More times than I can count I lost my footing and tumbled. I heard a rumor than on a subsequent trip Rob fell and dropped his boat all the way into the river and had to swim to catch it right above Hudson.
You have a little bit of class III boogie before you get to Hudson. Hudson was the only named rapid that we knew and I think it was the biggest of the day. A decent lead in and a scout eddy up top allows a view. Two lines were apparent. River left and then a hard ferry back to river right above a massive hole. Or, a mank line down river right and then a straight shot through the right side of the bottom hole. Adrian and I took the right mank line the first time we ran Deer Creek and I would not recommend it at those levels. It was very pinnie and sharp. We both took the left line on our second trip, and while I got hung up in a stiff eddy line, I think the left line is much easier and more fun. The hole though...
Big hole.
Not my style son.
Lots of eddy service above Hudson.
Panorama of Hudson from the old growth lodged on the shore.
After you get past Hudson there is nothing but quality class V. Its all good to go, with lines all over the place and good downstream visibility. We got into a rhythm of one or two people scouting and then relaying beta until we got to this bad boy.
Big rapid number 5000...
We don't have a name for this guy, but its all good fun. I didn't get any pictures of the rapid above this but its a pretty straight forward slide(ish) into a moving pool. You need to catch this eddy on river left if you intend to scout as there's nothing on river right and this rapid is waiting. It looks a bit rough but its very manageable.
On our first lap we all ran down the left side the whole way down. Went fine. On our second lap, Ben and Joe Howard took the center most line and then fought left at the end. Joe got some ride time in a rather benign looking hole and I remember Ben smashing his face on the big boulder in the far left of the above photo. The current piles into that rock or feeds into a large hole just to river right of it. I took a more conservative line and started left, ferrying right above Joe's hole and then down the far right side.
Good times.
More amazing boogie and we came to this thing. A two teired ramp of Gnar. The whole river make a 90 degree left turn and goes over a broken U shaped ledge. The river left side is vertical while the right side is a slide with a 3 or 4 foot drop at the end. In the middle of the second tier is a large upstream facing pin rock. I wouldn't want to come anywhere near this thing. Our initial line was to take the slide right and then boof
The same rapid viewed from downstream. Notice dead center pin rock.
I went next and got off the slide, then went a little too far right and fell into a little slot up against the right rock that we were scouting from. I didn't stay stuck for very long, but it was long enough for my eyes to pop out of my skull. Stay off the right wall! I have a feeling that if I hadn't of had the speed that I did coming into that slot, it would have been a different story all together.
They stack up in Deer Creek. Rapid right below the Two Tiers of Terror.
Still looking downstream.
Another upstream view of the Two Tiers and the canyon.
The rapid directly below the Two Tiers of Terror.
I like my rapids with as much wood in them as possible. Well, not really. This rapid looked much worse from above than it really was. Once you got out and looked you could see that the hole at the bottom was deep and pretty un-retentive (we hoped). The line is river left all the way down.
Don't worry about the tree. Not in play unless you blow your line above.
The rest of the run is pretty much the same. Just awesome rapid after awesome rapid. Boof and hole after ledge and slot. This is a great run and another one to keep on the radar. I wish I had taken better notes after we got off the river as the memory is a bit hazy. If you're comfortable on Robe, you shouldn't have any issue in Deer Creek. That being said, its much more continuous than Robe Canyon. but it has the same claustrophobic big water feel.
Stay safe!
Check out this awesome video that
Matt Kurle put together with my footage of Deer Creek.
