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Joe Howard - Big Quilcene
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| Casserlys Cascade - Big Quilcene |
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Big Quilcene - Olympic Peninsula
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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.
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Casserly's Cascade - Big Quilcene
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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.
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Big Quilcene - Olympic Peninsula
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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.
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Joe Howard – Casserly's Cascade
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Joe Howard – Casserly's Cascade
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Joe Howard – Casserly's Cascade
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Found this little guy in my boat after setting safety for Joe.
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:
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Joe Howard – Big Quilcene
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First rapid – Big Quilcene
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Joe Howard in the first rapid – Big Quilcene
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First rapid, second half – Big Quilcene
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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.
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Joe contemplates – Big Quilcene
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Joe goes for it
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Joe – Big Quilcene
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Stay off that right wall...
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Same rapid from below.
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Panorama of said rapid.
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Another fun ledge, run right.
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Joe leads the way. Scout from RR.
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Log Jam No 1 – Big Quilcene
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Log Jam No 1 – Big Quilcene
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Log Jam No 1 – Big Quilcene
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Log Jam No 1 – Big Quilcene
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Then theres Log Jam number 2:
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Log Jam No 2 – Big Quilcene
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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.
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Log Jam No 2 – Big Quilcene
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Log Jam No 2 – Big Quilcene
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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.
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Log Jam No 2 sneak line – Big Quilcene
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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.
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Unreal Scenery
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Last rapid in the runout of the gorge - Big Quilcene
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Cool waterfall near the get out - Big Quilcene
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Take out gage at the fish hatchery - Big Quilcene
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Frankenstein needs a nose job
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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.
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Get out and enjoy the sun!!
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