This is a great Cali run, but is not as well known as reaches like the Silver or Truckee.  It is about 30 minutes from Chico, and offers some amazing whitewater in a beautiful gorge.  We met up with John Vengely and Scott Yoder for the run at the takeout bridge and headed up to the put in.  As we climbed up the road to Paradise, the snow started to pile up and by the time we got to the top, there was a solid 6 inches.  The drive into this run is beautiful, climbing up to the canyon rim, with spectacular high views.

The bitch of this run is that if the gate is closed, it’s a 2 mile hike down to the creek.  Right before we got to the locked bridge, John slid the car off the road but we managed to push it back on.  The closed gate meant hiking in, so we hooked up slings and dragged our boats for as long as the snow held. 

Locked gate=drag boats 2 miles in the snow

As we descended into the canyon, it was surprising how much elevation we lost.  Through the trees we could see upper Butte above the powerhouse which was unreal.  Super steep and technical with many 30-40 foot drops… save this one for another day.  From the put in the run looked a lot more difficult than expected. There were huge boulders, gnarly undercuts, and intense gradient (190fpm in the first bit).  Scott decided that the run was a bit too much for him, so he packed it back up the 2 miles.  The three of us continued down the run, the first mile of which was pushing V+.

            The first set of rapids from the put in was continuous IV+ (V) and we scouted all of it.  The gradient and massive boulders were very intimidating.  The first rapid of note had a few large boulders with channels that led into a 15 foot slide and then a 10 foot drop with large gnar hole/ rock undercut at the bottom.  I opted to run the top and then portage the falls, while John and Paul ran the whole thing successfully. 

Horizon lines galore.

Jon on the 15 foot slide in the first Class V rapid.

Paul cleans the drop at the bottom of the first Class V.  Scott Yoder photo.

There is more continuous IV+ before the next large drop.  I took a swim in one of these in-between rapids when my leg slipped out of my thighbrace and popped off my skirt.  This was my first swim since the Cascade River on 7/18/2004.  I was able to self rescue and get my boat up on a rock before the next set, which could have produced a nasty swim.  We are all just between swims.

The next rapid, Chimney Rock Rapid, turned out to be the hardest on the run and everyone portaged.  There was a difficult leadin to an 18 footer that crashed into the right wall and into an undercut.  If this undercut didn’t take your head off, the hole below the falls had a room of doom behind it and another undercut rock below.  A bit further downstream there was a clean 10 footer, but not one to swim over.  We all put in below the undercuts and ran the 10 footer below, sweet drop.

Paul scouting the undercut wall falls in Chimney Rock Rapid.

The lower view of the falls reveals the undercut and cave below.  There was also a sieve downstream and another undercut wall.

The 10 footer below Chimney Rock.  Paul runs while Jon looks on.

Below here the river continues until it reaches Freedom Falls, a 15 foot split falls with a nasty line on the right, but a sweet boof on the left.  The right line goes into the rock wall and then plummets into a large hole.  The boof on the left skirts all of this and just goes straight out into a beautiful pool.  This drop marks the end of the hardest part of the run, and it mellows out considerably below.

The author soars over the edge of Freedom Falls.

Paul dropping Freedom Falls. The other channel looked nasty but runable.

The rest of the run is epic class IV creeking.  All of the drops are boat scoutable, and there are some really fun rapids.  Most of the drops are short with some good holes, strong gradient and pools below.  Its too bad you need to boat the Class V above to get to this epic section.  The volcanic gorge is moss covered and reminiscent of New Zealand.  The water color in the canyon is emerald green and clear.  Really amazing stuff. 

Jon coming down one of the lower drops.  Epic whitewater.

The run out of the river goes into a Class II section, but we decided to takeout at the lower Powerhouse.  There is a weir at the powerhouse that creates a good surf wave at 1500-2000.  There is also an awesome surfing wave on Butte Creek where Hwy 99 crosses the river at flows 1200cfs+.  Great surf close to Chico (thanks to Scott for that one, and for the space on the floor).

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