South Fork Silver Below Icehouse Reservoir - October 22, 2005
| River: |
South Fork Silver |
| Section: |
Icehouse Run |
| Class: |
III, IV+ |
| Flow: |
500 cfs |
| Location: |
California |
| Boaters: |
Mike Bean, Mike Fentress, Oliver Heim, Geoff Jennings, Albert Romvari, Hilde Schweitzer |
| Photography: |
Oliver Heim |
This past Saturday, October 22, I was lucky enough to paddle the Icehouse run on the South Fork of Silver Creek along with Mike Bean, Mike Fentress, Geoff Jennings, Hilde Schweitzer and Albert Romvari. Below are some excerpts from the people on the run followed by a few pictures. I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would have liked but there's always next time. know that people are looking for detailed info on this run. So, here it is...
By Albert Romvari -- reposted from www.boof.com.
In a group of six, Hilde, Mike Fentress, Mike Bean, Geoff Jennings, Oliver Heim and myself (Albert) put on at the base of the dam this morning at 10:30 AM. All of our group were advanced to expert boaters. Water was cold. I was wearing a full dry suit and never felt sorry for my choice.
The first mile, down to the highway bridge, contains some class IV rapids, eddy hopping, fun type, nothing too scary. There is gradient there and no break between rapids so, one must be in control. We did scout one bigger drop and run it far right.
After the bridge, the river eases up to Class III, Class II and even flat, Class I for a mile, or so. At around mile 2 are the biggest rapid on the run. This is the one that some of the flow study people called Class V-. We did not scout it, probably should have. Two of us made it through without any problems, three had minor tip-overs/braces in the final drop and one swapped ends in the left side hole a few times, followed by being sucked back for a second ride. Finally washed out rolled OK. A second group of boaters who put in above us, scouted this rapid and all portaged it. Just downstream of that in an other Class IV ledge of about 6'. Did not scout that either, run it over on the right side where there is a kind of rock slide under the falling waters.
From there the river settles down to Class III for several miles. NOTE: It is absolutely continuous Class III with no breaks or let up. Not too many clear eddies on this section, both shores are covered in thick brush. Swimming would not be a good idea through those miles.
Probably about half way down, the river starts easing up, still class III with some Class IIs in it. But, trees begin to be more and more of the problem. While the upper section was relatively obstruction free, the lower section literally is littered with dozens or hundreds of tree trunks, floating in eddies, sitting on shallow rocks. They could float off any moment, creating new hazards, besides the ones existing. There are several narrow passages, 4-6-10 feet between trees in Class III rapids. Those passages could and will change with constant water flow, no doubt.
Altogether, we did not portage any rapids but, portaged 3 tree obstructions.
The rapids start picking up again during the last 0.5 miles of the run, just above the take-out bridge. There is a bigger, Ledge Drop of about 5-6 feet vertical with an almost river wide hole that did not look too inviting at 600 cfs. We all run it far left, hugging the wall where it was relatively easy.
Visible from the take out bridge is an other log portage (number 4, of you choose to do it.) What makes this exciting is that there is a fairly steep, Class III+ rapid just above it, and the run-out goes under the tree. We ended up finding a spot far river right where we could push over the log from an eddy.
Took out 3PM sharp. Run time was 4 hours and 30 minute was used for a lunch stop.
Definitely worthwhile run for advanced boaters only. Intermediates could be overwhelmed by the length of the rapids, by the tight passages and by the need for catching small eddies at the last moment before going over some bigger rapids or going under some trees.
Play it safe
Albert - Click Here to see a short video of Albert running Last Ledge (5Mb)
