Island Creek and High Water Little Clear Creek

Today was a good day for plateau creeking. With a lot of plateau creeks flooded, I headed to Island Creek to see if was running. To my surprise, it was running just below 0.5ft on the put-in bridge gauge.

What starts as a calm, mellow creek turns into a fun class 3 continuous whitewater run after the first mile or so. Photo by Steve Krajewski.

Island Creek was a zoo with so many boaters, many of which I knew. We briefly scouted Compound Fracture and all ran it with descent lines. This is Brandon entering Compound Facture. Photo by Steve Krajewski

Kemper completing Compound Fracture. Photo by Steve Krajewski

Jim entering Compound Fracture. Photo by Steve Krajewski

After running 2 laps on Island Creek, several of us headed to Little Clear Creek. We were told it was too high and pushy. We decided to put on anyway with thoughts that we could hike out on the adjacent trail if we got in over our heads. The level was 2.7ft on the put-in gauge. Triple Drop was very pushy and fast but runnable. There was so many rooster tails and water flying, I had a complete whiteout upon entering the second drop. The rest of the drops were good to go. I'd definately run Little Clear Creek again at this level but not sure if I'd run it much higher.

Till next time, pray for rain!