Trip Report: Crooked River

By Joshua Marsh

April 29, 2023

2700 CFS

I ran the Crooked River with a crew of 9, several who had done the run years previous, but they had limited recall on the exact locations of the rapids and scout locations.

Overall, the run was a challenging big water run in a spectacular desert canyon, well worth the trip just for the scenery and views around Smith Rock. The canyon below Smith looked like something out of Dune with black basalt walls overlaid with layers of beige tuff.

In terms of levels and difficulty, I found this one a little sand-bagged in the ratings and would call the difficulty at 2700 a IV+ (V-). This being a rare dam release, when we went there were a lot of floating debris--fence boards with rusty nails, limbs, mallard decoys, and a distinct smell of cow pee. I worked hard to close my mouth while getting face-fulls of water and figured antibiotics would be in my future. This is not your typical gin-clear Oregon gem.

Getting on big water, for those of us more comfortable on water that will barely float a boat, is an uncomfortable surprise at first. The drastic slowness of not being able to move quickly on water so large and fast is unsettling. The unstable laterals were slapping my boat angles 90 degrees left and right repeatedly, and in some instances stopping me in large breaking waves and smaller holes. I found myself scrambling to avoid one hidden hole to the next, but in the first hour was able to settle into the rhythm of lining up and digging in the green water behind the feature to get comfortable.

Number One had a clear horizon line and scout point on the right. There was a straightforward right sneak, but we had several in our group and the group before who were pushed left at the top and they had to navigate large holes.

Number Two was also a clear scout point, in a large widening point in the river on a left bend. There was a large hill on the right with a trail, giving a great view. The crew ran right, some opting for a far right sneak. Threading middle right through various large holes proved to be a fairly straight-forward line with a large, punchable hole at the bottom.

Wap-de-Doodle caught us by surprise. We found a scout point a couple of bends early, but only saw boogie disappearing around a right bend. We had one swimmer in the boogie, and came out around a left bend to a large exploding ramp center left. I saw the boater in front of me in a scramble to the right. I followed suit with less grace and more desperation, narrowly missing a sideways ramp execution. One boater in our group inadvertently ran the ramp line with impunity. The crew ahead of us, locals, apparently all ran the ramp line.

In the eddy below Wap-de-Doodle, there was a newer boater, conscious, being tended by fire and rescue teams who had started the Crooked solo and joined w/ a group going down. He hit his head somewhere in Wap-de-Doodle and went unconscious, receiving a hand-of-god rescue from his newly found group. Fire and rescue was treating him and opting to helicopter him out.

After that, there were many heads-up boogie sections, largely read-and-run for confident boaters, but stout. We were repeatedly debating if No Name was ahead of us or behind us. Things started heating up with a lot of blind holes and corners, and things suddenly felt out of control. Looking ahead of me, I saw four upside down boats and some swimmers. The next thing I saw was the green face and white wall of water of the largest hole I've plugged. I was flipped instantly and overjoyed when the first roll put me up out of the hole and facing upstream. One in our group a ways ahead of me was given a lengthy surf section in the hole before swimming out. I scrambled to the eddy and we spent some time reuniting two swimmers to their gear.

The remainder of the run was straight-forward to the final China Dam. This rapid was clearly apparent, horizon line with an exploding hole on the right. As this rapid was formed by rebar and concrete, nobody felt compelled to run it. We hit the trail on the left, which was a suffer fest up and out for 30-45+ minutes. The first hundred feet or so is a steep scramble, but it does turn into a trail. 

Overall, a spectacular gem of a run, but certainly consequential. At 18 miles it's a long day. I'd happily walk No Name, were I to run this again, and I won't forget to pack a backpack boat carrier.

More photos by Casey McGrath can be seen here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TVXDTfSvvZSdHvdp9