Clear Creek was a new run for everyone. We were planing to meet a friend (Silas) at the put in and paddle it with him, but when we arrived at the top there was no sign of him. There is a small car park that is very close to the river. The car park is also the start of a walking track that follows the river. We walked up a track for about 20 minutes which gave us an extra gorge to paddle through with some fun warm up drops.
Clear Creek is a very scenic river that travels through a narrow gorge with steep, moss lined walls. The run is pool drop in nature with a couple of steeper rapids in there. There was one portage (a very backed up hole with a tricky lead in) and a multi-tiered, hard to scout and must-run rapid near the end. We decided to do the Lower Clear Creek section (that begins at the take out for the Upper) instead of walking our boats back up to the road. The lower section was beautiful grade two with a couple of shallow rapids.
When we arrived at the take out we were very happy to see that Rush's truck was parked there. We had organised via email to have our friend drive the vehicle to the take out for us, but we hadn't heard back from him before we left. If the vehicle wasn't at our take out it would have ment a ten mile hike back to the put in. I think that we would have volun-told Zak to run back to the top (he runs more than any of us and is very fit).
Thanks to Silas for planting the idea in our heads to go to Clear Creek, it was worth the drive.
Me on the must run and hard to scout rapid (P: Zak Shaw)
Some fire-burned trees at the car park/start to the hike
Cruising in the top section: Jess, Rush and I (P: Zak Shaw)
Zak getting ready to keep his nose up, Rush looking on
Jess, about to charge straight over a huge hole
Rush, about to land between rocks
The seal launch after the portage
Jess getting on the green water
Rush probing the must run
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