Austin Creek - Packrafting WA - 3.5ft - Class III-IV скачать в хорошем качестве

Austin Creek - Packrafting WA - 3.5ft - Class III-IV

This is probably the dumbest little run I have ever taken my boat down, it only runs during high rain events and there is no shortage of wood throughout the entire run. If you live in Bellingham and you are desperate to run something different then this is your run. I parked at Tumbling Water and put in below the bigger drops, they looked clean(ish) but had some wood and if I were to run them I'd want safety and I was solo. The bottom drop could have used more water but it went, and shortly after I was zooming through the culvert and into the upper gorge. The section below the culvert was really thin and bouncy and there was plenty of wood to figure out, depending on levels some of these spots may become passable, or much more difficult to avoid and portage. The second culvert came fairly quickly into the run and while the run through looked inviting from what I could see above, a scout across Lake Louise Road revealed several nasty riverwide logs that would be impossible to eddy out above if you run the culvert. I almost bailed back to the car but I had driven out here for it and figured I would continue my suffer fest. Downriver of Lake Louise Road is Site Z on river left, but on river right there seems to be a less patrolled gated service area and I was able to find a "trail" down to the "put in" just above the confluence with Beaver Creek. Beaver Creek had a lot more water than upper Austin so things definitely padded out a bit but got faster too, making avoiding wood and branches quite sporty. The confluence ledge was funky but didn't give me any issues and I found a nice little surf wave here, downstream looked pretty clear from there so I stopped for some joy time and surfed for a minute. Not long after the surf wave was the biggest drop on the run, Slide, and it is run more or less anywhere that looks good. There were some branches here but not much troublesome wood. The Bedrock wave was twisty and fun but had branches extending into it as well. There were plenty of other smaller drops in this section and numerous wood hazards/skirts/portages and it would take too much time to explain them all. If you don't like wood do not do this run. The river seems to calm down just before the golf course take out and the access is easy on either side of the bridge on the upstream end. I guess you could set shuttle but I just walked back up to my car and it wasn't too bad. It took me roughly an hour to do this run solo with a good handful of times hopping out to scout or portage, I river scouted a fair amount but I feel as though I got lucky every time I committed to a more blind corner. Eddies were enough to get out if you spot them in time. This video was recorded on 12-11-2025 and there were countless wood hazards along the run, unless a metal beaver fixes the issue there will likely always be wood in the creek and it is likely to get worse as there are no major flood cycles here, the creek does get higher than this but not by too much so none of the larger stuff is likely to move ever. Without the wood, this would be a great class II-III run but because swimming just isn't an option and some maneuvers to avoid wood are tough to make this section deserves a higher rating. The two drops upstream of where I put in would be runnable and there could be more drops/slides or fun whitewater upstream. Downstream of the bridge before the golf course looked woody and difficult to portage anything without tromping up onto the golf course which I am sure wouldn't make some people very happy.