5 - 1/23/10 - EF Humptulips "The Narrows"

Brian in the Narrows

About 5 years ago, I had the chance to run The Narrows on the EF Humptulips, but I was concerned about the flow and didn't go. The flow turned out to be perfect and I always wanted to get a chance to do this run. This was finally my chance.

The first obstacle of this run is the put-in. Never mind that the road might be blocked (we were able to drive under a tree across the road, but just barely). You drive to a place by the woods that really isn't distinct at all. If you don't have someone with you who has been there before, you're just going to have to guess and wander into the woods. We had some experienced people, but it still wasn't easy to follow the trail. The hike-in is a little over a quarter mile, and the plants are not very friendly.

The first half mile of the run has a few easy rapids, and then there's a big waterfall. When we got there, we found a huge tree in the falls, but we had planned to run the fish ladder. Most of the group had a pretty easy time of this, but it was work. Being heavy, I had to work hard to lever my boat over each drop, and it was pretty tiring. Luckily, when that was over, it was just floating and running rapids. The rapids are easy, despite the gorge being very tight.

There were waterfalls all over the place, and there was one especially nice one at Goforth Creek:

 

 

The Narrows gorge goes on for most of 4 miles and never really lets up. At points, it is as narrow as 8 feet, and it rarely gets wider than 30 feet. There were trees in the river and above the channel in many places, but there weren't any that caused us any real problems.

The most exciting part of the day came when we came to a new rapid that was caused by a recent landslide. The leader of the group pulled over to scout, and we got everyone to stop upstream. The landslide had created a steep drop into a big hole with a rock in it. We all had to paddle up to it fast to get over and through the blind drop. Everyone made it with no problems.

 

There were a few more nice rapids as we got near the takeout. We took out a little too soon, which made things tougher than they should have been. What looked like a trail was a false trail and was a ways from the river. We should have trusted our knowledge from past trips, where we put in just below that point. But, a few minutes bashing through the woods, and a little help from friends, and I was out.

Despite the hike in and the tough takeout, I think this run is well worth it. I hope I get to run it again with a little more water and some sunshine.