Silver Creek: Upper North Falls

Among the countless beautiful roadside stouts of Oregon and Washington, Upper North Falls on Silver Creek has arguably received the least hype of them all. With that said, this easily accessible 55-60 footer with a super smooth left line is undoubtedly one of my favorites. Last weekend Nate and Heather Herbeck, Chuck Taylor and I ventured west to pursue this stout. We arrived with the uncommon but perfect water levels, and after a brief scout decided she was good to go. After we set up safety and some media I lugged my boat to the put-in just upstream of the drop. As soon as everyone was ready I made the ferry to river left and slowly approached the horizon line. At the lip I was able to set up along the right side of the river left tongue and slowly fade into a classic Oregon tuck. Towards the bottom of the drop I reconnected with the waterfall which provided for a surprisingly soft hit. After some downtime I resurfaced upright and was able to use the remaining half of my paddle to make my way to shore.

My sequence from Upper North

Heather was next up to give'r and came off the lip just left of where I had lined up. The banked lip twisted Heather a little to the right, but set her up for a sweet landing in the pool below. Heather ended up swimming and emerged from the boils with a second broken paddle in hand.

Heather lining up for the plug

Next up was Chuck who, on this day, set a new standard for stout running steeze... I'll let the pictures tell the story.

After witnessing Chuck's mind blowing front flip Nate fired it up and emerged at the bottom with the only intact paddle (we started the day with four). From here we drove back up the gorge where I got some rest and prepared myself for an upcoming week of paddling. Stay tuned for more photos and stories of the goods we pursued during this week of exclusive WCKA alumni stouting.

To check out some of Nate Herbeck's hi-res photos from this trip and other excursions visit liquidkayak.com