Bellingham Whitewater

Operation: Silverhope

In my quest to find all the available runnable whitewater in the lower Fraser drainage, Silverhope creek has been a bit of a thorn in my side. After numerous scoutings and drive-bys while on missions to Ross lake, all I, or other ‘Hamsters have managed to paddle is less than 1km. Why? good excuses abound: flat tire, low water, another flat tire, being tired from having just paddled 50 miles, you know average excuses.

Finally, over the last 2 weeks I managed to paddle it 3 times, and just as I thought, I had been missing out on some great B.C. style class 4-5 with warm, clear water and sunny skies.

Chris Young entering number 3. Photo by Todd Gillman.

While getting dressed in the scorching heat on the side of the road next to silver lake, one quickly learns that this is the main road used for outdoor recreation for most of the lower Fraser river residents. Every 2 minutes or less a large truck rips by towing a 25 ft travel trailer and a truck bed spilling over, full with boats, motorcycles, 4-wheelers, mechanical bulls, who knows what else.

This is also the start of some seriously sweet-ass whitewater. Look for a place to put-in below the huge logjams at the mouth of the lake.

The first kilometer is the steepest of the whole run, and I suggest taking a look at the first rapid before you put-on. A person will quickly find out if they are feeling “On it” in this rapid. It starts out with a manky lead-in to a 6ft ledge that drops into a boxed in hole, the run-out is a pushy 4 ft sloping ledge into a sweet 4 ft boof that puts you just above a fun 6ft tall flumey drop into a 5ft tall pour-through thingy that ends with a tricky lead-in to a S-turn move into a sticky hole backed up by a nice recovery pool. Sounds busy? it is.

Kyle McCutchen droppin’ number 4. Photo by Todd Gillman

Immediately downstream, amidst a myriad of house sized granite boulders, you will be rewarded with a couple fun ledges in the 10-15ft tall range, but beware all drops come stocked with big holes and undercuts. Below these ledges the river splits around an island and forms a great complex boulder garden all the way to the lower put-in.

If these rapids seem a bit over-your-head then find your way downhill to the unregulated camp spot on river right just a few hundred feet downstream of the 7km sign. This put-in is the start of 3-4 km of great class 4-4+ whitewater with at least one class 5 rapid. Lets call this the middle section. This section of whitewater is reminiscent of icicle creek in the Leavenworth zone: fast, continuous, with some great boofs and some menacing holes. Many of the rapids in this middle section can be scouted from the road with great ease, in fact one of the most exciting drops on the run is totally roadside, look for it near the 6 km marker. One possible take-out for this section is at a small tributary coming in on the river left, just upstream of the 3km marker.

This tributary also marks the start of a large rapid consisting of 3 drops. This rapid and the drops below are all a step up from the middle section and I recommend scouting the eddy above this rapid so you don’t find yourself unintentionally blasting into it blindly.

Kayaking is exciting

Number 2

The rapid below the tributary, and the drop below it, probably lose 60-70 feet in about 100 yards and each powerful drop could easily flip or thrash an out of control kayaker in a very unforgiving way. That said, a good brace and a well timed boof stroke can make this one of your favorite drops of the day as well!

There is about 3 more fun 6-8 foot tall drops below here before the river splits around another island forming a nasty, sieved out, steep, woody drop on river right, view this one from the road…you cant miss it.

Below this drop the creek slowly eases into class 3, which continues all the way to the flood-hope rd bridge.

Some general beta:

The river is located a few km west of Hope B.C. and is roadside next to Silver-Skagit rd.

On your way up the river there are km markers that start at zero when you turn off of flood-hope rd onto Silver-Skagit rd and they go up as you head upstream. Heres a short rundown of the river using these markers:

0-3km= class 3 wavy rapids
3-3.5km= class 5 rapids including the triple drop
3.5-7km= class 4-4+ with a class 5
7-8km= class 5

Silverhope creek runs during spring run-off (and I’m sure rain events too), usually late June to early July. Here’s what I use to figure out if it’s running or not:

Bacon Creek gage between 6-900 cfs
Chilliwack @ Slesse gage between 1.6 and 1.9
Nf Nooksack @ Glacier Creek between 1500-2000
Skagit River near boundary between 6.25 and 6.4

And here is a picture of the footing on river left under the bridge on Hope-Flood road at good flows. I look for about 12-15 inches of footing showing. Otherwise if the rapids upstream of this bridge don’t look to painfully low it’s probably in.

Have fun.

Smokin’ the Competition…