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Trip Report    

Sauk River: Bedal Campground to White Chuck River

770 CFS was a very technical level and lots of fun. Rocky Road Rapid was pretty straightforward. There is new wood at mile 3.9 that is a portage on river right.

Logan DeGrand Logan DeGrand
June 19, 2023
  • Road recommended for high clearance only

  • At river mile 3.9 there is a mandatory portage due to massive new wood pileup.   Portage right.   From the top it looks like left might go but there is more wood you can't see until you are below it. 

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    View of the wood pileup from below.  From below you can see a 2 - 3 foot wide gap on river left but there is more wood. There is significant flow in this channel.  We portaged on right.IMG_1844.jpg

    Mile 5.7 we had another portage.  There is a duck under on left that could work but you would need to get perilously close to some wood on left. IMG_1846.jpg

    Around mile 7 we had a short portage to get over a cobble bar to get into the calm left channel around a huge island.  Channel on right where most of the flow went had wood spanning the channel.  The left channel went the entire way around the huge island.  In higher water this would not need a portage. 

The first 4 miles is the most active, with several class III ramps.  At this low water level it was a test of one's river reading skills.  The next 4 miles was much calmer, but you really had to be vigilant for wood lurking around a corner.   We scouted Rocky Road from a river left cobble bar.  You can get up close to it.  It was a fairly easy run the top drop on river left to avoid a massive hole.  I almost got flipped over by an aggressive eddy line on the outwash. 

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Rocky Road has 3 drops. The second involves weaving through some massive boulders.  It was actually an easy line on river right down a wide green tongue straight at the tallest boulder with a big pillow. Avoid the pillow on either side and you're through it. IMG_1851.jpg

The third drop also involves avoiding some massive boulders in the middle of the river. We scouted this from the dirt road on river left on the drive up.  We did a right to left move to punch through a drop. Then a left to right move once past the big boulders.  

Surprisingly, Rocky Road was not the hardest part of the day. The first 4 miles was tricky and required near constant attention.  Would love to run this section at 1,000-1,200 CFS.  Be sure to scout Rocky Road from the dirt road just before the bridge on the drive up.