The Wiley Creek gage is the closest actual gage, and is about 40% of what you will have in the Calapooia River.
Pat Welch has a correlation gage that can be used as well. 500-2000 cfs on Pat Welches is worth doing, 1,000-1,500 is most common: http://levels.wkcc.org/?f=cx3
There are a couple pull outs at the point where the road turns to gravel where there is room to park, with a convenient put in spot.
Do not go past the pavement when doing this run, or you may face a $115 ticket. This is a change from the past, and guidebook descriptions may be off. The rules are clearly posted where the pavement ends, and listed below.
Upper Calapooia Road
- The road is open to the public unless the gates are closed. We will post a notification on
our website when we are going to close the gates.
- The road is posted no parking from the end of the pavement to the national forest boundary. Law enforcement is writing citations to anyone who violates the no parking restriction.
- There is no legal access to the river from the public road until you get into the national forest.
. Weyerhaeuser is actively logging in the vicinity so be very cautious and watch out for log trucks
The run starts off right away with defined class II rapids, keep an eye out for opportunities to play around throughout the run. A stand out rapid early on ends in a mini-gorge, this is one of the more scenic spots on the run. Just below the mini-gorge is a large rock in the center of the river, the small rapid just below the midstream rock ends in a short bedrock ledge creating a sticky hole that can be boofed over, or snuck on the right. For more advanced boaters, this hole has eddy service and is a good place to practice working your way out of sticky situations at lower flows. This location would make for a decent lunch spot with a cobble beach on the right.
More class II rapids with a couple that could be class III at some flows continue amongst many small front surf features, jets of water to ferry across and dynamic eddies, making for a great learning environment for those with a combat roll.
The stand out rapid of the run is Dollar Drop, a short ledge that can be scouted and portaged/lapped on the right. There are straight forward boof options on the right half of the drop, or a class IV hydraulic in the middle.
Things slow down below Dollar Drop, but the occasional class II/III rapid (including the longest of the run) await between here and the take out at McClun Wayside Park.
To access this run from Holley, drive upstream 2.1 miles on Upper Calapooia Rd to McClun Wayside Park. This is just a gravel pull out with a small wooden kiosk that is easy to miss from the road. This is the take out, and it is not a bad idea to mark the pull out spot at river level.
The put in is 6.5 miles upstream on the same road where it turns from pavement to gravel. Park next to where the road is still paved.