Trip Report
Cispus River: Twin Cedars to Lake Scanewa
For most of us, this reach rated amongst our favorite river stretches for the engaging rapids and wildlife encounters. 1500 CFS was a favorable flow rate, washing over many problematic boulders but no so high as to create menacing eddy fences.
Logan DeGrand
- Sun, Apr 13, 2025
- Cispus River: FR28 Bridge to Copper Canyon Creek
- Packrafting
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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The perfect cruiser day: sunny, a high of 65 degrees, no wind, and a friendly flow level. At 1500 CFS, our moving time on this 8.5 mile stretch was 2.5 hours.
There really were no slow boring sections. At most we floated 5minutes before encountering the next obstacle.
We had 4 swimmers on this day, amongst two paddlers. One was caught with the paddle out of the water on a checkerboard wave train, one was the result of playing in the grabby whirlpools at Whirlpool Eddy, one was at the top of Double Trouble surprised by a hole, and one was the result of turning their back to the river (to the downstream) while assisting a swimmer. The swim at Double Trouble was the longest swim I've ever witnessed in a river; it must have been over 500 feet. Luckily this boater had good swimming demeanor and the water was not cold by Washington standards.
It was quite a wildlife day. The lead boat saw a beaver, others saw a river otter playing in the rapid as we floated by, we came upon massive Canadian Geese eggs in a fallen nest, Bald Eagle, Osprey, Merganser, and many other birds calling all day long. 