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Trip Report    

Cowlitz River: La Wis Wis to Packwood

Fun and relaxing trip through the forest and into the valley with great views and interesting braiding between the white glacier-fed Middle Fork and the green water of the Clear Fork.

  • Road suitable for all vehicles
  • The gauge in Packwood was hovering around 620 CFS during our time on the water.  The first mile and a half down from La Wis Wis has the most action, although nothing could conceivably be class III from what I saw. There was one nice class II+ ramp at 1.1 river miles down. 

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    At this low flow there were many low-water challenges trying to find the path that would entail the least scraping. Although we never had to get out of the boats, some cobble drops required repeated scrunches to inch off the rocks. 

    At the confluence with Middle Fork the milky water from the glacier-fed fork side by side with the clear water from the Clear Fork made for a nice visual. After the confluence, the water quickly became opaque and impossible to see rocks underwater. It made the river reading much more challenging. You have to keep a keen eye on any riffles and tongues. confluence.jpg

    We only encountered one strainer, on the right channel of a large island at 4.6 river miles down from La Wis Wis. Going left avoids the strainer. strainer.jpg

    We had some unusual wildlife spotting. In the main valley below the Middle Fork confluence we came across a small herd of Elk drinking. When they saw us they ran off into the woods. About 8-10 head. Further down some Buzzards were riding the thermals right above us. We could practically see individual feathers. They were seemingly levitating at moments and made me want to be a bird in my next life. 

The put in at La Wis Wis campground is just below the confluence of the Ohanapecosh River and the Clear Fork Cowlitz River. Above this point, would entail advanced creek boating.  Below the green bridge in Packwood, the river becomes very lazy, meandering, and braided and would be very slow going down to Cora or further.  If the wind is blowing it would be a herculean effort to make progress unless flow is high. 

Beautiful views looking into Mt. Rainier National Park at the snowcapped peaks behind us coming into view on the lower half of the reach. Cowlitz.jpg

We all agreed this is a quality run and worth repeating at a higher level.  At 900CFS, which would be 50% more flow, we all want to come back. Our overall time on the water was 3:07 and we covered 8.05 river miles.