Trip Report
NF Nooksack River: Glacier to Maple Falls
Due to wood and fast flow, we opted to put in at Glacier. At 1200 CFS it was fast and constant vigilance needed at blind corners. Would love to return at 1,000 CFS or less and run the canyon.
Logan DeGrand
- Sun, Jun 23, 2024
- Nooksack River (North Fork)
- Packrafting
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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A river-wide log at Horseshoe Bend, 50 feet downstream of the bridge. Easy enough to walk through the campground and put in below it, but there were two more freshly downed trees on river right within the next 200 feet. This much new wood gave us a lot of pause. The canyon is narrower. We opted to take the safe option and put in at Glacier.
From Glacier to Warnick Bridge there were a couple blind corners we scouted but ultimately did not need to portage. From Warnick Bridge to MP27.3 there were a few fresh strainers, some mid-stream, but none needed portaging. This could easily change as the river rises and lifts these logs up and redeposits them downstream.
We had many fun wavetrains. There were several big holes. No swimmers. The route we did from Gacier to the DFW site near Maple Falls was 6.75 river miles and took 2 hours on the water, average speed 3.5 mph.