Trip Report: Pauley Creek - 2/3/06 (+Video)

Run: Pauley Creek
Difficulty: IV+
Flow: 280 cfs (Estimated)

(includes video)

If you get the chance, run this creek!!!

This was my first time down Pauley Creek, and probably my second real "creeking" run. This was one of the coolest and most fun runs I've ever done - a total blast. It's amazing how much your first 15 foot waterfall will get the juices flowing.

Diane Gaydos took and edited a bunch of video from the entire run (thanks Diane!):



Here's me getting eaten but fighting my way out of the hole at "Slip and Slide":



But making it through with a nice boof over a drop further down the run:



We stayed at the Carriage Inn in Downieville, $80 for a room with two queen beds. Nice enough place, right across the street from the bar - not a good idea since we got hammered on tequila after the run then woke up hungover on Sunday to run the NF Yuba Goodyear's Bar run. Nice, very nice.

Downieville's a cute & funky little town which is kinda in the middle of nowhere. A good 4 hours or so drive from San Francisco with the last 90 miles on increasingly windy roads.

We had our fair share of carnage, most caught on video. Thankfully I wasn't in the middle of it, for a change. Nine of us went down, and nine of us came out! Only Brian ran Pauley Falls at the end of the run, a pretty bumpy ride down even at these flows. I didn't think it was worth the back pounding, but it was cool nonetheless.