Near Wooley Camp to Salmon River Wild

Wooley Creek is one of the most beautiful and remote hike-in boating runs in California. Draining the heart of the 241,000-acre Marble Mountain Wilderness Area, it cuts through an eponymous granitic batholith with three mini-gorges filled with round boulders, ledges, blind drops, classic boofs, and sometimes vertical walls—all set against a backdrop of pristine scenery. It is the epitome of hike-in wilderness paddling with challenge both on the trail and the water. Boating here is an adventure experience. Although it is named as a creek, Wooley is really the smallest fork of the Salmon River, draining 95,192 acres or about 20% of the Salmon River watershed. Except at high flows, the run is Class IV/IV+: Wooley is not hair boating, and a lot of it can be boat-scouted by experienced paddlers. Everything can be run assuming there are no wood hazards--but there usually are some. Wooley's remoteness factor is high, and any mishap here could become serious because there is essentially no prospect of getting out quickly or summoning outside help in time if needed. The trail is mostly quite high above the creek and doesn't offer an easy way out. Be prepared to be fully self-sufficient for anything you may encounter on or off the water. A satellite communicator is an essential safety item for this run but help will still take a long time to arrive. Use some kind of pack system to carry your kayak: it's a long way to shoulder a boat and dragging is not only bad for your kayak, it's a poor ethic to leave plastic shavings all along the trail. Rafters may want to consider hiring a local mule packer to get gear in (this is how Dean Munroe's pioneer commercial rafting trip with Munroe's Wilderness Adventures on Wooley Creek was done in 1984!). Packrafters will find the hike comparatively easy, and this is likely the future of Wooley Creek boating, which is actually going somewhat full-circle back to the early days of the 1980s when enthusiastic paddlers were running Wooley Creek in Thrillseekers, the lightweight, packable boat of the day. A high performance, kayak-like packraft is best suited to this run. Hiking In The adventure begins on foot at the signed Wooley Creek Trailhead just off Salmon River Road about 3.6 miles upriver of Somes Bar and Highway 96. This is also where your adventure ends many hours later after you've paddled back to the adjacent take-out at Brannon Bar River Access on the Salmon River, about 1/2 mile downstream of Wooley Creek's confluence. Logistics are easy: park, hike in, paddle back to start. The seven-mile-long hike in on the Wooley Creek Trail (#5832) begins with a sweat-inducing 400-vertical-foot climb from the trailhead to Joint Point, where the trail rounds the bend northward and begins heading up the Wooley Creek drainage. This is the biggest climb of the hike. Start very early on hot days so you can hike this part in morning shade. The trail is never creekside, except for one brief spot about three miles in, and although the scenery is great, the trail offers only a few tantalizing glimpses of the creek far below. The trail rolls up and down a few times as it winds in and climbs out of numerous tributary drainages. It is maintained sporadically and traverses recently burned areas, so don't be surprised to find some fallen trees across the trail, especially in winter and early spring; these can be time-consuming to cross. It is possible to do a short two-mile-long Wooley run by putting in after about three miles of hiking from the trailhead. This sets up paddlers to run the third and final gorge on Wooley Creek, including some of the largest rapids on the run. If you do this, be sure to hike about five minutes past the obvious trailside camp spot to an area where accessing the creek doesn't involve climbing down a steep rock face; you'll also gain one more large and picturesque rapid. But most paddlers opt to do the longer Wooley run and boat all three of its gorges, and it is well worth the effort to do so. For the full run, hike about 6.5 miles from the trailhead, then take the lightly used 0.5-mile-long spur trail down toward Wooley Camp, an old haunt of President Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur, computing pioneers David Packard and Bill Hewlett, and a long list of Standford University royalty. This spur trail, which may not be marked with a sign, brings you to a gate for the Wooley Camp Association's private property. To avoid trespassing, hike directly to the creek before walking through the gate; it's brushy and there's no path, but you won't miss any whitewater. The hike in takes packrafters about 2.5 hours and hardshell kayakers three to four hours; add time if there are many trees across the trail. There are 1,250 feet of climb on the trail (compared to 535 feet of vertical drop on the creek; the difference comes in the rolling ups/downs on the trail). On the Water Downstream of Wooley Camp, there's a Class II/III warm-up section for 1.25 miles before the creek enters the first of its three gorges at a sharp left bend. This bend conceals the first rapid so that by the time you see that it's there, you're pretty much on top of it though you can boat scout or scramble to shore if needed. The first gorge has a number of great Class IV/IV+ rapids before the gradient eases and the creek imperceptibly leaves its first gorge and rapids become Class III for a while until entering the second gorge. The 'gorges' are somewhat metaphorical: the creek canyon doesn't open up but there are three distinct and more confined reaches where the rapids are larger and more frequent. The second gorge has several rapids, though most are not quite as large as those in the first or third gorges. Several of these rapids are technical boulder gardens while others are bedrock ledges. The canyon walls are sometimes vertical. Just over three miles into the run and not long after Deer Lick Creek joins Wooley Creek from the right, the creek enters its third and final gorge. This gorge contains a great set of rapids, including a couple that are among the largest on the entire run. Several cannot be easily portaged and vertical rock walls sometimes rise from the banks. The last significant rapid, The Fat Lady Sings, is the often considered the largest rapid on Wooley, but this is debatable. The gradient eases below here, but fun rapids continue. Steinacher Creek enters from the left (with a runnable waterfall in view) and Wooley Creek widens and meanders around a few bends before entering straight ahead into the oncoming Salmon River with the green Steinacher arch bridge in full view: you've returned to civilization. Continue downstream one half-mile on the Salmon to take out at the Brannons Bar River Access on river right, not far below the Salmon River Road bridge. This is the take-out for the Butler Run and the put-in for the Lower Salmon. A short walk from the river access up to the trailhead parking area above the road will complete your journey back to start. Just because you hike in to Wooley, don't assume you can easily hike out once you've started boating: the trail is high above the creek and the mountainside is super steep so getting back to the trail after you've paddled away from the two put-in points is extremely difficult. Flows There is no gage on Wooley Creek. Use the Salmon River at Somes Bar USGS gage to get an idea of flows. The Salmon River Restoration Council's weather and flows page provides a realtime Wooley Creek flow *estimate*, weather info, and a live Salmon River webcam. Flows under 1,800 cfs at Somes Bar are bony low on Wooley but kayaks and packrafts will still find it navigable below this. Medium flows are about 2,500-4,500 cfs. Above this, the creek gets quite pushy. High water runs aren't recommended due to the challenges of getting out if needed. Flow dynamics are different in witner when there is rain feeding the creek compared to later in spring when it is mostly snowmelt: the same flow measured at the gage in winter is likely to be lower on the creek than during spring snowmelt). If you want to see the creek before hiking in, go to the Steinacher bridge over the Salmon River where you can view the confluence (follow the sign for Steinacher Trail off Salmon River Road near the four-mile marker). The creek is wide and low gradient here, so it takes imagination to envision it gorged up. To see it more gorged up, cross the bridge, continue through the switchback left turn, go uphill, take the dirt spur road on the left and hike the short path down to the creek. Hazards Wood is always a concern on Wooley Creek and due to several recent fires in the drainage, you're almost assured to come across some wood hazards on the run. Be sure to check out the Salmon River hazards map, but don't assume it shows all the current hazards. The poison oak here is prolific and although it is unlikely to affect you while boating, if you are allergic to it, take precautions. Exposure is all but guaranteed. Is there an easier trail into Wooley? Honestly, the hike on the Wooley Creek Trail provides about as direct and easy of a trail into a deep wilderness stream as one could hope for. But boaters have expended considerable effort looking for an 'easier' route that plunges off the Camp 3/Haypress road network high up on the western flanks of the Wooley Creek drainage just outside the Marble Mountain Wilderness Area. Boaters have successfully arrived at Wooley Creek taking various off-trail routes down the very steep mountainside, braving thick poison oak to get there. Some have followed derelict trails marked on vintage maps, others have followed drainages, and others have just bumbled downhill on random courses. In the end, the best way and also fastest way to get to Wooley Creek for boating is simply the clear and obvious Wooley Creek Trail. Earn it! Longer runs and paddling Bridge Creek into Wooley Creek It is a very rare group that chooses to hike further up Wooley Creek, but there is a lot of whitewater upstream of Wooley Camp. To access the upper portion of the creek, continue 2.25 miles on the Wooley Creek Trail past the Wooley Camp spur to put in near the Bridge Creek confluence (III), further up at the forks of Wooley, or way up on the North Fork of Wooley Creek (boaters have also hiked over snow-covered Marble Mountain to access this upper section from the upstream direction). Paddling Bridge Creek (V+) into Wooley Creek presents another Wooley gateway if you are looking for a full-value adventure that involves a wickedly steep off-trail hike into Bridge followed by an equally steep whitewater run that exceeds 500 feet per mile drop, lots of wood, and thickets of poison oak. Don't take this adventure lightly. For a unique adventure, boaters can link up Wooley Creek - Lower Salmon - Klamath Ikes Run for a long day (or multiday) on the water that transitions from small wilderness creek to one of the larger rivers in the state: you may boat a flow range of 600 to 20,000 cfs on a continuous run. Additional Information The best guidebook for Wooley Creek is *The New School Guide to Northern California Whitewater* by Dan Menten (p. 93). Online info: - Salmon River Restoration Council's Whitewater Recreation Page - great overview and detail on the whitewater of the Salmon River drainage, including realtime Wooley Creek flow *estimate* - California Creeks - Wooley Creek - Darin McQuoid: Wooley Creek into the California Salmon IV-V - Darin McQuoid: Bridge Creek V-V+ (tributary to Wooley)