Trout Lake (Town) to White Salmon River

Trout lake creek is a tributary to the much more popular White Salmon River, and is only about 15 minutes up the road from BZ Corners. There is no gauge on this creek. The White Salmon River gauge provides a reasonable proxy. Look for around 3.75 ft or above on the Husum stick. On June 1st 2023 that was about 1300 on the White Salmon Gauge at Underwood. Your mileage may vary. Upper level unknown. If you put in at the bridge where the Mt. Adams highway crosses the creek you’re in for a class 2/3 experience at most flows. Looking upstream from that bridge will give you a look at a steep class IV bedrock slide, Woodruff Falls, that is also an option by putting in further upstream. The put in marked for this reach is also above this upper rapid and is described in Jeff Bennett’s guide as being on Guler Road. As of this writing that put in is marked “no trespassing.” Unsure if another legal put in exists. Trout Lake Creek joins the White Salmon River about 1.5 miles into this run just upstream from a covered bridge off Little Mountain Road you’ll see on shuttle. By taking out just passed the River Road bridge, you take out above a low head dam. This makes for just slightly less than a 3 mile run. All major rapids can be seen from one of the bridges that cross the run. What you can’t see from the road is typically easier and pretty straightforward / boat scoutable. The biggest rapid from the lower put-in, Creamery Rapid, is visible just upstream from the Old Creamery Road Bridge. The character of the run is generally low angle bedrock ledges and slides interspersed with some boulders and wave trains. A couple of islands and blind corners exist which require some boat handling and route finding in class I-II water, but eddies are generally available and class 3 paddlers will not have difficulty. Watch for wood along the sides or in the channel. As of June 2023 this was a portage free run. Video beta at: https://youtu.be/VUmaiLFbFrY The original write up for this run can be found in A Guide to Whitewater Rivers of Washington, Jeff Bennett (Swiftwater; 1991) on page 325.