Hagen Creek was unknown when I started paddling out of Portland in 2001, but it has become one of the most popular winter runs and usually comes in after a heavy rainstorm. it boasts four large falls, many smaller drops and rapids, beautiful scenery, and a high quality warmdown on the NF Washougal with miles of continuous class III-IV rapids.
I've only run this creek about 8-10 times, but Paul Kuthe lives nearby and has at least 20 laps under his belt. He did a great job leading us down. Jonathan was getting over an illness and not feeling 100% but he hit a couple clutch rolls and completed the run.
On this trip Paul dropped us off at the end of a logging road, drove back up to the main access road, then walked back to our drop point. This allowed for a shorter hike through the forest than usual, though we did get a little cliffed out at the end. It was a tradeoff from the usual access trail, which is a more established path but a longer carry to the creek.
The flow was low and gradually dropping, with about 15" at the bridge gauge when we started and 14" when we got there. The Washougal was about 9' and dropping slowly, having peaked a little higher the night before. Hagen was a little more full the day before, but still good to go, and after the confluence above Teak Kettle it didn't feel low at all.
I got tons of great footage and was able to use some of Paul and Jonathan's video in this edit. Unfortunately I forgot to turn my camera on for my descent of Crack in the Earth, where I dropped the first ledge too far to the left, went under the side veil, and momentarily started to front ender. But it all worked out as I popped right back on line and slithered through the bottom crack with hardly a splash in the face. Looking forward to cleaning that up next time.
Paul had a perfect line at Crack, and his pro tip of dropping the left edge as you go through the second crack worked well for both of us. I was also impressed by his hard charge to the left at Tea Kettle, allowing him to boof into the left eddy, whereas my more casual line resulted in a plunge through the big crease in the middle. Pretty fun either way, but I rarely have tried to cut all the way to the left because of how pushy the current is there. Paul made it look easy in his Scorch X.
I was stoked on my line at Euphoria, which was as smooth as I have run it. It really tests your mental focus when you reach the horizon line and see the mess of logs, rocks, and watery moguls you're dropping into, but once you're dropping the line has an uncanny tendency to take you exactly where you need to go.
Hagen Dazs Falls is the easiest of the big four and we all dropped it without issue. I'm giving the nod to Jonathan's line there because he was able to skip smoothly out of the landing.
Thanks to Paul and Jonathan for accompanying me on this memorable trip down one of the best creek runs in the Pacific Northwest!