Chetco Recon
The Chetco is an amazing, locked in, difficult-to-access river in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. This document is a collection of what I’ve found and data needed to run it.
The Gage
A few reports I’ve seen have said 600 at this gage will mean you have around 100CFS at the Little Chetco “Magic Gorge” section.
Weather
I’ve found this location on SpotWX to be pretty accurate- last time I watched the above prediction and it’s impact on the gage linked above, it peaked at around 600CFS. It wasn’t much rainfall, either. I figure letting it rain all day one is enough to get the river going.
Short Route
If the gage is low and CFS is unpredictable, you might have luck with a short route I’ve mapped out: It goes from babyfoot lake down into the little chetco gorge, follows that along the river until it merges with the chetco, and then gets back out just after slide creek. Each section is 8-10 miles and drops you right back at your car. I have no idea the condition of these trails except the begining section of the Babyfoot Lake trail- that was pretty good when I checked it out a few weeks ago.
Trip Reports
- CA Creeks 2012
- Mike Curiak and co. 2013
- Video trip report by NWRafting- they go in there quite a lot.
