South Fork Campbell Creek Lower Gorge

.5 mi

Class III

>100 cfs

If you are looking for thrills after work and don’t care to drive to Eagle River or Glacier Creek, the South Fork of Campbell Creek has a short gorge that combines the packing and the rafting into a quick and easy mission. Starting from the South Bivouac Trail, begin by hiking to the bridge that crosses the creek; just above this bridge will serve as your takeout. Once you cross the bridge, follow the Spencer Loop Trail upstream. Just beyond the bridge there is a short social trail down to the river. It is recommended to use this trail to scout your exit as the creek does not have many eddy opportunities and it is likely you’ll be hopping out of your boat mid-current to take out. At this scouting spot, you can use the river-wide tree as a platform to observe the flows. If the river seems to be moving too fast to comfortably jump out of your boat and stand in the current, you may want to look for a better day to run this section as serious wood hazards commonly exist within this stretch of water. If you decide to proceed with the float, continue up the Spencer Loop Trail until reaching a large tree in the shape of a Y at the top of a hill on the left side of the trail. This serves as your access to the river; if you’d like to see one of the two class 3 rapids (Bubba Home Free) before getting in your boat, you can hike back downstream a few hundred feet and look for a trail heading towards the river, and you can scout the rapid from here.

Once committed to floating, you will float for a very short time until you reach Bubba Home Free, a 5 foot drop with multiple lines depending on water levels. Enjoy the right line with a nice kicker at the bottom or step it up and practice your boof stroke off of the left side of the drop. After Bubba Home free, the river continues with its creeky, rock dodging nature until reaching the second major rapid. Sucker Hole is the other class 3 on the creek, and it can come out of nowhere as there is currently a log jam above it on a blind corner. Directly above Sucker Hole is a small eddy to boat scout from. Once you have decided to run the rapid you will find yourself in a fun slide with much of the water pushing you into the left rock of the nozzle that the rapid ends with. If you can prepare for this rock, the rapid will go well, otherwise you may find yourself swimming in the large recovery pool beneath the rapid. Take a moment to get your bearings and evaluate the logjam beneath you which may need to be portaged. After this log jam, there are a few more bends of splashy boulder dodging before you reach the river-wide log that serves as a great take-out location.

7/13

100cfs

(Campbell Creek near Spenard)

Olga and I enjoyed a lap down the south fork of Campbell Creek without too much carnage. We took multiple laps on Bubba Home Free, trying both the kicker line and the boof line. Some fun creeky boating led us to Sucker Hole which flipped us both on the final left rock. The large pool at the bottom allowed for a quick recovery and ended up being beneficial as we needed to portage the wood underneath the rapid anyways. Within the pool we enjoyed views of both king and silver salmon preparing for their spawn. All in all, a quick and easy run within town was what we were looking for and what we found.