TR: Upper Rachor Creek
I joined Ken Liebert on Labor day to further explore Rachor Creek. What a great canyon! Ken was a wonderful companion.
We biked about 2 miles from gate 11 at the Snoqualmie Tree farm. We turned left at the gate "Black Creek" turnoff and stashed the bikes. From there we hiked uphill a little more than a mile to the gooseneck pipe and mile marker 3 and turned right for a couple hundred feet of mild, but steep, bushwhacking to get the creek.
Once in the creek we ambled downstream with some easy hops through small cascades. Evidence of old logging activities including hauling cables around massive logs was evident in the creek bed.
The creek was beautiful and continued with several log and rock downclimbs before we hit the first rappel.
We did 7 raps total in the upper creek. Approximate lengths:
R1: 20'
R2: 30'
R3: 30'
R4: 100'
R5: 40'
R6: 50'
R7: 15'
We bypassed one drop that could have been rappelled with a downclimb on the right, and a second with a downclimb on a sloping ramp and short slide at the end. In higher water the second downclimb would not have been possible. Anchors were easy to find for all of the raps, there are easily accessible mature trees on the creek sides, large woody debris in the creek in places. To stay in the watercourse we slung one large boulder and did on rappel out of the watercourse due to anchor locations.
We got to the top of the big drop (see picture from Aaron's waterfall world here: http://aaronswaterfallworld.com/rachorfalls.htm )after about 4 hours.
Given the time of day, and the unknowns involved in getting down the falls we decided to come back next weekend to start from Rachor Falls and descend the rest of the canyon.
From what we could scout the drop at Rachor falls may be more than 200' which will make the rappel interesting.
If anyone is interested in heading to check out the big drop it would be great to have some company. Particularly anyone that has a 300 or 400' rope 
.
My pictures from the trip are on my picasa site here: I joined Ken Liebert on Labor day to further explore Rachor Creek. What a great canyon! Ken was a wonderful companion.
We biked about 2 miles from gate 11 at the Snoqualmie Tree farm. We turned left at the gate "Black Creek" turnoff and stashed the bikes. From there we hiked uphill a little more than a mile to the gooseneck pipe and mile marker 3 and turned right for a couple hundred feet of mild, but steep, bushwhacking to get the creek.
Once in the creek (which I would estimate was flowing at 5-10 CFS) we ambled downstream with some easy hops through small cascades. Evidence of old logging activities including hauling cables around massive logs was evident in the creek bed.
The creek was beautiful and continued with several log and rock downclimbs before we hit the first rappel.
We did 7 raps total in the upper creek. Approximate lengths:
R1: 20'
R2: 30'
R3: 30'
R4: 100'
R5: 40'
R6: 50'
R7: 15'
We bypassed one drop that could have been rappelled with a downclimb on the right, and a second with a downclimb on a sloping ramp and short slide at the end. In higher water the second downclimb would not have been possible. Anchors were easy to find for all of the raps, there are easily accessible mature trees on the creek sides, large woody debris in the creek in places. To stay in the watercourse we slung one large boulder and did on rappel out of the watercourse due to anchor locations.
We got to the top of the big drop (see picture from Aaron's waterfall world here: http://aaronswaterfallworld.com/rachorfalls.htm)after about 4 hours.
Given the time of day, and the unknowns involved in getting down the falls we decided to come back next weekend to start from Rachor Falls and descend the rest of the canyon.
From what we could scout the drop at Rachor falls may be more than 200' which will make the rappel interesting.
If anyone is interested in heading to check out the big drop it would be great to have some company. Particularly anyone that has a 300 or 400' rope .
My pictures from the trip are on my picasa site here: https://picasaweb.google.com/steveabercrom/RachorCreekSep52011?authuser=0&feat=directlink
A sixty meter rope is 196 feet long . Take out a few feet for a knot and you can rap up to a 190 feet. A 70 meter dynamic climbing rope is 229 feet long.With a 10% stretch that comes to 252 feet. Take out a few feet for a knot and its just short of 250 feet.
Ken Leibert
Even when an accurate height of a waterfall is given, it does not necessarily correspond to what counts to US, the length of the rappel. We found it required all of a 200 foot rope to rappel the 120-foot Lower Calf Creek Falls. First venture for that was rather embarassing, thankfully not unsafe.
I have 300' ropes available... jes' sayin'
http://www.canyoneeringusa.com
Tom
--- In pnwcanyoning@yahoogroups.com, Ken Leibert <canyoneeringnorthwest@...> wrote:
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> The big waterfall on Rachor Creek has been estimated at 250 feet by the only person to take a good photo,but this is only a guess.
> A sixty meter rope is 196 feet long . Take out a few feet for a knot and you can rap up to a 190 feet. A 70 meter dynamic climbing rope is 229 feet long.With a 10% stretch that comes to 252 feet. Take out a few feet for a knot and its just short of 250 feet.
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> Ken Leibert
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