6
THE SANDY (Ore.) POST Thur»., Feb 13, 1969 (Sec. 1)
F F |O M
The KIVEfft
EDGE
R IV E R S O F H O O D
(The Sandy)
- continued from last Week -
Downstream from Zig Zag a
L ARRY BYBEE (21) of Reynolds captures a rebound in last Friday's Sandy Reynolds
basketball game despite efforts of Sandy's Jim Martin (32). Others in the picture are Jim
Wolf (45) of Reynolds and Doug M o ffitt (42) and Bob Ihrke (44) of Sandy. Ihrke was
(P o s t p h o to )
high scorer as Pioneers triumphed, 73 59.
Valentine
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W
F
by Rogers,
Whitman,
Saylors,
and Hoefler
WNM m m m Q B
k
few
miles
is Brightwood,
another village. Just below
Brightwood a major tributary
o f the Sandy, the Salmon
River, enters the system. This
river normally runs bright and
clear, except in times of
abnormal high water or when
greenish snow tinted water is
running off. This important
angler’s water heads up in its
uppermost reaches with minute
beginnings. The tiniest glacier
on M t. Hood is the source of
this river’s beginnings. This
first
small
creek
rapidly
tumbles downhill 2000 vertical
feet in about a mile o f stream
bed before it levels out in the
r
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Salmon
River
meadows at about 4 0 0 0 feet or
less elevation.
When this glacial beginning
first enters the meadows, it is
not an overlarge creek once the
snow is gone from the slopes
above. Numerous small creeks
vein this expansive meadow
which drain, not only the
timbered upper slopes o f Hood
itself, but also the surrounding
lesser
mountains
which
encompass the meadows.
A t the lower end o f the
meadows, Mud Creek used to
meander through a marsh.
Under the auspices o f the
Forest Service and the Isaac
Walton League, the stream was
dammed and a very pretty
bluewater lake now stands
where once was the marsh.
This
is
T rillium
Lake.
Campgrounds were constructed
and the Game Commission
keeps the lake well stocked
with
trout.
Some
good
fly-fishing is to be had at the
upper end o f this lake and also
in some o f the meandering
creeks in this meadow.
The middle section of this
Salmon
river
below
the
meadows is in a roadless
section o f the mountains and is
accessible on foot by trail.
Here the river swings through a
wide loop around 180 degrees
to wind up heading north at its
junction
w ith
the
Sandy.
Access to this part o f the river
is from the Skyline Road down
the Limney Creek trail. Heavily
timbered slopes and steep
walled
ravines
and
small
canyons where tiny feeder
creeks enter the systems make
this middle section of the
Salmon from Welches at the
lower end o f this almost
roadless area.
In this portion, the Salmon
is a picture book, mountain
river containing rapids, pools,
chutes,
falls,
and
deep,
slick-surfaced
glides
and
narrows flowing through the
wooded mountain valley. A
number o f small creeks enter
the Salmon in this wooded
area,
but
none
are
of
significant size to attract an
angler. Some o f these, though,
are used by Spring Chinook
and Steelhead for spawning
purposes and nursery streams.
A t a spot about three miles
up from the mouth o f the
Salmon, while it is still flowing
through
the
timber,
the
character o f the river changes
as its valley starts to broaden
and level out. Here the river
starts to slow down at the same
time it enters civilization again.
Being a fertile stream, much
insect life abounds in the
Salmon, and in these lower
three miles it is fished hard.
But here also it is bounded by
both
summer
homes
and
permanent homes strung along
its banks as well as by the
village of Welches. I t is bridged
frequently here and in general
well used.
The Salmon passes under a
bridge on Highway 26 a few
hundred
feet
above
its
confluence w ith the Sandy. All
through this stretch o f lower
mountain between Brightwood
and Zig Zag, the Sandy too, is
bordered with Summer homes
and
a
few
permanent
residences.
To
fish
many
stretches
of
either
river
through here, one shoud get
permission
from
the
land
owners to avoid trespassing.
Below
Brightwood,
the
Sandy
really
went
on
a
rampage during the December
floods of 1964 leaving its
course entirely and making
new
channels, undercutting
banks and shifting its bed
sideways,
and
in
general
moving property lines whose
limits were tied in to the river
banks. A number o f homes
and, yes, even the homesites
were completely obliterated by
this flood. A fte r it was all over,
and the river had subsided, it
no longer flowed in its original
bed in many stretches.
The Corps o f Engineers
stepped in in the late spring o f
1965 and large bulldozers,
trucks, and a small army o f
men, and restored the river to
its old channel, doing much
filling, dyking, etc, to get it to
stay put. The river still has an
artifical look in some o f these
areas as the carefully graded
channel is still in evidence. But,
with each high water, the river
alters these man-made grades
and
continuous
uniform ly
sloped riffles. In time, holes,
rapids, chutes, and all the other
natural characteristics o f a river
flowing
naturally
w ill
be
restored.
Alder creek and Wildcat
creek enter the Sandy below
here. The latter is an innocent
little kitten o f a creek flowing
down through its fast falling
stony bed most o f the time.
But during Chinook winds in
w inter when heavy snow melt
comes cascading down from
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I
periods.
Now , the river is slowed
down into a long pool by
Marmot dam. This is a power
company dam put here to
divert water through a flume
over the Roslyn lake on the
lower end of Marmot ridge.
This lake is the forebay for the
power plant on the Bull Run
River which flows along the
base o f the ridge at this point.
The
water
drops
several
hundred feet from the lake
through the turbines below.
A fish ladder is provided at
this dam to pass the migrating
Salmon and Steelhead runs
upstream around this barrier.
During the late summer and
fall, the results o f this diverted
water is apparent by the low
stream flow between the dam
and the union with the Bull
Run twelve miles downstream.
A large part of this low water
river, as it
is sometimes
referred to, flows through
canyons
and
steep-sided
timbered ridges.
Sheer cliffs arise here and
there along its course. Large
eddying
pools
w ith
wide
beaches occur wherever the
valley widens out, and these
are connected w ith steep,
fast-falling rapids and downhill
chutes.
The
river
loses
elevation fast between the dam
and Dodge park where the Bull
Run flows in.
A short way below the dam
at
M arm ot,
Badger Creek
enters the river. N o t a long, nor
a large creek, Badger Creek is
hard to find along parts o f its
course. Its bed is badly choked
with logging debris and parts of
trees cut down and rolled into
the creek, as was often done in
the old days o f wasteful
cutting.
In some places you can
locate the creek by hearing it
rather than by seeing it. An
interesting
place
to
fish,
occasionally you get quite a
surprise by the size o f the
native cutthroat tro u t you have
wangled out o f a narrow slot
between tw o logs. The dark
beauty o f these fish may
surprise you. Never getting
much light because o f all the
woods jun k overhead, these
trout color darkly and richly in
their gloomy, never well lit
haunts under the logs.
i
enter the system before the
Sandy’s
waters
lose
their
identity in the great water
volume o f the Columbia. These
are in order going downstream,
T ro ut Creek, Gordon Creek,
and Beaver Creek. O f these,
Gordon Creek is notable as it is
quite long, commencing on the
southern
slopes
of
Larch
Mountain. T ro u t Creek comes
downhill fast o ff the plateau
immediately east o f the River.
Beaver Creek flows entirely
through farming country to the
west o f the lower river, and it
too drops precipitously into
the final canyon o f the river.
Some autumns, good runs of
Harvest trout run this creek.
Finally the river enters the
treacherous sand delta from
whence it enters the Columbia.
When Vancouver sailed up the
Columbia, this Delta was quite
prominent. Some o f his sailors
tested it and found no bottom
to the vast watery sand fan and
named it the Quicksand River.
This was shortened to Sandy
River by early mapmakers as it
isn’t a quicksand form ation in
the true sense fo the word, but
just a vast accumulation o f the
sandy burden the river has
carried
down
from
the
mountain and dumped where
its waters have slowed by
running into the resistance of
the fast flowing Columbia.
The outer edge o f this sandy
fan approaches a half mile in
w idth, and the channels the
river
follows
through
this
desert change almost daily as
the sand is constantly shifting
and moving from the pressures
of
the
percolating
water
flowing through it. In a period
o f tw o weeks the main channel
has been known to move
gradually from the extreme
downstream end o f the delta to
the high cut bank at the
extreme Eastern end o f the
fan.
In
a straight line. the
distance travlled, from glacier
at 7000 feet to the Columbia
at about 18 feet, is about 35
miles. In the meanders o f the
main
Sandy
and
all
its
tributaries
there
must
be
several
thousand
miles
of
bankside. All these combined
to make the Sandy one o f the
most interesting river systems
you can encounter.
Dow n over the cliffs behind
the town o f Sandy, a large
creek, Cedar Creek, flows into
the river. The Oregon Fish
Commission
has
a
Silver
Salmon hatchery on this creek,
which has increased the sport
fishery for this species in the
lower river during October and
November. Phenomenal success
has attended the efforts o f this
hatchery and returns are most
gratifying.
This is an area o f winter
Steelhead fishing as well as fall
Salmon angling and many of
the holes have picturesque
names.
Among
the better
known holes are the Pipeline
hole,
The
Henhouse hole,
Pothole, Garbage hole. The
Chute, and Gravel Pit hole.
The Bull
Run
tributary
system is for the most part
locked up in the Bull Run
Reserve, source o f the C ity of
Portland’s water supply. The
Bull Run starts as the outlet of
a large lake o f the same name
Several other lakes in this same
basin also contribute. I t has
one major tributary stream.
The L ittle Sandy River which
heads up in the Goodfellow
Lakes another lake basin inside
the reserve. Even though this
system has no bearing on the
Portland water supply, it is also
locked up in the reserve and is
in v io la te
for
recreation
purposes
No
travel
is
perm itted inside the reserve
except
by
a u th o riz e d
personnel.
F ro m
Dodge
P a rk
downstream, the Sandy flows
through a deep canyon for
most o f the rest o f its course to
the Columbia. This course
contains
many great large
pools, long riffles and boulder
strewn rapids.
Three more small creeks
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Wildcat Mountain above, it is a
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and lives during its rampant
TREE FARMING
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i^ -Z Z ^ /Z //
L AIM DB ATM K
y jy ^ z z z /iz z z
Of Oregon Gty
2l(0 Ninth Street
6M -S127
,