Conditions:Stafford Creek-20230521013141

Latest:	20 May 2023 (2 yrs ago)

Reported by:	K arc (373 reports)
Quality:	Good
Waterflow:	Moderate Low
Wetsuit:	Thin wetsuit
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:

Team: 4 people with experience level Intermediate to Advanced

Trip report URL:

Comments: Flow has dropped off tremendously -- back to typical levels for this time of year. Investigated possibility of installing a new rebelay station on the big pitch, but rock is largely poor quality. Found & packed out a mostly-full bottle of engine oil that some idiots were using to light a campfire at the bottom of the pitch. Otherwise, a fun day out.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
27 Apr 2025	Good	Moderate Low	Thick wetsuit	Normal		3 people	K arc (373 reports)
Comment: Mission with Dusty Gold to update the anchors on the big pitch. Previously, the tree anchor DCL was in a bad position: no visibility down the pitch, and no way to have eyes on rappellers if there was a problem. Tree anchor is now retired. Beta has been updated.
16 Apr 2025	Great	Moderate High	Full wetsuit		2 hours	2 people	Tommy23 (12 reports)
Comment: The royal approach is worthy of its name. Water levels coming down quickly - solid flow but nothing spicy.
12 Apr 2025	Great	High	Drysuit	Normal	3 hours		Briwellman (76 reports)
Comment: Added shortcut to R4 to the beta. Flow gage is reading high and I think that's accurate.
2 Jul 2024	Great	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	4 hours	2 people Intermediate	PsychoWard (37 reports)
Comment: Great day out at Stafford. Very chill, straightforward canyon with a nice approach and exit if you shuttle. I wore a 5mm, but a 3mm would have been fine; I was getting pretty hot at times. Anchors and webbing were all in good shape. Water was low, but still enough to have a good time.
23 Jun 2024	Good	Moderate	Full wetsuit	Normal	6 hours	7 people Beginner to Advanced	PortlandAlex (6 reports)
Comment: Beautiful trip out. extra time as we practiced techniques. Water levels were great for beginner level - not too strong to be risky but high enough to pay attention. The flowers are popping and quite fragrant. The dippers are present along the creek. still nesting in last waterfall DCL, please use caution and avoid rappelling that line.
16 Jun 2024	Great	Moderate	Full wetsuit	Normal		8 people Brand new to Advanced	Briwellman (76 reports)
Comment: Fun day out except we returned to the parking lot and found the back window broken in the lower shuttle SUV. Dry clothes backpack and soft cooler were stolen.
15 Jun 2024	Good	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal		7 people	K arc (373 reports)
Comment: Mazamas class outing. Added new single bolt to R8 that lets you easily rappel the chute.
14 Apr 2024	Good	Moderate High	Thin wetsuit	Normal	3 hours	5 people Intermediate to Advanced	Fil (33 reports),Chloeloveall (5 reports)
Comment: Sunny day and water temp felt nice. Dropped in at R4.
31 Mar 2024	Great	Moderate High	Thin wetsuit	Normal		4 people	K arc (373 reports)
Comment: Definitely on the high side, but rappels are manageable by an experienced team. Creek is pushy in places where it narrows up. Expect to get hammered by the flow on R9 as the shape of the falls takes you right into the torrent at the bottom. At this level, it's best to reach the shelf about 2/3rds of the way down, then move DCR as much as possible to find a good line. Can be beneficial to have a bottom belay as a reverse tag line to slow folks down if they should go for a pendulum swing.
24 Jun 2023	Good	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal			EMoorcroft (450 reports)
Comment: All anchors looked good. Fun easy flow, pretty canyon. We used the sneak approach and walked up the road. A nice van lifer gave one of us a ride back to the car. Felt like we had the canyon to ourselves until we saw a rope drop behind us in the last rappel. Never saw or heard the others. Good day.
10 Jun 2023	Good	Moderate Low	Full wetsuit	Normal		7 people Brand new to Advanced	Fil (33 reports)
Comment: Great day taking new canyoneers on their first creek. Flow was moderate-low, but seemed normal for this time of year. Rebuilt 3 anchors with new webbing.
20 May 2023	Good	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal		4 people Intermediate to Advanced	K arc (373 reports)
Comment: Flow has dropped off tremendously -- back to typical levels for this time of year. Investigated possibility of installing a new rebelay station on the big pitch, but rock is largely poor quality. Found & packed out a mostly-full bottle of engine oil that some idiots were using to light a campfire at the bottom of the pitch. Otherwise, a fun day out.
29 Apr 2023	Good	High	Full wetsuit	Special challenges		2 people	K arc (373 reports)
Comment: Stafford is currently in flood stage; most rappels not suitable for running the flow direct. Probably the highest I've ever seen the creek at. Double falls at the bottom was more of a uni-falls... albeit with light flow in the center. Still lots of snow higher up in the coast range; road was blocked near the bridge. We had to park and hike the last 0.5mi to the usual drop in. Probably would recommend waiting a couple weeks for the snow to melt off and flow to subside to "fun" level. Problematic log in the previous TR has disappeared. Creek still surprisingly clean given the big snow-pocalypse this winter. Found and fixed a few wonky anchors. Need to come back and install a rebelay station for a better way to run the big falls. Looks like a nice rock panel DCL just before the big vertical.
10 Jul 2022	Good	Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal		2 people	Jrdezso (1 reports)
Comment: Good jaunt through today with a two man team. Not sure if it is rap 3 or 4 but someone had a sling around a log center creek. The log was blocked with a large bolder and propped with another log. A slight tug on the main log had the whole system moving including the large bolder. We removed this so others didn’t get the idea it was safe. We retired webbing around the nearby large root center creek. There was a lot of debris build up there. We removed most. Probably best running your rope under the sketch log, just watch too much upward lift on your rope if you run the rope under the log.
25 Jun 2022	Great	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal		5 people	K arc (373 reports)
Comment: Terrific training day in Stafford skipping the 90-degree temps in town. Replaced several anchors; all are good to go. Great fun to lounge in the pools and introduce some new folks to canyoning.

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