French Cabin Creek
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| | Raps:1-4, max ↨80ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle:Required 20 min Vehicle:Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 21 Jul 2019
"Good day. Its likely this canyon hadnt been descended in quite some time due to quality of the webbing. Replaced webbing on multiple anchors. Update |
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| Best season: | Summer
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47.3588, -121.1351
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Introduction
The technical section of French Cabin Creek is very brief and consists of an 8’ jump followed by a 15’ jump, then one 80’ waterfall rappel Into a large and deep pool with multiple ledges up to 30’ high from which to jump. There is a substantial section of creek walking before and after the technical section. The creek has been thoroughly invaded by diddymo, a thick brown algae that is extremely slippery and makes the creeking very tedious. Situated within Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Kittitas County, Washington, it flows into the north end of Cle Elum Lake (reservoir). The descent begins at 3,146 ft (959 m) elevation and ends at 2,302 ft (702 m).
Approach
Drive
Note: NF-4308 and NF-4310 are subject to seasonal closures. Check with Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest Cle Elum Ranger District for current road conditions.
Exit Parking
From Cle Elum, drive north on WA-903 to the north end of Cle Elum Lake. Turn left on NF-4308, cross the bridge over the Cle Elum River, and proceed 0.6 mi. Turn left on NF-4310 and proceed for 0.3 mi to the bridge over French Cabin Creek. This is the exit of the canyon; leave a vehicle here.
Approach Parking
From the exit parking area, drive another vehicle on NF-4310 0.3 mi back to NF-4308. Turn left and proceed up the road 2.75 mi. Just beyond the intersection with NF-4312, turn left onto a crude road to the entrance parking area.
Hike
Follow the short road southeast and drop into the creek.
Descent
'Much of the canyon consists of time consuming downclimbing over slick rocks.
- Downclimb: large waterfall, shortly after entering the canyon, on DCR
- R1: from tree (possibly on DCL), about halfway down the canyon, done in two stages
- Stage 1: into pool (swimmer), possible downclimb and jump on DCR
- Stage 2: into pool (swimmer), possible downclimb and jump on DCR
- R2: 80 ft (24 m) from bolts DCL into a pool (swimmer)
- Rappels and downclimbs: short waterfalls
Exit
Continue to the bridge and exit DCL to the parking area.
Red tape
Beta sites
Super Amazing Map : French Cabin Creek- CanyoneeringNorthwest.com (archive.org) : French Cabin Creek