Frost Creek

Frosst Creek, May 25th 2008

With the snow melt in full effect and all the rivers bordering flood stage today was as good a day as any to rub one of the local creeks off the "to do list". Frosst Creek is a really low volume creek that has to be in or close to flood to be paddled. Frost Creek dumps into Cultus Lake at the west end. To get there drive along the south side of the lake on Columbia Valley Rd. Shortly after leaving the side of the lake you will cross a bridge over Frosst Creek, this was our take out. The put in is further up the road I'm guessing around 3 km up there is a sign for Columbia Valley Community Centre turn left here on Canyon Rd. Shortly after you pass a fire hall and there is a pull of on the left with a yellow gate across an old deactivated rd. From there its a short hike till you see a trail down on the left. This put in avoids one river wide walk around log but also misses a few fun drops. The upper put in is river right above the cement bridge you cross shortly after the first put in. There is a rock you can see down stream from the bridge that has an orange line painted on it, when we ran it it was just on the orange line.

Looking down river from our put in.

A drop above our put in.

The whole run cant be much longer than 4 kilometers. There were probably 4 must walk spots because of wood and a couple good idea walk spots. Some of the hikes around the wood are easy, some not so. There is also a section that has very low and over hanging branches for a long distance. You can barley look up to see where your going its so thick. We would have walked this as well had we not been chasing a boat. For the most part the run is grade 3 but because of lack of eddies and constant wood with blindish corners its not a user friendly grade 3 at all. There were a few good drops and some decent rapids. More water would have been nice for some of the drops but would have made the wood and eddies situation worse.

One of the walk spots.

Kay on some drop styling it up while Curtis packs his bag after fishing for his boat. Hmmm, maybe should have brought a creek boat??

The first walk spot avoidable by using lower put in. The next log down is actually a foot bridge that you can go under.

Looking up from one of the few decent eddies on the run.

Kay above the funnest drop on the river.

One of the nicer drops towards the bottom.

It was a fun day and good to cross Frosst Creek off the "to do list" but I wont be going back anytime soon. From what Ive been told by the local river folk is that it was the first decent. I do think you could paddle it right to the lake and use one of the beaches as a take out. It also looks like there may be a higher run accessible from Frosst Creek Rd by Lindell Beach.

Ryan