Last weekend, Karl, Frenchy Laroux, Brent Ross and I tackled the McKenzie River trail, following the river, fishing from the Willamette NF ranger station above McKenzie Bridge to Koosah Falls. We hiked over 17 miles upstream, a majority of the 26.5-mile trail from McKenzie Bridge to Clear Lake.
It was an experimental trip – to see the entire upper watershed on foot and find the upper-most limits of the McKenzie’s wild rainbow trout. The ratio of effort expended versus fish caught was pretty substantial, but we made it from point A to B in 48 hours, finished Karl’s bottle of Jim Beam, and caught wild trout. I’d count that as a success in my book.
Friday:
We started out Friday evening at the Ranger Station, snugged our packs and headed east. We passed some great water just upstream from the Ranger Station, before Paradise Campground, but decided it unwise to start fishing a few hundred yards into a 17-mile trip. We needed to keep moving, so we skipped these fishy glides and promised to check them out on a day trip.
That night we made camp a few miles below Belknap Hot Springs and Lost Creek. There were two massive old growth log jams, forming a side channel and some slower water. We dubbed the upper logjam Frenchy’s Landing after he pulled several 10-12 inch fish rainbows and native cutthroats out of the hole.
That night we camped in a clearing a few hundred yards off the trail and were plagued by biting carpenter ants. We’d covered less ground than I’d expected (I’d hoped to pass Belknap Friday night), but the expedition was underway. I fought the bugs all night, diving into my sleeping bag until I got too hot to stand it. A mosquito net would be a good idea.
Saturday:
We woke late Saturday morning (I unrealistically thought we’d be moving by 6am), and spent a few minutes fishing Frenchy’s Landing, pulling in a few more fish. At this point, we decided hike with a couple rods rigged, running a hopper dropper through each good looking spot, picking up a few fish above Belknap.
We stepped up the pace soon after that and stopped fishing. We had six miles to cover to get to Deer Creek – I wanted to make camp above Olallie for the evening fishing. We hiked the ledge high above Fish Ladder rapid and through mixed old growth forest, making camp at 5pm above and across the river from Olallie.
The water from Deer Creek to Olallie was my favorite of the trip – it slowed on our side of the river and there were several boulder gardens with nice slicks for dry fly fishing. That night I picked up my largest fish of the trip, 12-inches or so, on a half-down parachute golden stone fly. According to Caddis Fly Guide Barrett, larger wild rainbows come up on this upper section of the river for the big hatches – March Browns, Green Drakes, October Caddis – but these 12-inchers fought really well in the big current. Karl spotted a large fish in one of the deep pools in this section, either a Chinook or a Bull Trout – awesome water.
At this point the trail was starting to take its toll. I had blisters on both feet and the only thing that made them any better was wet wading in my sandals. The cold water kept swelling down on my feet. You rarely had an opportunity to get in above your knees because the water is so fast. I did miss my waders on the first night — the water was freezing and we had more water to wade, but for days 2-3 I was happy not to have them on my back.
A second plague befell us Saturday night – no-see-ums. How can something smaller than the period at the end of a sentence break my skin? Nasty teeth apparently. We turned to the only practical remedy available – mass quantities of bourbon.
Sunday:
Sunday morning was a little ugly. Blistered, bourbon-soaked, clothes rancid with sweat, we pushed on. I was excited to see the next section of river, where the McKenzie dumps into the head of Carmen Reservoir at Trail Bridge. I’d heard monster fish hang out on this flat. That wasn’t the case this instance (middle of the day in the dead of summer), but we did catch quite a few 12-inch planters that had traveled up from the lake, along with a couple wild fish on Parachute Adams.
We had lunch on the bank above Trail Bridge, and then set off into the most grueling part of the hike. Here we faced our final plague. The section between Trail Bridge and Koosah was full of mountain bikers. I’d seen them along the entire trail – they seemed to outnumber hikers 2-1 – but they were especially thick here. Most were courteous and adhered to the rules of the trail which state that the bikers must yield the trail to hikers, pulling off the side and waiting for you to pass. But a good 25% barreled past us, some less polite than others. It felt good to give a shoulder brush to a few Richard Simmons look-alike extreme sport enthusiasts, but for the 97% of the interactions, that wasn’t necessary.
We didn’t fish from Trail Bridge to Tamolitch Falls, but could have in a few spots. The water was skinny and fast, and the trail was crowded so we pushed on. We reached the giant blue pool at Tamolitch by mid-afternoon, the upper-most natural barrier to upstream fish passage on the McKenzie. Above this section, the river disappears under Cascade lava flows all the way to Carmen Reservoir. This dry, hot section of the hike was less crowded by this time, and the forest was shady and amazing. We made to the shuttle car at Koosah by 5pm, wrapping up the trip.
Overall impressions if you want to try this:
-Scout it out by car first if you can with a GPS system, mark the best fishing holes, points of interest, decent camp sites.
-Skip the first two miles of the trail by starting at the Ranger Station. You don’t pass much productive water and a lot of that section is just along Rte 126.
-Stop the hike at Trail Bridge if fishing is your main goal. Avoid the crowds and spend more time on productive water.
-If you do decide to go all the way up to Clear Lake, try fishing any slow spots along the upper section for invasive brook trout. Keep all you can catch.
-MS
