Furry Creek

Vitals

Locale: Sea to Sky Highway, British Columbia
What It's Like: Short and stout park-n-huck waterfalls.
Class: V-V+
Scouting/Portaging: Scouting is easy. You either run it or you don't.
Level: Visual.
Time: 1 hour.
When To Go: Can be hard to catch because of a tight flow window - after rain or snowmelt all year.
Info From: June 2010.
Other Beta: None.
Map: Click here for a map of the river zone.

Description

There's not a lot to say about Furry Creek - it's a park-n-huck along the Sea to Sky Highway between Vancouver and Squamish made up of an aesthetically pleasing, quite stout series of four waterfalls. Furry Creek, aside from the creek, is also a small community and golf course and the waterfalls are smack in the middle of the whole thing. As such it's imperative that if you decide to run these drops you need to keep a very low profile. I can't stress that enough - don't jeopardize access by being stupid - this is a great resource and it would be a terrible loss were the local community to actively dissuade boaters from running the creek.

There is logging road access to the creek a few hundred meters above the golf course - it's possible to walk down the creek to get to the falls. There is plenty of thick forest between the falls and the fairways from which to scout and take pictures - if you do this you'll be largely out of sight. The top, farthest end of the golf course parking lot is immediately adjacent to the forest and the Crack Falls.

The creek itself is very level dependent with a small window between being too low and too high - you can only tell the level by looking. As such it's hard to find good flows. There is a hydro project on this river, but both the intake and the powerhouse are above the falls. Expect 4 waterfalls in the 15-30 foot range stacked right on top of one another, each with it's own issues. After the last drop the river almost immediately drops into a terrible sieve with only one small eddy before it. Set strong safety.

If you want a challenge this is the place to go. Have fun, be smart about accessing the creek and above all be safe.