The Four mile falls you haven't seen!

[chameleon]

This past week I took some vacation time off, and yesterday I made a short trip up to four mile falls. I had a hankering just to rappel down four mile falls. I have been up beyond the falls before, but had taken a game trail to the stream, and haven't ever just rappelled down.

I couldn't believe what I discovered yesterday. I took the game trail to the stream, and just headed down. I soon came to this remarkable pool. Probably 5 ft deep and there were two baby Pacific Giant salamanders lounging on the bottom near the rim of the pool.

I could see the top of a falls just below it and took the opportunity to lounge in the sun and switch to my water shoes.

Then I rappelled down what turned out to be a little 10 to 12 foot falls.

After that I realized I was right above another waterfall...but not Four mile!! ??? (Also to other folks - once you've pulled your rope down from the 10fter, you've pretty much bought yourself a one way ticket down - not much chance got get back up.)

Initially I tried to rappel down the falls itself, but there were two problems - the chute turned out to be way too slick to even keep my feet on the rock, and my rope wasn't long enough (I had only taken my 100ft rope and no slings or pull cord - just assuming 4 miles would be a short easy tree-loop rappel)! So I ended up traversing over a tricky little ridge to a tree that allowed me to rappel down to another tree, from which my rope barely reached the base. Once I got down to the base I had another surprise. The pool below was so deep that you couldn't even see the bottom. I hadn't planned on getting all my gear wet, and had no trash bags or anything to put my camera or other stuff in! Luckily there were two slick trees that had fallen into the bottomless hole, and was able to barely, barely keep my stuff dry by performing a difficult manouver using them to get to a tree right on the spout of the hole. The falls is 45-50ft tall, and the pool is who knows how deep. All I know is that in most gorge streams, you can see the bottom up to 12-15 ft, and then it goes green, just like in this pool!! Who would have guessed this on tiny four mile creek! The whole tube, waterfall and pool beneath is like the inside of a grain silo (a slick mossy grain silo). At the bottom, I had scrambled over the spout and used my rope to gently get down the 7 or 8 ft tumble right below.

From here, I headed down stream, thinking I'd be at the top of four mile falls and it would be an easy rappel. Little did I know there would be a 10-12 ft pool right before the lip of four mile! And that it would be too tall for my doubled up rope from the fallen tree in the pool. So what I had to do was scramble up a steep chute directly above the pool to a tree 30 more feet up. Here are a couple pics...the one looking down, is looking straight down at the pool above four mile.

Here's a photo looking down midway down actual four mile falls. Great trip!

Here's another shot of this neat hidden falls. It is somewhat reminiscent of Loowit in a way.

[anna in boots]

What a fantastic day! Heart quickening danger, gem-like pools of color, sleepy black salamanders--it's like a well-stocked salad bar and you with a big, big plate! Good eatin'! You provide us all with an amazing glimpse into stark, raving beauty that we would never see otherwise. Thank you so much, Zach!

anna in boots

PS: Have you met my friend, Sal? Sal Mander? I just love that joke.

[Splintercat]

Awesome, Zach! You're definitely the king of Gorge waterfalls -- at this point, you could just retire and recount your glories... but I'll bet you won't..! Good work! Nice pair of waterfalls.

Tom

[Sore Feet]

This game trail of yours doesn't happen to provide access to the bottom of Four Mile proper does it? I don't recall seeing any obvious route over there without crossing Eagle Creek itself, but I wasn't looking at the slope to the south of the falls to see if it could be descended from above.

[chameleon]

No, the game path starts on the opposite side of the trail from the campsites below Tenas falls. The path leads uphill and traverses across the rim of the cliffband above the trail back toward 4 mile creek. There are actually 2 or 3 main deer paths, and several small ones that split off. I don't think there is an easier way - at least not that I've found. And no, I don't think there is a trail down to the base without crossing the creek.

[pablo]

I read your canyoneering efforts with great interest, this particular one is a standout due to the location - in general way too much exposure for me to even consider. I'm seeing a couple of possibilities, one is to create a trail like Mystery Trail say down something like Moffett Creek. On Mystery Trail anchor trees have been steel cabled so ropes do not need to wrap around trees removing the possibility of girdling the tree when ropes are pulled down. So while a trail may never be built on Moffett Creek a reasonably safe climbers route could be constructed. The other obvious possibility is a book on canyoneering in the Gorge.

Anyway, great report and pictures as always.

--Paul

[chameleon]

Pablo,

...speaking of which, I sent in a 25 page guidebook proposal for just that - Canyoneering the Columbia River Gorge to Falcon Press 3 months ago, but never heard a word. I'm still working on one nonetheless though. They didn't even bother to reply which bums me out. I'll probably submit it to Mountaineers Press next. Any other ideas?

Regarding the trees - you're right - if too many folks ran their ropes around the same trees, it could become a problem. Plus it can be very hard on your rope's sheath. I do it in the Gorge to try to minimize my impact, and leave as little trace as possible. The alternative is leaving a sling with a rap ring, which is ideal for minimizing damage to your rope. But then if the tree grows too quickly for the sling to degrade, it could grow into the tree.

I do try to find a tree where it will do minimum damage though - such as one with a thin veneer of moss on the pressured side that will minimize the abrasion. Given the thick bark of the gorge trees (as opposed to that of trees in other parts of the country - such as small pines and spruce of rockies, little hardwoods of the south, etc...) it doesn't appear to have too much affect (I've checked on trees I've rappelled from on Ruckel for instance, and you can't even see any affect at all actually). However, that would certainly change if the canyons became popular.

That is an interesting idea on Moffett. I'm torn on it though, as I love the bit of wildness Kwanesum and upper Moffett represents... A trail up Moffett would be spectacular, and it certainly could be done. But if it comes to it, I think I'd certainly prefer what you suggest as a "climbers route," leaving some element of adventure to trips.

You should consider joining me on a trip or two sometime. I've had a couple people express interest in doing a canyoneering trip down Ruckel later this summer. We could organize a group.

-Zach

[Sore Feet]

...speaking of which, I sent in a 25 page guidebook proposal for just that - Canyoneering the Columbia River Gorge to Falcon Press 3 months ago, but never heard a word. I'm still working on one nonetheless though. They didn't even bother to reply which bums me out. I'll probably submit it to Mountaineers Press next. Any other ideas?

Self-publish. You won't necessarily get the circulation that you would through someone like Falcon or The Mountaineers, but you're guaranteed the final product will look as you intended it without any compromises (and its not hard to get the book listed in the major distribution channels or online). I'm going the self-publishing route for my Waterfall guidebooks (slowly), and I'm also doing the design and production work for my friend's book on Waterfalls in Vermont. I've spent some time comparing the various POD services out there (Booksurge, Lightning Source and Lulu are the ones I'm looking at), and there are some substantial differences, so if you're interested, shoot me an email and I'll toss you some details. I'd be glad to do the production work if you want some help with the layout and design - I'd really like to start doing print publishing on a more regular basis and right now I have nothing to pad my portfolio with.

[chameleon]

Bryan, I think I'll take you up on your assistance! I know what I'd like to include in it, but have no experience whatsoever with formatting, etc... For the proposal, I submitted an example chapter, a table of contents/outline, etc...so I have the skeleton. I have a lot of canyons to cover to get it complete, but should be able to do it all in @ a year. So it'll be an on-going project. I've done several canyons of course, but there are about 23 or so I've got in my outline. Perhaps I should trim it down for now and just focus on a less than comprehensive guide? I'll keep in communication with you though, and probably be bugging you for your help! Thanks again!
-Zach

[ken leibert]

Zach,
I look forward to buying your book. Feel free to take any useful photos or beta from my website
www.canyoneeringnorthwest. The entire website is based on sharing, and dozens of people have contributed photos and beta.

I once had a phone conversation with a recreation official with from the Columbia Gorge Scenic Area. She said they don't prohibit canyoneering, but they are not exactly keen on it either. She also said that they would prefer that people not kayak, swim, wade or walk in creeks. Rock climbing is discouraged except at traditional established climbing areas. She was very concerned when I told her that people have gone over Metlako Falls in kayaks and inner tubes. They have been very opposed to any professional canyon guiding in the gorge. Of course they can't prevent people from writing a book.

I use webbing for rappel anchors, usually black or dark green which camouflage well. In a few places which are popular and highly visible to numerous hikers (such as upper Multnomah Creek) I have used retrievable anchors or hiked back and removed the sling latter.

Ken Leibert
Seattle