Icicle creek has always been a wonder to me.  Since I moved to Washington 4 years ago, I had always heard things about it, but had always missed my chance to get on it.  The group of us had been camped up at the secret stash campground, and decided to get in a few laps on Lower Icicle in the morning before the hard ones went to the upper and the softies went to the Wenatchee for some play (I went softie for lack of my creek boat!).

The Lower Icicle put in at Snow Creek is below an amazing Class VI cataract that has maybe been run according to a friend of a friend of a person who may have heard of someone else seeing someone run it, maybe (its probably never been run).  The cataract is below the Ricochet and Sieve section of the Icicle which is below the Upper.  It is a very dramatic put-in, and with hundreds of climbers, hikers, and bikers flocking to the area, it is really quite a scene there.  We scouted out Ricochet before heading to the put-in.

Class V+ Ricochet Rapid on the Upper Icicle Creek.

Class VI Cataract at Snow Creek.

Words cannot describe how enormous this rapid is.  You have to go see it.

The parking area at Snow Creek with Cataract in the background.

Christian climbs down around some wood below the gnar.

This run starts with some really fun stuff.  You can put in as high as you want up towards the giant cataract, or as far down depending on your comfort level slaloming between huge granite boulders.  The first few rapids are strong III+-IV boulder gardens until you go down around the bend.

Looking down from the put-in as Mike Harms makes his move.

James Amandus at the put-in rapid.

As you come around the first bend you go under a bridge.  This signals the approach of the Crux rapid in the section, a tripple ledge drop that has some powerful hydraulics.  The river splits here, so go left to run the rapid.  Right is all jammed with logs and stuff.  You can walk down and scout this from the parking area before you put on if you want.  The final ledge is about 7 feet into a big hole.  Run the last ledge right to left or portage left.

Dave throws ends before the tripple ledge drop.  Go left of the large round boulder in the distance.  On this trip, there was wood pushed up against that rock, so be careful here.

Mike leads Dave and James into the ledge drop.

After the triple drop the action continues with some fun boulder gardens and Class IV drops.  The whole section is pretty roadside if you needed to get off the river at any point.  There is a rapid where the river goes right and left around an island.  We ran both sides and both were good.  The right side was a bit smaller, but fine.

Running the right side around the Island.

This run goes very quickly and soon you will see some concrete and a definite horizon line, indicating the Weir.  This 4 footer is good to go with a strong boof, but could be disastrous with a missed boof or sideways stroke.  If you make it this far, you should be fine.  Run on the right side of the rock in the middle.

Christian below the Weir.

There are a few more quality rapids before this one peters out.  There is a sweet slide into a hole right above the takeout.  You could continue down below this to the fish hatchery, but we took out up the hill after this drop.

Christian running the last drop in the section.

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