Snow Creek

[Colden]

I noticed Illinois Bayou is coming up so that must mean Snow Creek is flowing. Does anybody in that area know its current level? I ran Snow once when the Bayou was 6.3 and we had a blast.

[jjones03]

thats pretty low to run it. i usually go around 7.5 - 8.5 and its pretty fun. the gauge says its about 7 right now. should be a good float tomorrow if the level holds.

[Colden]

Im mainly interested in Snow Creek. May hit that earyl tomorrow morning and then Piney in the afternoon if water holds.

[Roger]

Colden, the Snow Creek run is based off this reading unless you can get a visual at the Bayou Bluff Bridge (second one north of Hector).

To run Snow, most want to see 7+ at the bridge gauge. And then it's fairly technical. Not sure what that comes to on the gauge downstream.

As levels rise, the number of eddies go down. Waves get bigger. I do know that it's been run at 20+ feet on the old post gauge that was located just downstream of the takeout area. They said waves were 6-8 feet high in places.

At the usual levels, it's a great place to get laps when trying to step up your skills. When it gets big 10' or better, start looking upstream to the Nogo put-in.



This is Fish's recommended levels on USGS info. Not sure if they apply to the Snow Creek section.

USGS: Illinois Bayou nr Scottsville
6.98 [6, 7, 8]

[jjones03]

colden, snow creek is just where you put in. when people say they are paddling snow creek, its actually just a run on the middle fork of the illinois bayou, from snow creek to the bridge.