Cossatot Paddlers Alert

[Walter Felton]

Debbie and I received a note from Cossatot State Park Superintendent Stan Speight today indicating that effective the end of October the bridge across the river at Ed Banks will be taken out of service. The bridge has been in disrepair for some time and Weyerhaeuser has communicated to the park office that they no longer need or use that bridge so they have no plans to repair it. The access road will remain open to the river you just will not be able to drive your vehicle across the bridge. Stan said that any repairs would be at the expense of the State Park system and I got the impression that funding for that was not currently in the budget. So we are not losing access at Ed Banks but we will no longer be able to cross the river with our vehicles at that point.

Walter Felton

[FarPastGone]

That makes running the last mile or so of Camp/Flat Creek a mandatory hike, unless you are willing to brave the labyrinth of Weyerhaeuser roads, or put in at CR 33 (which makes for a fun and interesting day). Not sure many people take advantage of that stretch anyways, I know I haven't run it in several years. Plus it is best when the Cossatot is high and passing over Ed Banks is sketchy at those flows.

- Matt

[we66erno1]

Hopefully they are going to remove the bridge when they take it out of service, rather then blow it up. Right?

[hdh]

The water is over the bridge when camp creek is runable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHFQPrJ0yvE&sns=em" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[FarPastGone]

Dude, Harlan, that video is so freakin funny. Why did ya'll decide to walk Camp/Flat and not the Cossatot? I've only run it once from CR 33 and remember seeing what looked like a camp where people were making meth.

- Matt

[hdh]

The Miller High life Had something to do with it....

[Jim E]

We just park on the the East side of Ed Banks and ferry the Tot for the Camp/Flat creek takeout. Tot needs to be 7ft or higher so like Harlan said, can't drive across the bridge anyways.

[gannon_w]

Why don't they give US the explosives and let us make a nice surf spot!