Richland Creek
Lower Screw-up, aka Shaw's Folley, is a great tight technical rapid, but features several hazards, which include: tight slots, at least 3 notable undercuts, shallow rocks in fast current, holes and most commonly high pin potential.
The rapid consists of two main drops. The first part is a set of slots known as the 'Doors'. The Doors are numbered from the right to the left. Door #1, requires a boof with left angle to avoid pining in the first undercut on river right directly below Door #1. Door #2 is the most narrow slot and requires an off angle entry. Door #3 enters at close to a 90-degree angle to the first two. Door #4 is the far left boulder jumble, usually not runnable except at high levels when logs are not present.
Doors #1, #2 and #3 converge for another 4-foot drop over shallow rocks into a wave/hole. Here are some photos of the Doors. There is a nice eddy on river right and a small eddy on river left to catch before entering the lower part of the rapid. The river right eddy is usually the eddy that paddlers portaging the Doors re-enter the creek. Due to the number of pins lately, paddlers may be better to portage to below the large undercuts below the entire rapid.
Below is a photo from the Doors looking downstream to the lower ledge. I'm in the small river left eddy between the two drops. The people in the middle are trying to free a boat pinned in the lower drop.
The ledge is just above the large boulder on river left and the first boulder on river right. The middle of the ledge is a pile of rocks which extends at an angle to downstream right. (where the pinned boat is). The right side of the ledge is a hole and far right are more pin rocks. There is no real clean line through the rocks below the hole on river right. Also the second boulder on river right (one the bottom boats are near) is undercut.
So you ask why not take that nice looking chute to river left (below the eddy I'm in)? Answer: because the 'Green Room' under that river left boulder awaits. This is the big undercut in the rapid and should be avoided at all costs.
This is a fun rapid, but be aware of the hazards or it could become a nightmare. Plenty of boaters who enjoy the rest of the creek portage the 'Doors' which is a very easy portage. The lower portion of the rapid is becoming more difficult as the rocks shift so don't be afraid to continue the portage on river right. Carry up to the trail on river right and put back in below the two large undercut boulders in the bottom of the rapid.
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