Lyon Creek feeds into Granite Creek, which feeds into the East Fork of Sixmile Creek. This run is considered a 'difficult' class two run because it is a small creek with tight turns and it can have a lot of sweepers, strainers, and log jams. The water moves right along but it isn't pushy. The volume of the creek increases the further downstream you go from the many tributaries that join up all the way down. There are several places to take off the creek, the highway crosses over again downstream of the Granite Creek Campground, and there is a traffic pull-out/tourist overlook near where Gulch Creek enters the East Fork, commercial companies use this overlook as the put in spot for running the canyons on Sixmile Creek. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHERE TO TAKE OUT! The first canyon on Sixmile Creek is really close to the overlook. You absolutely do not want to run through the first canyon of Sixmile unless you are an experienced whitewater boater! The Lyon Creek run does not count as experience to prepare you for the first canyon!
That said, Lyon Creek is a fun paddle through the tundra, and the taiga as you make your way down the pass. The water is clear (not the gray silt color of glacial water), and splashy. Since this creek relies on snowmelt (hence the clear water) to have enough water for a boat to make it down without scraping rocks the whole way it is really best to do this run in the spring and sometimes after a big rain.
The run is very intimate. You start out with a pretty wide open view, some beaver dams and old beaver houses as you twist your way through the tundra section. As you move into the forested section the trees meet overhead and you paddle through their shadow. On this trip we found a large section of an avalanche shoot that gave me a moments pause as we started around a corner and saw it on both sides of the river; but as we continued around the corner I realized that the creek cut completely through it. No ice bridge or complete blockage to worry about. It is very cool to paddle by several feet of compacted snow!
The trees I mentioned earlier, those that make this such an intimate paddle are also the biggest hazard on the run. In the past, there have been numerous downed trees that spanned the entire river and there used to be a section that was full of enormous log jams, all of which you had to portage around. This trip was a pleasant surprise; there were only three instances that we had to get out of the boat for. On two of them we pulled our boat around downed trees for a very short distance. The third instance we found a path through the logs and then paddled the boat through.
This is a really nice paddle that takes a several hours. It is one of my favorite day trips even though we don't get the chance to do it very often. I especially like to run this late at night with the midnight sun!
The picture was taken by our friend Jack who ran this with us.
Our next paddle is coming up soon.
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