North Fork American Fork - Skeletor's Gorge

Description

Skeletors Gorge Very low water shot of the warm-up below the crux I named this one after a sun-bleached skeleton of a moose or a bear, or something big, I dislodged out of a logjam in the crux prior to my run. This is a pretty hairy and committing run through a steep and narrow stretch of canyon, 200' below the road, portaging is difficult and eddies are rare to nonexistant. If you want to try it, It is absolutely essential that you walk up the whole 1.4 miles with saws and clean everything out first. Bring your arm guards if you have-em, I nearly broke my fore-arm on this one. It is class IV to V at low flows and suicidal when the water is high. The quarter-mile crux drops about 1,000 fpm. If Mr. Skeletor didn't make it out alive, do you think you would?? I did, and discovered three or four 20 to 50 foot long bedrock slides below the put-in, a half mile of ultra low water read and run steep boulder gardens, sharp turns, and congested chutes(after flossing, as of 5/07/09 all free of wood hindering progress down river). But at the core of the crux is a 30'+ cascade which is not fun at minimum flow, and otherwise suicidal. It is approx. found at: 31.213' n. and 36.539' w. It (HAD) a small eddy about a hundred feet above it, at 30 cfs (visual.) The last half mile the gradient decreases, but is a woodfest till Balls to the wall, a steep and very narrow stretch, two hundred feet long with a cliff running along one side and some very pushy currents at higher flows. Take out right after that. The creek continues to be even more of a bonified woodfest for abt the next 1.2 miles until Pulverizer which is described in the run description for the Upper North Fork.