Abiqua Falls
Abiqua Falls is an incredible 101' waterfall that is worth the effort to see. It lies in the foothills of the Cascades outside of the town of Scott's Mills. The area around the falls has been heavily abused with logging activity and ATV traffic. However, the falls and the amphitheater around it are incredible. The trail is a little difficult to find and even more difficult to descend if it's wet. The trail this day was wet and began to resemble a very long slip and slide. Be careful. I took a hard fall rolling my ankle and landing on my hand. My hand is still quite swollen and sore from the impact. Nonetheless, I continued on to see the falls. It had been several years since I had been to the falls with my wife. (Just as a side note, there is poison oak all over this area, so stay on the trail. You've been warned) The falls were spectacular with far more water than my last visit. Just in case there are a few of you wondering, this falls has been run once to my knowledge. After scouting the falls for five years, on April 27, 2002 local kayaker Tim Gross ran the falls. He lined up and dropped over the lip. As he fell, he over rotated onto his head and was immediately ejected from his boat upon impact. He walked away unscathed, if not a little sore. He also had just earned a world record for the largest falls run at the time eclipsing the well known Tao Berman. He did consider running the falls a second time, but his legs had been hyperextended and just hurt too much. Tao had stayed in his boat when he ran his 98' falls. You can watch it at Broadbandsports.
