The creek's mouth sits at 50.62255, -116.24066. It runs stream order 6 (the top of a 1-to-6+ scale where 1 is a headwater trickle and 6 or more marks a substantial stream by the time it reaches its confluence), with a median channel width around 11.5 m (narrow to moderate) and a gentle median gradient near 1.08%. Peak mean-annual discharge runs about 6.769 m³/s, a moderate flow for this size of system.
frances creek is the major child creek feeding Forster, and
akenside creek in turn feeds Frances;
irish creek and
welsh creek are smaller inferred child creeks in the same drainage.
A cascade and roughly 3 m falls in reach 3 blocks fish movement from the Columbia into Frances Creek and upper Forster, so fish holding above that barrier are resident or lake-connected populations, not fresh mainstem migrants. Reach 6 stands out in the Steamboat Mountain fish habitat inventory as an important staging area, where bars and logjam scour create calm side water and deeper pools. Many of the smaller headwater tributaries in this drainage, including reaches of Akenside, Forster, Bugaboo and Horsethief creeks, ran dry or low during late-summer sampling, a reminder to avoid pushing fish in warm, thin, disconnected water and to expect the system to fish smaller as summer wears on.