North Hurst sits at 50.71782, -116.34783, running stream order 5 (mid-to-high on a scale from 1 for a headwater trickle to 6 or more for a full river) above
Hurst Creek, which drains into
Frances Creek, then
Forster Creek and the
Columbia River.
Akenside Creek enters Frances from the neighbouring alpine-lake plateau, part of the same upper drainage. The regional fish habitat survey that covers this ground flagged reach 2 of North Hurst for resampling: dry, low-flow conditions when the crew passed through limited how confidently they could rule fish in or out, so an empty record here reflects thin survey coverage as much as an empty creek. Fish moving up from the Columbia are blocked well downstream by a cascade and a roughly 3 m falls in lower Forster Creek, so anything living this high in the system would be a resident or lake-connected population rather than a mainstem migrant.