Giant Gap NF American River 5/25/08

After the Bear River debacle, we were feeling both super keyed-in and in desperate need of a climatic finish to our California paddling trip. I had wanted to run the Giant Gap section of the NF American for a long time, but its reputation as being very committing necessitated a guide. Besides being almost totally inaccessible in certain parts of the 2 mile vertical walled canyon that comprised the Gap proper, the entire run was long: a two mile hike-in and a 14-mile run. After relaxing and unwinding from the Bear with a couple beers, Justin randomly shot out a post on boof.com (the cali paddling forum) to see if anyone wanted to lead 3 people down. Surprisingly, we got a immediate call from a guy named Todd from Sacramento - sure, he'd lead us down. Justin hung up, and we all thought "woah, what are we getting ourselves into??". Boom, we all went to bed straight away, and speaking personally I had trouble sleeping, thinking of the big day to come.

Next morning, we got up super early and met Todd, who turned out to be a doctor (nice!). We set shuttle and geared up for the hike in the midst of a cloud on a ridge high above the river.

It was intimidating knowing the magnitude of what we were about to do, but not being able to even see to the bottom of the river canyon. We buckled down and started the 2mile hike down to the river, dragging our boats and trying not to crash into the forests of poison oak that lined the trail. It was actually quite beautiful, but I was too locked in to notice at the time.


Finally getting to the river, we were amazed at the gorgeous canyon, the turquoise water, and the old oaks trees covered with moss that surrounded us.

Looking upstream at the last rapid of Generation Gap.

Justin: "man what are we getting into???"


Once on the water, we floated through a couple miles of class II-III through gorgeous canyons until reaching the start of the Gap proper.



I don't remember too much about the rapids in the Gap, except that they were big and I was happy with the fact that we were dealing with lower water. We had nice moving pools between most of the big drops. I can imagine that at higher water the whole Gap becomes a scary flush through big water class V.
The biggest drop in the Gap, Nutcracker, looking MUCH smaller than it was.


Myself running a ledge in the lead-in to Dominator.

And oh yes I got Dominated. Dominator is the biggest boulder garden on the run, and the exit of the Gap. All I knew about it was that you did NOT want to be left at the bottom, as there was supposed to be a massive recirculating hole that was backed up by a wall. Todd, who had been a spectacular guide up to this point, led us in without telling us what rapid it was. I quickly ended up on the left side and got flushed to the left of a big rock splitting the flow. I tried to throw a boof on the 5-6 foot drop but ended up VIOLENTLY backendered. Mercifully, I flushed quickly, but man was I shaken up! In retrospect, the lower water made the drop more forgiving than its reputation suggested.
Dominator - you can clearly see the river-left drop that backendered me.


The rest of the run was more fun easier rapids through just about the prettiest canyons I have ever seen. There is something truly magical about the grey Cali granite covered in moss with old oaks and crystal clear water. I kept expecting to see Ents and hobbits on the shore. All in all, the single best boating day of my life, and an incredible finale to a great trip paddling through California.

Chamberlain's section, North Fork American

Today the rain started in earnest. Honestly, except for the license plates I could have sworn we were in the Willamette Valley in February. Colfax, where Justin's parent's house was located, is about 5 minutes from the takeout road for the Chamberlain's section of the North Fork American River - a nice class 3/4 river with amazing scenery. On this day, the rain turned the usually grey granite black, making for some nice photo opps.



Andy with a huge boof on the final part of Stairstep.

Two creeks from one putin and takeout

From our base at Justin's parents house in Colfax, we drove north on 49 to Downieville - a cute little town in the mountains with an insanse amount of whitewater all around it. Our goal was two tributaries of the North Fork of the Yuba - Pauley Creek and Lavezolla Creek. The unique thing about these two creeks was that they shared the same putin and takeout. We dropped a car at the takeout and drove up a ridge about 3 miles. We started our day with Pauley by hiking to the right off of the ridge from where we parked. Pauley's character consisted of micro-gorges with fine pool-drop ledges and incredible scenery. The drizzle reminded me of Oregon, but the geology was definitely Sierra.

About to drop into the first micro-gorge on Pauley.


Justin on a fun ledge. The scenery and water quality on Pauley was incredible.

Justin on one of the largest drops on Pauley.


And me below the same drop.


Andy in a scenic spot.

Justin on another ledge on Pauley.

Pauley had some classic rapids.



After running Pauley Creek, we chilled out for a bit, then decided to finish off the day in fine form by running Lavezolla Creek. Driving up to the same putin, we hiked off the left side of the ridge this time to run Lavezolla. I proceeded to get myself nicely pinned horizontally early in the run due to some communication issues. Lavezolla was a lot more continuous and manky-boulder-gardeny, which appealed to our mid-atlantic boater sensibilities.

Ducking a log early in the run on Lavezolla

Turquoise water....kinda like the Potomac. Or...maybe not quite like the Potomac.

Portaging the gnar in the rain.

Boofing is fun

All in all, probably one of the top-ten boating days of my life to date. Two creeks, from the same putin and takeout, both class IV-IV+, with totally different characters. Good times.

Yosemite valley float on the Merced River

With the main Kern running high, and Brush Creek dropping out, we decided to head north to the Merced River and Yosemite National Park. We knew the Merced was high but we were surprised to see it completely washed out - the class IV section had turned to big water class II. Not so with the upper Merced dropping out of the park - some of the gnarliest whitewater I've ever seen. It doesn't look like it, but we thought it was class 6 unrunnable for several miles.
Justin says it's good to go


I'd never been to Yosemite, so Justin and Andy (who had both been there many times) were stoked for me to see it). Traffic was bad in the valley, so we decided to risk (although the risk was imaginary it turns out) getting caught by the Park police and float the Merced through the valley, with the idea being that we could see the incredible scenery minus the tourists. It was one of the coolest floats I have ever done, and with no whitewater!

The views of Yosemite Falls were unbelieveable.



Our stress level was pretty high, as you can tell.
Half Dome was amazing.

As were the views of El Capitan. We thought we could make out climbers way way up the face, which apparently takes about 4 days to ascend.

Incredible views as we climbed up and out of the Valley.

Brush Creek 5/19/08

Brush Creek, in the Kern River drainage northeast of Los Angeles, was the start of our 2008 paddling trip to California. After a day of ocean surfing at La Jolla, Andy and I drove north to meet Justin. After a great greasyspoon breakfast at the whitewater cafe in Kernville, we headed to the putin for Brush Creek - at a helipad.

View into the crux section of Brush Creek from the road to the putin.


It was probably in the mid 90's as we walked down the steep trail to the putin.


Not too far below the putin, we got to the first waterfall - a nice 12 footer.
Justin describing the line.


Basically, the routine on Brush was run a nice ledge, eddy out in the small pool below, scout next drop by scrambling around on slick granite, run next drop, repeat.


Andy and I scouting the biggest drop on the run - a slide into a 15 foot drop with a nice autoboof.




Justin making the ferry to river right to avoid the shallow left side of the 15 footer.


Andy displaying some improv skills on the seal launch around the Crack rapid.


Justin on one of the last good drops before the creek turned manky.


After our run on Brush, we considered another lap but decided to head down and run the Limestone section of the Kern, which was running ~4X higher than Justin had ever seen it. He fired up Limestone (solid class V at that flow) and we all enjoyed the fun big water of the rest of the run.