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.