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.