California and Oregon Rafting

Eric finally introduced himself to the Tuolumne River on Saturday at 3400 cfs. After his inagural year of boating including classics such as the North Fork American, Cataract Canyon, and the Crazy Klamath he was able to do his first AB on the mighty Tuolumne. His weekend of fun included a pit stop at the Iron Door, riding on the bow of Vlad’s raft, and attempting to eat the entire lunch.

We asked Vlad about his day in the paddle boat with Eric, and his reply was “he is like crazy river otter.” We are now planning his second day of guide school for sometime in May.

On April 13-16, Brian Baker and myself nearly completed what is arguably the first raft descent of sespe Creek in Ventura County. In 1996 I had kayaked the 33 mile stretch in 2 1/2 days with fellow kayaker Mark Gaines. Since then I had always wanted to return to do a raft descent. With record rains this winter it was a time to jump on it before the flow dropped too low.

The first 14 miles are mostly Class 3 wit an occasional 4 thrown in. At about the 15 mile mark the canyon turns south and the bottom drops out. As the canyon walls begin to steepen and rise so does the level of difficulty. We ran several Class 4-5 drops and an excelent long boulder garden with steep drops sread out along it’s length. There are so many great drops that they start to blend together and are only seperated by an occasional long pool with vertical walls rising hundreds of feet on each side. We spent the good part of 2 1/2 days in the steepest section of the canyon and on the last day spent nearly 8 hours covering only 3 miles. The last 6 miles contain some of the largest boulders I have ever seen anywhere. The boulders are literaly the size of 2 story houses and portaging around and over them with a raft is no easy undertaking.

We had a SOTAR Elite 10′ SB raft and even a small boat like the SOTAR was a major workout to portage. By 4pm on the 16th we still had 3miles to go till the take out. We had about 100 yards of a major boulder portage till we reached easier paddling. At this point we decided to ditch the boat and hike out before dark and return the following week to finish the run. As I write this we still have not finished the last 3 miles but there is a storm expectesd this weekend and we are crossing our fingers for a little extra flow from it. Sespe is not to be taken lightly. Go prepared to spend at least 3 nights in the canyon and it is helpful to have rock climbing skills. Be safe.

It is time to start running the Tuolumne. The road is now open, the flow is perfect, and the wildflowers are going crazy. We did a trip last weekend at the end of our guide school at around 3,000 cfs and had a great time. The Clavey River was adding about 1500 cfs. Few river trips are better than the Tuolumne like this.

The road to Meral’s Pool is now open, but please be kind to the road. There were slides on other parts of the Lumsden Road this winter which have closed it past Meral’s Pool. If the road is wet, please drive carefully up and down the road is it has been steadily deteriorating over the past five years.

About the same time we were on the Tuolumne, we heard reports of the South Fork of the American hitting 11,000 cfs and the North Fork of the American hitting 30,000 cfs! The North Fork of the American is now down to the fun 2,000 cfs range. With this snowpack, we are going to have a great spring on the Tuolumne and North Fork.