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We uploaded another Northern California rafting video–of the Middle Fork of the American River. With its remote canyon, class IV whitewater, and raftable rock tunnel, the Middle Fork is a great river for one day trips or over nighters if camping is your style (just remember to leave your flat iron at home).
This is a rafting video from the Middle Fork American 2-Day Trip on July 21-22, 2007. The video is a great example of how much fun a 2-day bachelor party rafting trip can be. They were able to get an adrenaline fix on the Class IV rapids during the day (Tunnel Chute was the overall favorite), navigate the Class II rapids on their own in the inflatable kayak, and enjoy a fun evening in camp complete with a campfire and late-night s’mores.
Guides: Ryan Arsenault, Jordan Whitman, Tessa Sibbet, Travis Devoy, Sean.
Videographer: B. Zupo Photography
After over fifteen years of an un-used, bad idea dam site wastefully diverting the American River’s flows through a tiny opening too small for any human use, the tunnel is finally being closed! This means that below the confluence of the North and Middle Forks of the American River, a whole new stretch of beautiful canyon will be open for exploration. It is an incredibly accessible stretch of whitewater too, both in location and in difficulty. The Confluence is right on Highway 49 in between Coloma and Auburn, and the rapids don’t exceed easy Class III (if even that.)
Check out this article in the Auburn Journal for more details: Pump Up the Volume
We’ve talked about it for years, saying what a shame it was that “Bob” and “Joe” have never been on the same trip together, because they’re both pretty neat guys and apparently love rafting almost as much as we do. But the trip just never materialized. Until this year. We finally got it together, and invited all of our most-frequent floaters along on a special river trip and barbeque… our way of saying thanks for rafting with us so
many times and for giving all those fellow enthusiasts a chance to finally meet each other. Some of the guys and gals that joined us on this trip are folks who came rafting 15 to 20 times, just this year! Incredible. Others have come on trips consistently over the past 20 years. Either way, we figured they already were a de facto part of the AO community, so why not welcome them in and celebrate it?
With reports of a huge fire burning dangerously close to Foresthill, only 35% controlled a week after its inception, a few of us boaters have started to wonder… “What effect is this fire going to have on our beloved Middle Fork American River canyon??”
Luckily, there’s good news on that one. The blaze, (officially called the Ralston Fire), has remained upstream, or east, of the rafted portion of the river. It continues to burn in a North-East line, with firefighters hoping to stop its spread before it hits the North Fork of the American River.
Authorities have set the expected containment date at September 18th, so hopefully we can start rafting on the Middle Fork again soon. In the meantime, Goodwin Canyon is a great alternative for intermediate level rafting (Class III-IV) and is actually closer to San Francisco for all those who may be heading up from the Bay Area. (Check out the last post in this blog for some recent pictures of a trip.)
I took the waterproof camera along with me for my last three day trip on the Middle Fork American River. My goal was to capture all the things about that canyon worth experiencing aside from its fun rapids; all those things much thouroughly experienced when you give yourself just a little more time…
It’s true that in one day on the Middle Fork of the American River, you’ll get the thrill of rapids like Tunnel Chute, and enjoy the beauty
of towering canyon walls and crystal clear waters. You may even see a fish jump, or a river otter shyly surface. It will be an incredible day, exhilerating and exciting, and you will most likely go home with that feeling of happy exhaustion that comes after doing something well worth the effort.
There are, however, also a lot of things you will miss.
(more…)
The Middle Fork of the American is truly a classic California river, flowing over 16 miles through a deep, lush, 2000 foot canyon past side creeks, old mining tunnels, and sandy beaches. It is embodied in the thrill of guiding a raft through Tunnel Chute Rapid and yelling “Get Down!” at the very last second; in warm afternoons in Camp 6, drinking lemonade and cooking dinner as the sun sets behind the canyon walls; in morning competitions between boats to see who gets stuck most often on the many rocks that are exposed because the dam upstream has not yet released the day’s water; and finally in the butterflies I still get in my stomach each time I do the jump at Ruck-a-Chucky Falls. For many guides, a 2-day Middle Fork trip is their favorite overnight trip to work. (more…)
About a month ago, when the water was still extremely high and the weather a little bit wetter, Kevin Elardi decided to spend a weekend exploring the Middle Fork American River Canyon during a time of year in which it’s not often seen by many people. He told me it had been a great weekend, and then made the mistake of telling me that he thought he might want to write a blog about his experience. Well, at that point he was pretty much committed. (I can be pretty persistent.)
Kevin was happy to comply, though, and I was excited to see that his story had arrived in my inbox today. It describes the canyon beautifully and the parts about high water are really interesting… made me impatient for trips to start running on that river! (Water levels will be too high until the last week of June.) I’ve copied it down below for everyone else to read. Thanks Kevin for sharing this, and I hope more of you will start to send your own river stories. Enjoy!
Bookmark This!
These are a little bit of tease, because the Middle Fork of the American won’t actually be at low enough flows to run until sometime in July. But just to get you thinking about it and to give everyone something to look forward to after all this exciting high water dies down, here are some of Mark Reiner’s best shots from last year’s season on the Middle Fork. I especially like his 2-day shots. This river has some of the best side hikes, creeks, and campsites of any in California, and Mark did a great job of capturing them.
Helpful Definition Before Reading Further: Oscar = the ammo-box-turned-toilet contraption brought along on Multi-day river trips…
I’m sitting here at a coffee shop on a sunny Sunday morning, searching for any interesting river stories in the recent news. Just a minute ago, I came upon an update from the USDA Forest Service about improvements to river access on the Wild and Scenic Trinity River. (Which, by the way, is another good winter run for anyone looking to get out there before Spring.)
What, you may ask, does this have to do with the Death of Oscar? Not much. Except that in the update the Forest Service proudly describes their state-of-the art composting toilets being installed at the Trinity put-in.
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