The All-Outdoors Whitewater Rafting California River Blog

The cycle of cool-hot-cool-hot weather we’ve had in California lately has kept our wetsuits in rotation a little longer than we expected, wool sweaters out in force, and cloudy skies fooling even veteran guides into forgetting their sunscreen.  As long as we’ve been rafting you’d think we’d know that cloud cover is no substitute for zinc oxide or avobenzene…..

Sunburns aside, one result of this funny weather is a stretched out season on the Kaweah River.  Super hot weather could render this update useless in a week, of course, but right now we think we have a good solid two weeks left.  Southern California rafters! Get a carpool together and head north!   Share gas money, get some snacks, and play 21 questions until you get to Three Rivers.  The Kaweah’s class III and IV whitewater have already given us some epic days–big surfs, tube-stands and even a flip or two.  Your group is sure to make some memories of its own . . . The Kaweah is good for that sort of thing.

Bookmark This!

With the Cherry Creek season already underway (we had training boats out there earlier this week and our first commercial group of the season is the 5th) 2008 has the potential to be one of the best summers in a long while to paddle this remarkable section of the Tuolumne River.

The reason we’ll have a longer season this year starts with a reservoir, a broken turbine, and a utility company….. (more…)

Bookmark This!

Clear out your calendar, pack your bags and buy your ticket for the 2008 American River Music Festival held September 19-21.  This is the festival’s second year, and the line-up looks awesome.

Sing the blues and let it all out to the hard-driving guitar of the David Jacob-Strains Trio or relax to the beautiful harmonies of the Dulcimer Girls.  Other roots artists include Canadian John Wort Hannam, and the celtic-sea-shanty-latin-disco pastiche of The Buccaneers.  Local Placerville musician Jonny Mojo will also take the stage with his blend of bluesy-folksy rock.

One of the things that makes this festival special is that the three-day event includes awesome music, camping under the stars, and rafting on the South Fork of the American with us!  I don’t have any details yet, but rumor has it that festival rafters will get serenaded in the river canyon.  Sounds pretty cool…..

Get more info on the American River Music Festival by visiting the festival website.

Bookmark This!

Cherry Creek  has rolled into action a little earlier than we expected this year and our first trip is scheduled for June 5th.  If you want to get in on the inaugeral run there’s still room so call us up (and figure out how to get the day off).   I can guarantee our guides will be in rare form since this is many of their favorite river–you have to work long and hard to become a Cherry Creek guide and it seems like the season is never long enough for them to get their fill.  First trip of the year!  Happy guides, pristine whitewater, black diamond adventure……..get your shift covered, re-route your phone calls, turn off your Blackberry.  And if you’re not sure you’re ready to take the plunge either call us or peruse our  Cherry Creek FAQ page.

Bookmark This!

The American River Trailfest is an annual event that brings the Coloma-Lotus valley community together for a fun day of BBQ, live music, education, face painting and fundraising for a very cool cause–the creation of a long stretch of protected space in the American River canyon.  This land will be set aside for both nature and recreation–hiking, biking, general wandering around….

This event is open to the public–anyone who enjoys whitewater rafting will learn alot about efforts to protect river canyons and have a great time.  All-Outdoors always donates trips to the silent auction and buys lots of tickets  so I’m sure we’ll be out in force at this year’s festival.  If you have kids they will be totally welcome–face painting, live animal education, games and lots of grass to run around mean there are lots of opportunities for families to enjoy.

Adults can make their way down the winetasting area, bid in the silent auction, and eat BBQ.  Dancing is for everyone!

For more info check out the Trailfest website or contact the American River Conservancy.

Bookmark This!

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may……make hay while the sun shines…..or in this case, before the sunshine melts all the snow in the North Fork American watershed!

Since we’ve had all this unseasonably warm weather we think the North Fork is going to have one last weekend with good flows and it’s coming up!  This class IV river isn’t dam controlled, so it tends to have a rather short season that is completely dependant on Mother Nature.  It’s had a great season so far–we’ve been out there for lots of trips–but it looks like this coming weekend will be it for 2008 and then we’ll pack up our NFA operation for another year.  We still have room on our May 24-5 trips, so if you have time off for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, come up and join us for some high adventure North Fork style.

We have a slideshow and a video of the North Fork so you can get a taste of its emerald water and powerful, class IV hydraulics.  The images are cool–but reality is better, so dig out your sunscreen and get on board.

Bookmark This!

Our sleepy little valley is going to reverbarate with the soulful sounds of another music festival!  Either buy a ticket or get out some earplugs because the Coloma Blues Festival is back for another day of stompin’ guitar licks, screamin’ harmonica, and serious singing.

The headliner this year is none other than Los Lobos!  Earlier in the day Alan Cummings, the Tommy Castro band, and others will warm up the crowd and keep the tunes flowing.

The festival will be held next to the South Fork of the American River in Henningson-Lotus park.  For more info, or to buy tickets online, check out the festival website.

Local accomodations are less than a mile away–check out Camp Lotus or the Lotus Inn .  And it probably goes without saying that if you go to the Blues Festival on Saturday, you’re right in the neighborhood for an American River rafting trip……wash the blues away with some sweet sweet whitewater……

(Above and Right: Alan Cummings and Sista Monica rock the 2007 Blues Fest)

Bookmark This!

As you know by now, water numbers across golden (well, still pretty green actually,) California are perfectly normal this year–which is perfectly lovely news for whitewater sports enthusiasts. 

The story on the Kaweah River, in Southern California, is a little confusing.  If you google water stats for the Kaweah you’ll see numbers that are a little higher than what we reported in our “flow prediction report” a little while back.  Here’s why:  Snow water content in the Kaweah Watershed is at around 120% of normal this year. However, since 2007 was pretty dry, the ground and plant life is prepped to soak up a lot of the run-off this spring.  This means less will flow into the river, which is why we are predicting that this will be a “normal” rather than a “high water” year.

The reason this is still good news for Southern California rafters is that the 2008 season on the Kaweah will be longer than it was last year, when there weren’t very many weekends the river was running at great flows.  We think the river will peak sometime around the Memorial Day Holiday weekend.

If you’ve never rafted the class IV whitewater of the Kaweah River Canyon, check out the video we shot there last summer to give you a taste……office cubicle one day, screamin’ whitewater the next.  Cowboy up!

Bookmark This!

Our official 2008 flow prediction came out on April 10, almost a month ago. We predicted a good California rafting season due to a healthy snowpack left from winter (100% of normal). We also noted that once the snow started to melt the runoff would be good and rivers would flow well. What we did not know at the time is that the month of April would be cool and the snow in the high Sierra would remain relatively in tact and preserved for a later melt. This is good news for California rafting!

(more…)

Bookmark This!

Here’s a cool opportunity if you want to spend more than one day enjoying the Coloma Lotus Valley while the grass is still green, flowers are splashed on the hillsides, and the temperatures are still pretending they won’t get fierce as the Sahara in July…..

I digress.  Here’s the idea: Come up to the Gold Country on the Mother’s Day holiday weekend….  On Saturday the 10th the American River Conservancy is hosting a free guided hike exploring the Serpantine Habitat at Traverse Creek.  Naturalist Robert is going to guide the hike, which is mellow and easy.  (For more info on this event and other cool stuff the Conservancy is up to, visit their website.) Then, the next day,  Raft the South Fork American for an adventerous wrap up of a nature filled weekend.

What to do in between you ask?  What, you want even more to do?  Well ok, if it was me, I’d go wine tasting at a local winery (Venezio, Gold Hill, and David Girard are all really close) after the hike, and then have dinner at Cafe Mahjaic in Lotus.  If you stay at the Lotus Inn, which is right next door to the Cafe, you just could not get any more convenient.  If you feel like camping check out Camp Lotus–they’re about a mile away from Cafe Mahjaic.

Bookmark This!