James Marshall’s discovery of gold in California was actually an accident (how lucky). He stumbled upon a gold nugget on January 24, 1948, while building a sawmill in Coloma for John Sutter. When the actual mill was completed, they diverted water out of the South Fork of the American into a ditch (called a tailrace), so that water would continually flow through the mill. The water brought minerals and sediments along with it, and the heaviest mineral (aka gold), was left in the tailrace.

When Marshall found the gold, he knew immediately what it was, but he and Sutter did a bunch of tests to confirm. They tried to keep quiet about it, however word spread quickly that there was gold in the American River. Local rumors turned into national newspaper articles and by 1949, hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children had made their way to California to try their luck at prospecting.  The South Fork and Middle Fork Valleys were significantly more populated than they are today, with estimates of well over 10,000 people living in each area. A few folks struck it rich, but most, including James Marshall, were no wealthier in the end.

Numerous artifacts and remnants of the Gold Rush can be seen on all three forks of the American River. The most obvious is the Marshall Gold Discovery Park and the most fun is Tunnel Chute rapid on the Middle Fork of the American. From far above the river, viewers can make out a large horseshoe bend where the river once meandered. The miners very creatively diverted the water into a chute and chipped and blasted through a cliff where. Today, the water plunges through the chute and calms down in the tunnel. The rapid really should be named Chute Tunnel, but that doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well.

Now when you come rafting on the South Fork or the Middle Fork of the American, you can show off to your raft mates and fill them in on a very important piece of California (and US) history.

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www.global-mindshift.org

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I decided to take Scott A’s advice and drive about an hour north-east to the next watershed north of the American: the Rubicon. We parked on Elicott Bridge on Eleven Pines Road, and hiked up the north side of the river. It was an awesome place to spend the day exploring. The trail takes you up on a ridge overlooking the river canyon for the first two miles, than drops back down into the canyon to some great swimming holes right where the South Fork of the Rubicon comes in. Time permitting, you can even cross the Rubicon at that point and hike up the South Fork a ways, through lush vegetation and past some small waterfalls. The canyon is at a higher elevation than the South Fork of the American River, and so is much greener and deeply-incised; much more like the Middle Fork of the American. But unlike the Middle Fork, the Rubicon has cut a narrower channel into the rocks, creating dramatic sheer walls and some really interesting rock formations. Hiking along, you get the feeling that you are constantly discovering a new “secret” spot. The water is also a beautiful greenish turquoise, somehow a brighter color than the other Sierra Nevada rivers.

So if a rafting trip on the North, Middle or South Forks of the American River is just one of many days you’ll be spending in the Northern Sierra Nevadas, consider a day of hiking and swimming on the Rubicon. It’s beautiful, an easy hike, and not very crowded. To get there, take highway 193 off of highway 49, going east towards Georgetown. Once in Georgetown, turn left onto Wentworth Springs Rd (also Main St) and drive for about 22 miles before turning left again on Eleven Pines Rd, which takes you down to the river. There is a sign before Eleven Pines Rd that has an arrow pointing left to direct cars towards Hell Hole Reservoir.

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Either way, I thought that there couldn’t be a better community of boaters with which to share my discoveries than those of you out there who read this blog.  I managed to completely re-stock my long-underwear and capilene wardrobe (the majority of my old items looking the part of typical raft guide garments: thin, torn, and overall of questionable effectiveness,) for under $150 bucks! The stuff just came in the mail a few days ago (which is in and of itself a whole reason to go online shopping…packages are exciting,) and everything fits and is cute. (Guys ignore the last descriptive.)

The discovery I made was this: there are great deals to be had from really quality manufacturers on online outlet sites. Some of you who are more internet savvy than me may have already known this. But for those of you who didn’t, here are the links to two of my favorite new “stores.”:

www.backcountryoutlet.com

www.steepandcheap.com

Back Country Outlet has a really wide variety of gear and outdoor clothing, whereas Steep and Cheap advertises one deal per day, and usually sells out of items really fast. For those of you planning on coming rafting in Spring, these are some great places to stock up on layering items, but they are great sites for other outdoor gear as well. Enjoy!

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As if on cue, his three kids ran by right as I said that, soaking wet from their latest jump in to the water. He had two boys, thirteen and eleven, and a little girl of ten named Katie. She paused to look up and smile at us before passing by, so much more confident and exhuberant than in the morning. I told her father that getting to share the river with kids like her is a big part of what makes the South Fork so fun for me.

Just a few hours before, Katie – so energetic and excited at lunch – had been in tears, saying over and over again “I don’t want to go! I’m scared.” When the bus pulled up to take us all up to Chile Bar put-in that morning, she still had not made up her mind about whether or not to go. Finally her dad convinced her to give it a try. I watched from a distance as he leaned down next to her, giving encouragement for a minute before she finally gave a brave, tear-stained nod, and started walking towards the bus.

At put-in she still looked nervous. I told her family that they would be with me in my boat that day, and then looked at her and said “I’m really glad you’re coming along- you can help me guide in the back of the boat.” “Do I have to paddle?” she asked. “No, you can just hold on whenever you want to. But you should try and paddle sometimes because I think you’ll really like it.”

Through the first rapid she clutched tightly onto the grab handles, leaning far into the boat and turning her head away from the waves. But at the end of it she turned to me and said, “That wasn’t so bad!” “Might even have been a little bit fun, huh?” I replied. During the next few rapids she got progressively braver, even starting out the rapids with her paddle in the water for a few strokes before defaulting back to those grab handles and white knuckles. And each time we made it through another one her smile got a little bit broader.

Pretty soon she started opening up a little bit, giving me lengthy answers to questions I asked about school, her brothers, and what her favorite event was on swim team. (I told her that I, too, had been a swimmer, and I hated always getting stuck with distance freestyle.) She even started asking me a few questions of her own. Some were about the ducks we saw on the side of the river, some about why I made certain commands.

When we had gotten through the last Class III rapid I told her, “OK, you’re up! I’m not guiding anymore.” She looked at me wide-eyed, and asked “But what should I say?” “Whatever you think you should say,” I replied. Seeing that this still wasn’t enough information for her, I said, “OK, where do you think we should go right now?” She pointed directly downstream from our boat, to a slot between two islands. “Great…soooo…what should you say?” She gave me one last sideways glance as if to reply “Well alright… but I’m not so sure this is a good idea,” and then very quietly said “Forward.”

No one moved, because no one had heard her. I leaned down and whispered that she would have to be a little louder than that. And then it happened. She finally burst through her fears and timidity and yelled, at the very top of her lungs, “Forward!!!!” When everyone in the boat started paddling she broke into a huge grin, and looked proudly at me with an “I did it!” gleam in her eyes. I confirmed her success with a heartfelt, “Good job!”

By the time we got to lunch she had completely changed personalities, loving every second that she got to be in charge of the boat and asking me if she could jump out and swim the rest of the way to lunch. It was so great to see, and I knew that the day had been an incredibly special one for her; something she could be proud of and would probably remember for a long time.

When we were getting back into the boats after lunch, Katie’s dad temporarily sat in her seat in the boat to rest while he put his life jacket on. “Daa-ad! That’s my seat.,” she protested. “I get to sit next to Robyn!” It was adorable, and I was so touched to have been such an important part in this girl’s adventure. And I thought to myself, “Yup, I definitely love this river.” Because although challenging whitewater is an incredible experience itself, there is no room on those rivers for a ten year old child to discover that she’s perhaps a little tougher than she thought she was, or for holding on for as long as she needs to before she’s ready to paddle. The South Fork lets you take your time, and gives me the chance every once in a while to connect with a special kid, to do a little bit more in the day than navigate through the rapids. I think I’d trade a few Class IV river days for the huge, heartfelt good-bye hug that Katie gave me at the end of the day, and the sincere “Thank you” I recieved from her father.

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As a guide, it’s incredibly rewarding and fun to see so many different types of whitewater and scenery, and to be challenged in so many various ways. There is, however, one small, oft-heard complaint: all that driving.

A famous folk singer, Greg Brown, says in one of his performances that all folk singers are required to, at some point in the evening, request a “little more guitar in the monitor.” He jokes that he doesn’t actually need more guitar in the monitor, but is just fulfilling his contractual duties as a folk singer in asking for it.

The driving complaint within the All Outdoors guiding community sometimes takes on a role similar to that of the guitar in the monitor request that Greg Brown was talking about. To river guides, it’s akin to a few farmers standing around saying, “That’s a mighty wind we’re having. Good storms prob’bly brewin’.” Except we’re standing around at the Tuolumne warehouse saying, “The Kaweah was fun but man, that’s a long drive,” which is answered with, “Yeah the North Stan was great, but I definitely had to pull over a few times for a nap on the way here.”

And of course, wanting to be a part of the group, I nod in agreement and give thanks to whomever it was that I got a ride from on the latest leg of our California tour.

We even have a name for most of the driving we do: The 49 Shuffle, so-called because most of the rivers All Outdoors runs are located somewhere along the Highway 49 corridor of the Sierra Nevada foothills. (Sans the Cal Salmon and the Kaweah.)

But I have a secret. At the risk of falling short of fullfulling my contractual duties as an All Outdoors guide, I have to admit that there are times when I actually love all that driving.

Why? Well, because California is an amazing state. Beautiful, changing, dramatic, full of different and wonderful stories. And the rivers are its veins, the lifelines that support all those varied people and striking scenery. To drive down a windy road away from one river, past the reservoir into which it flows, north through the lower valley farmlands it feeds (the scent of sweet citris wafting in through your vents), then up again through rolling hills and grazing cows, past another reservoir, and finally up through National Forest land and into the next watershed; is an awe-inspiring look at the bigger picture and inter-connectedness of the many beautiful pieces that make up California.

The last long drive I was on, (alluded to in the above paragraph), was from the Kaweah River, which flows down the western slopes of the Southern Sierra, to the Tuolumne, which flows out of Yosemite towards Don Pedro Reservoir. To the amusement and entertainment of my driving companion, Drew, I took a ridiculous amount of pictures out the window of his Subaru, trying to capture every different phase and pretty oak-studded hillside we passed. (He even offered a bit of advice at one point, saying “Perhaps you should focus on quality, Robyn, and not quantity.”)

Either way, the pictures spread throughout and below this ramble of mine are the shots I ended up with that day. They begin in the flat farmlands of the Central Valley, near Merced, and proceed through Coulterville into the Sierra Nevada foothills via road J16. The lake pictures you see are from Los Melones Reservoir (a sad place for any older river folk who knew and loved the Main Fork of the Stanislaus River before it was drowned), and the last pictures are from the point at which we entered Stanislaus National Forest on Highway 132 and intersected Highway 120 going east towards Yosemite.

I highly recommend that route for anyone else ever traveling between those two rivers. Take your time, soak it in, and appreciate this amazing state we live in!

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That’s all. Short and sweet. Comments anyone?Â

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So, I stuck by my belief that a good idea is wasted if you can’t steal it, and am now sharing my favorite responses from that thread with all of you. [I picked my own favorites and shortened a few of them, so if you would like to see the whole thing, go to: http://www.boof.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1318] Here they are:

“No matter what else is happening in life, bills, job, personal strife, whatever; when you’re on the water, none of it matters other than you and the river and the crew your out with. I always feel like I’m away from it even if there is a highway right next to the run. I made a rule after I gave up commercial rafting that when I’m on the water, all I allow in my mind is what is happening then and there. It’s the thing I love most about boating.

………..

At the risk of sounding cliché, I love the sense of freedom. It’s you, the river, and your crew. Decisions are yours and yours alone. When your gut says go, it’s time to go. When your gut says portage, it’s time to start walking. There is no chair to dictate what can be ridden. No ski patrol to say something is unstable. At any given moment it is only you, the water, and your most recent decision.

………..

For me, it’s being out in God’s Great Outdoor Cathedral.
Whether it’s moving or flat water actually.
I kinda agree with just about all the posts.
When your running a hard drop [not that I've ran that many hard drops in my 30+ years of paddling] your mind erases all outside and conflicting distractions. You become purely focused on the river and what’s ahead.
It’s worship.

………..

I think that for me – boating strips away all of the unimportant BS that I carry around on a regular basis. Getting completely outside of any human system -communing with raw, powerful, uncut, elemental forces like WATER and ROCK …- being left to rely 100% on your own intelligence, strength, and skill – well it’s just about the most liberating, beatiful thing that can happen to a person.
Rivers have transformed me fundamentally – balanced my life – given me a glimpse of the most vital aspects of living, and generally reinforced my belief that human nature ain’t all bad.
The guys I paddle with – well they are my best friends.
Gad damn I frikkin love rivers…

………..

I really enjoy the people I meet on the water. I’ve been involved in many other sports and I’ve found that Kayakers are a special group. The nature of the sport makes us rely on each other to lead us down new rivers or rescue us from a bad swim. We’ve all been there and it makes for a special camaraderie.”

………..

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And not to exempt myself from this process… my favorite thing about boating is:

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The connections forged with the water, and with your companions who are on it with you. It is a nearly indescribable feeling, to be in that zone where things slow down and you finally find yourself in beat with the rhythm of the river, where you aren’t struggling against a current but rather being faithfully led by just the right one. And then at the end of the rapid, there they are- the only other people in the world who understand what you’re feeling, and who love it just as much- smiling at you and telling you to hurry up…there’s good Mexican food and cold drinks waiting in town.

Even more important, those companions would smile all the same had you flipped in that rapid. (Well maybe after picking up a few swimmers and helping you flip your boat back over.) As someone on the boof forum had mentioned, it’s that real dependence on each other that makes the bond so special.

So anyway, that’s my attempt to put into words one of my favorite things in the world. Harder to do than one would think.

On that note, I’d love it if people commented on this blog with their own version or thoughts of their favorite thing about boating. Everyone’s got a different perspective to bring to the table, and I can’t think of a better thing to talk about. Good work to whatever boof member first thought of this!

Â

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Unbelievable power and beauty… surfers face a 40 foot drop after paddling over the lip of this wave, dubbed the most inticing and dangerous of big wave rides.

A River To Challenge It?

I first thought of this possibility while reading about what makes Mavericks so unique. (For those who have not yet heard of Mavericks, it is one of the worlds biggest waves, appearing only for short intervals of time off the Northern California coast near Half Moon Bay.)

During a period of three months in late winter, the world’s top big wave surfers are essentially on call. When they get the news that the wave is going, they have 24 hours to arrive in Half Moon Bay for the annual competition. (For more information and coverage on the event, see Mavericks: The Wave Beyond.)

It seems then, that Mavericks distinguishes itself in three ways:

1. Exceptional talent and experience needed to survive.
2. A very short and somewhat unpredictable time frame in which it appears, and finally,
3. An extremely exhilerating and beautiful ride.

As a private boater (when not guiding), this was all starting to sound vaguely familiar. I couldn’t help but think of the numerous times I’ve heard friends of mine having conversations about the latest flows or spill-over being reported for some rarely-seen river, hoping that it will become either high or low enough to run in the next few days and referring to past runs as “epic.”

The question, then, is not whether a Mavericks river exists, but rather which run deserves the title.

To answer this question, I did copious amounts of research (read a few online boater forums and outside magazine articles) and conducted an informal survey (called a few friends up and asked their opinion). After some critical thought, I decided to break things down into three categories:

1. The Mavericks of California Creeks
2. The Mavericks of California Rivers, and
3. One International River To Rule Them All

Why? Well, the California deal is just to stay local and because most of us can’t afford to go off to different countries all the time. And you know, Cali pride. I split the results up into Creek and River categories because as much as I love them, rafts are a little too big for some of the more “sick” creeks that those crazy kayakers “bomb” down, but one of those creeks parallels Mavericks so well that I would have felt a bad journalist (self-appointed) had I failed to mention it.

OK so finally on to my conclusions:

The Mavericks of California Creekin’: Upper Cherry Creek

Who knew that there was even more whitewater up there? Above the Cherry Creek run many of us have rafted in to the Main Tuolumne, there exists yet another set of beautiful and extremely challenging Class V+ rapids. Just like Mavericks, there is a short time period in which kayakers can run this creek. Hopeful boaters must be on-call during its season (late summer) waiting for the perfect water level, which will often only last a few days. Levels are dependent on snowmelt and are often too high except for a few short days at a time when the temperature drops. Once predictions for low enough flows are made, kayakers begin their 10.5 mile hike in to put in.

In terms of the skill set required to run these rapids, the number of kayakers capable of it is low. Entrance is limited to veteran boaters with both a lot of Class V and creeking experience. At the heart of the run is a section called “Cherry Bomb Gorge. A kayaker’s decision to enter and run this canyon is similar to a surfer’s decision to paddle onto the face of a wave: totally committing. The walls are vertical, giving no option but to paddle the whole way through (or swim if you’re less fortunate.) Drops are as high as 30 feet in some places, and rapids are almost continuous Class V+.
As if there weren’t already enough parallels to Mavericks, Upper Cherry Creek has been getting more and more press lately in the boating community. The amount of video and boats up there this last year has actually sparked debate about the value of solitude in such a run.

For more information/articles about Upper Cherry Creek, follow any of the below links:
http://www.justfluid.com/
http://www.boof.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2046
The Seven Rivers Expedition Blog

The Mavericks of California Rivers: The Rubicon

One for us rafting fools! This run has been described on the California Creeks website as having “more exhilarating whitewater per kilometer than perhaps any other stream in California.” So the exhileration factor is already spelled out for us, putting the Rubicon in good contention for Mavericks standing. But as is so eloquently explained above, there are a few more standards that must be met.

First, there is the question of timing. Is the Rubicon as last-minute and unpredicatable as Mavericks? To answer this I just refer to a post on the notes page at Dreamflows (a flow-reporting website):

Hell Hole Reservoir on the Rubicon is close to spilling. The reservoir storage is 205,240 AF, rising slowly, while the maximum capacity of the reservoir is 207,600 AF. In other words, if/when the reservoir storage reaches 207,600 AF, Hell Hole will spill and the Rubicon will have more water in it. How much more water depends, naturally, on the extent of the spill. Dreamflows projects the storage change trend three days into the future, trying to predict whether Hell Hole will spill, and currently doesn’t think it will. Ralston Powerhouse folks are doing everything they can to stop spill, and they don’t think it will spill, but they don’t have enough data to know for sure one way or the other. So, it seems spill is possible but unlikely, but if it does occur it’ll be in several days’ time and probably won’t last long.

Anyone follow all of that? (It’s especially fun to read really fast.) Anyway point being that the flow window can be very small. A few people attempt a run in early season on regular years when there is enough snowmelt in the channel, but this is a challenging feat because the roads to put-in are still snowed in. Most people therefore wait until a high water year (last year was the first in seven years!) and then are dependent on those pesky spillover flows that the above Dreamflows excerpt is rambling on about. So to make a long story short, the Rubicon may even be more of a timing monster than Mavericks!

So what else? We still have to compare the Rubicon’s skill-requirements for a relatively safe and enjoyable time. In terms of classification, the Rubicon is described as Class V- below 1000 cfs and solid V up until 2000 cfs, after which it becomes unrunnable. Although not as committing of a gorge as Upper Cherry Creek, a Class five rating definitely trims down the number of people capable of guiding it.

For more information on the Rubicon:
http://www.cacreeks.com/rubicon.htm
http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.asp?trailid=CGS041-100

One International River To Rule Them All: The Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet

There have been several books written about this place, and quite a bit of controversy surrounding one of the expeditions that attempted to run the river. Unlike Mavericks, this river has never been “conquered” in its entirety. (I hate to use that word.) Only sections of it have been successfully completed, and several lives have been lost in the numerous journeys into the canyon.

Just as Mavericks is for many surfers much more than just a wave, The Tsangpo is to boaters much more than just a river. There is a large element of the spiritual and mythical surrounding the place. This is due in part to the fact that the Tsango gathers its water and power from the heights of the Himilayas and forges a canyon “three times deeper and eight times steeper than the Grand Canyon.” -NPR The rivers origins and grandeur give the Tsangpo an almost untouchable and immortal character, and the gorge is actually considered sacred to Budhists. Adding to this are speculations that Shangri-La can be found in the depths of the lower gorge.

Timing on this river is incredibly important, as it is only runnable in its lowest stages, and then only by a very select group of talented and wise boaters. Only one kayaking expedition was able to get as far as the confluence with the Po Tsangpo, and an earlier expedition that attempted the gorge in flood stage lost a member to the river.

With all the risk involved, some would call those who try for the Tsangpo Gorge insane, just as some would call big-wave surfers insane.

But they are missing something important.

The thing that most ties the Tsangpo to Mavericks, and even the Rubicon and Upper Cherry Creek in a smaller way, is not found on the list of standards I’ve been using throughout this article. It is instead in the awe and respect these waters engender in all who hear of or see their incredible force and beauty. It is the fact that part of what makes these places so beautiful is that they are, to most, untouchable; that nature has reserved some of her more wonderful moments and places for those who best understand her.

I’m not near the level of boater to run any of the rivers I’ve talked about here, but I know why it is that these surfers and kayakers are drawn to what they do. It is in those moments when you can stop trying… those moments when you’re so completely a part of the water that everything just flows, and you then have the time to look around you and realize where you are… Shangri-La or no, it is always worth it.

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]]> http://blog.aorafting.com/mavericks-surfing-is-there-a-whitewater-rafting-equivalent/feed/ 0 http://blog.aorafting.com/rafting-indoors/ http://blog.aorafting.com/rafting-indoors/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2006 23:04:44 +0000 Robyn Suddeth http://blog.aorafting.com/rafting-indoors/ It’s finally here folks!

For a long time now we’ve been able to enjoy sports such as football and soccer using only our hands, a controller and a television. They even brought snowboarding and skiing into the comfort of our living-rooms.

And now… we finally have a whitewater rafting video game!!

(Check out the article: Whitewater Rafting Comes to PS2) I was really getting tired of having to go outside for this activity, so I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.

I know I’m being a little harsh. It’s not as though I’ve never had fun playing video games, and I am actually pretty impressed that rafting draws enough interest that programmers even thought such a video game would be lucrative. Plus, I sometimes play the new Lego Starwars game with one of the kids I nanny for and am starting to get dangerous with a light saber. I think I may have a natural talent.

Perhaps I should try and get sponsored by Play Station and quit this whole guiding thing?

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