The All-Outdoors Whitewater Rafting California River Blog

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)

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AO’s very own Mark Reiner is bringing the Boulder Adventure Film Festival to our backyard this weekend. On May 17th he’ll show a selection of some of the festival’s award-winning films at Placerville’s Cozmic Cafe. Check out the festival’s website to see images from what look like some seriously remarkable films.

For directions to the venue, see Cozmic Cafe’s website.

The show will start at 7pm and I have no idea how long it will last so just go and find out! Tickets are 10 bucks.

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On May 1st, the long dormant volcano Chaiten erupted 40 miles from Futaleufu.  We run river trips on the Futaleufu River every winter so we want to let our community know what has happened to this beautiful and sleepy town.

Since the first eruption on May 1st, Chaiten has erupted two more times, covering neighboring regions with 15 inches of ash.  The photographs we’ve seen look like a snowy winter evening–not the green South American landscape we know and love.  Many people in the area have been forced to evacuate, but others are trying to stay behind to care for livestock and property.

One of our guides works with a kayaking school based in the area and she told us that it has started collecting aid through an organization called the Futaleufu Relief Fund.  Run by the Rane family, this fund will distribute badly need aid like water filters, first aid, and dust masks.  The group is also helping clean up destroyed property, dead livestock, and the many tons of ash.  All funds collected will go directly towards rebuilding this incredible town and river valley.

All-Outdoors has close ties with the Futaleufu River, and we are establishing contact with the families we know and love in the area.  We will be focusing our attention in that direction and will keep you updated.  If you would like to contribute to the Rane family’s efforts we know they–and the people devestated by this unexpected natural disaster–will be grateful.  You can email them at futarelief@gmail.com for more information.

Above: The road out of Futaleufu…

Left: Ash covers the area’s simple homes…

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The Tuolumne River (aka “The T”), is one of California’s classic Class IV Sierra runs with big granite boulders, a deep, tree-lined canyon, and exciting pool-drop style rapids. Clavey Falls, the T’s biggest rapid, is famous world-wide and is located at the majestic confluence of the Clavey and Tuolumne Rivers. Side hikes to waterfalls and swimming holes make an overnight trip on the Tuolumne the perfect summer vacation. We filmed a video last summer on one of our 2-day trips:

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The South Fork of the American River is the most popular white water rafting run in California for many great reasons. It’s an ideal introduction to whitewater rafting, it’s great for all types of groups (family trips, corporate groups, bachelor(ette) parties), it flows throughout the entire summer, and it’s only an hour from Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. Last summer we filmed a short video with entertaining and informative footage of a South Fork American River rafting trip:

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As of a couple weeks ago, spring officially arrived–although the blooming poppies on the upper  South Fork of the American River, the green hills outside our River office, and frankly the sneezing and coughing from the clouds of petals, pollen and dust swirling with every breeze are as good a sign as anything.

It’s already over but it was a full winter indeed at All-Outdoors:  We had three babies born, traveled to Germany, Costa Rica, Argentina and Chile,  (uh, hello, is there a reason that I wasn’t one of the traveling people? I have a new passport and everything!) . . . . seven of us worked across the U.S. making it snow for holiday displays……. people competively skiied in Tahoe, dug themselves out of snow drifts, and gave snow mobile tours…..some of us studied watershed management, others Persian literature….trees were planted and fences built at our River Center, we substitute taught, worked on websites, welded, joined political campaigns (go democracy!), refurbished trailors, hunted for mushrooms and–surprize surprize–rafted California Rivers.

The sun’s out, but don’t pack up your beenies and wool socks quite yet–it’s high time to start thinking about some spring rafting. The season has begun!

(Above: The North Fork of the American River runs only in spring time so start planning now.  Check out our brand-new North Fork Video too!)

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After a brief hiatus, river conservation and advocate group Friends of the River (FOR) is bringing back the California Rivers Festival.

This FREE event is great way to contact other whitewater enthusiasts, meet the Pros, swap gear, and learn about what’s going on in the California whitewater scene in 2008.  Highlights of the event include a swap meet for gear, films and seminars, a raffle and silent auction and a BBQ dinner and live entertainment at the end of the day.

The California Rivers Festival is March 15, 2008.  Drop off for the gear swap meet starts at 8:00 am and the raffle/auction starts at 5pm.  Come for as much or as little as you like!

Location: Waldorf School. 3750 Bannister Road, Fair (more…)

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I went to North Lake Tahoe this weekend to do some snow shoeing and ice skating while my more sophisticated roommates went skiing. It started snowing pretty heavily in the late afternoon yesterday, and I was probably one of the only ones out there on the ice rink getting really excited that the Zamboni (big machine that makes the ice smooth) had to clear about an inch of new snow off the rink about every half hour. The storm kept increasing in intensity as the day wore on, so that when we were driving back from dinner at around 9 pm, we had to stop several times because of a flurry of snow so thick we couldn’t see the road. Again, we were all cheering the storm on. But unlike our skier friends who were just really excited about the next few days of powder, we were all saying “More water in May and June… hooray!!”My level of excitement about this latest storm reached its peak Sunday morning at 8 am, when I looked out the window of our cabin and was greeted by two whole feet of brand new snow! Just like that, overnight, the Sierra snowpack got a HUGE boost. (more…)

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A massive oak tree fell down on the property across the street from the AO River Center in the early January storm. It was well over a hundred years old—might have been growing here in this valley during the Gold Rush. It shaded the old Lotus hotel before it bit the dust, shaded a tiny cabin and storage sheds, provided a home for hundreds of birds, creepy crawlies, and chattering ADD squirrels. It watched silently as Lotus Road turned from a sleepy country road into an increasingly busy thoroughfare. Buggies and old Ford trucks have changed into SUVs and Subarus with Kayaks strapped to the top.

Walking around the gigantic fallen trunks I noticed a remarkable thing—the tree had grown around a huge rusty iron chain. The links are thick as a finger and the wood had literally absorbed it, had just slowly and patiently grown around the invader, making it part of its body. This chain weaves in and out of the wood as though it were nothing but an errant branch, a strange leaf cluster, a patch of metallic lichen. It struck me how incredibly absorbent nature is, how deeply powerful rocks and trees and water remain in the face of humanity’s relentless transgressions. Iron chain didn’t stop that oak, and neither did the boards nailed to its side for an old tree fort. The tattered ropes tangled in its branches are puny reminders of how little the tree cares about the tiny machinations of man. Of course armed with a chain saw or some gasoline and a match, even I could wipe out that tree in a few murderous moments—but the point is that when we’re fairly matched, the tree is mightier than we are, and I think that deserves some respect. It wasn’t the nails or the chain or the traffic brought that tree down—it was the wind. (more…)

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The question on every rafter’s mind right now is how the recent storms will impact the 2008 California rafting season. Our informants living in Tahoe tell us they are snowed in, skiing fresh powder, huddled by their heaters, and watching the snow pile up. Is this great news or what?

Well, yes and no. Frustrating though it may be, the reality is it’s just too soon to predict anything. What we do know is the storms were massive and even record-breaking in some regions. They were so big they took the Sierra snowpack from downright dismal to average for this time of year almost overnight, which is great news. We also know much of the snow had really good water content, which is also good news for rafters. However, the storm season isn’t over, and we don’t know what will happen in the next few months.

Until we can tell you more, enjoy the ski season (you’ll probably see some of us on the slopes if you head up to Tahoe!), and keep hoping for more winter storms!

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