On Thursday July 24th Damon and I ran the N. Fork past the old diversion dam. The river was re-diverted to its original route through the American River Canyon.
Park on the Cool side of the confluence, just past the hwy 49 bridge, and start hiking upstream on the south side of the Middle Fork about 1/2 mile. If you park around 4pm you'll put-in just in time to ride the flow release out of Oxbow Reservoir that usually brings the cfs from 250ish to 950ish.
It's a nice float with a few winding turns until right above the confluence where boulders split the river into three main chutes, creating solid class III white-water tubing fun. We stayed to the right where the greatest drops were, but the left looked real fun too. The current dropped us quickly to the left, then hard right, into and down Bank Rock (possible name for this fun chute).
I'm thinking about naming this section Pinball Wizzard. Let me know what you think after you try it.
Once the N. Fork adds to the flow the river swings right, then left into Slip-n-Slide, a large wash-over boulder on river right. I made no attempt to avoid it, and flipped over. Damon was ahead and was 98% bayo'd but saved it.
Many more turns and a few small rapids later you reach 2 brutal areas of flat-water.
We got out at the PCWA Pump Station because the new river access gate is apparently closed during the week. We lucked-out because PCWA was having a dinner event down there that night.
At the pump station the river splits and there are 2 short man-made sections. The left has more water and rocks. The right is a small chute with 2 nice waves probably rated II+, but awesome for the tube.
More updates on what lies after this take-out.
Also, we met the President of PARC (Protect American River Canyon) down there. This is a great contact for helping to clean the rivers here. More on that soon, too! |
