FINALLY! Back to normal...

Latest info from California State Parks is a welcoming notice about the Middle Fork American river. No more fires, access road is open and the flow is ramping up at the dam. Good boatable levels will be available for the Middle Fork this weekend!

Scheduled cut-off dates for this river is October 2nd. No word yet for scheduled releases on the South Fork. Odd... usually, by the first week of September, the utilities and water managers have already sent word to our laisons about late summer and fall flows. South Fork American has been flowing though last Sunday there was an abrupt surprise as we all waited for a flow that never came...

Yesterday, several of our representatives testified about the SMUD relicensing on the South Fork river. Hopefully, after today, we'll be given some sort of notice about October flows.

Seems so strange that a reservoir as full as that, experiencing two years of unprecedented high water; that we should even be talking about unpredictable flows for Fall!

W.E.T. River Trips will be ending our season on October 1st (now that the Middle Fork is up and running!)

What do Guides do in their Off Season?

Just in from our "vacationing" field guides... Saul, senior headguide for W.E.T. River Trips is staying in Southern California surfing and boarding near the beaches of San Diego. Here's his account of his beginner surfing days...

"I went body boarding last week and got hammered pretty good... I still have water in my ears and none of the surfers have any idea how to get it out beyond using "swimmers ear", and blowing the ears with a hair dryer set to "Cool". Maybe, I'm not cut out for this type of sport...

The re-occuring thought with body boarding or surfing was how the water just didn't feel clean. Salt aside, the funk felt like surfing the Upper Klamath in late August. Also, I know wiping out in Freight Train (Cal Salmon) sucks, but it still felt safer than wiping out on an ocean wave, and having the surfboard and you getting recycled in the washout. Maybe I'm just too used to the rounded river rocks and rubber rafts. Oh and another thing, waiting for a wave.... why don't you just drive up to a wave, jump on your board and surf. Why wait? Surprisingly, its not a bro fest..."
Saul "The Man"

2006 California Rafting ends Sept 30th!

Oooh la la! Time to put the rafts away until next year! What a great year it was, too... we have never had so many people on our trips ever in the history of W.E.T. River Trips. Our guests came from all walks of life... from high tech geekville to jocks galore, we had men, women, children, teens, grandparents, corporate groups and everything in between. The great thing though was that no matter who you were, where you came from, the color of your skin, your religion or non-religion, your sexual orientation, your political party designation, groovers, hippies, yuppies and just plain ol' folks... we enjoyed them all!

Upcoming fall trips will be mostly on the South Fork American and there are several outfitters who will be pumping out trips in October. For us, we are taking a well-deserved break after Sept 30th as we watch our guide staff take off for West Virginia's Gauley season, ski patrol in the Sierras, Costa Rica rafting, back to school and other seasonal winter jobs. I am going on a hiatus to recuperate from the dry droll of paperwork. Lots of government reports and documents will be processed as we end our rafting season in California.

Bookmark our website or this blog page for upcoming information on California rafting and California whitewater rafting. Pray for lots of snow (well... maybe, not as much as last year!) in the Sierra Nevada mountains. 2007 rafting season will be here before you know it!