California whitewater rafting with one of the oldest rafting companies in the Western United States. California rafting on the most popular rivers in the West. Our official company blog...
Our old friend, Bill is a former El Dorado County supervisor now comfortably running the show at his campground on the shores of the South Fork American River. He was one of the early pioneers on the rivers of California, and his passion for this beloved river, South Fork, is unprecedented in the history of conservation in Northern California.
Bill gives us the latest on the flow regime of the South Fork American River near Sacramento, California.
SOUTH FORK FLOW PROJECTIONS JUNE 14 2011
By Bill Center
"It looks like we may avoid any significant periods of flows above 7000 cfs, and possibly even much time above 6000 cfs. The flow pattern we have seen over the past week or so could well hold through June and as long as mid July. At the current melt rate Union Valley will not fill to 260,500 AF until the last week of June. This is the volume (elevation 4868) where they open their spillway gates, putting somewhere between 1000 and 2000 additional cfs down the river. It appears unlikely that Ice House will spill. In the meantime the South Fork at Kyburz appears close to peaking, and flows on it over the next week to ten days will likely drop below 2000cfs. By late June the area of melting snow will have significantly reduced, though there will still be substantial volume above 8000 feet. What all this means is that we are in the middle of a prolonged non-peaky flow regime, and if/when Union Valley spills the South Fork natural flows will have dropped enough to keep the Chili Bar flow from getting much higher than it's been.
What could change this is a couple of things. If we get a week of hot - close to 100 degree - weather, stuff will go off faster and we could get a couple of thousand cfs surge. Also, on a day to day period, SMUD is still peaking White Rock, and will likely continue to, resulting in a spiky Slab Creek reach flow and about a 1500 cfs variation in Chili Bar flows. So we could see flows occasionally jump above 6000 or even approach 7000 if the average flow reaches 5500. Right now the average flow is around 4500. These spikes can be avoided - or selected - by watching the flows and adjusting what time and section you are on the river. They tend to last only a couple of hours at most, and tend to be in the early morning right now, caused by both the diurnal melt pattern and low power demand in the very early morning hours.
We will likely see periodic flows of 3500 cfs well into and possibly even through August, especially on warm week-day afternoons. On the low end, sometime in mid to late July, we will likely see our first drops to around 500 cfs, probably on weekend nights."
This is indeed good news for the general public who loves the South Fork American with the same passion as we do. WET River Trips will pull the plug on any river that is running at dangerous level. But, this news is welcoming as we usually cancel trips above 10,000 cfs on this river.
The weather is hot. The flows are awesome. Come on out for a ride like no other... whitewater rafting in California is the best NOW!
All photos by WET River Trips in Flickr and uploaded by WET River Trips blogging staff. Letter and information by Bill Center and offered for public use for the whitewater rafting industry on South Fork American River in California.
Ahhh, the kids from WET River Trips are at it again. The first commercial trips follow the celebratory Smith trip with the launch of early season rafting trips in Northern California. This weekend on March 6th, the crew will be on commercial river trips on the North Fork American River just three hours from San Francisco and one hour from Sacramento. 2010 Season is here!
The story below just came in from the support crew for the whitewater trip they just did up north. Big Poppah holds the reins on the kids while the infamous guides take their first bite of 2010 whitewater rafting.
What I can't figure out is why they still listen to Wolfe's driving directions. Haven't they learned that the Wolf path is always the most extreme? LOL!
The whitewater team from WET River Trips has pulled off a stellar, early-season Spring Rafting trip in Northern California. We just celebrated the launch of the 2010 Rafting Season on three Forks of the Smith and Cal Salmon River on Class 4 to 5 whitewater in world class wilderness scenery with internationally known river guides on a private, non-commercial rafting trip a couple of weeks ago during Valentine's weekend.
Day 1:
We met and loaded up at the Lotus warehouse at 5 pm. Wolf, Justin, Jon, and Alex H. were ready and had everything laid out for the river trip as I arrived with the Dodge.
As usual, we packed heavy (you never know) with 2 rafts, 1 kayak, and a mountain of camp and personal gear. 5:30 and we were on the road to Jedidiah Smith Redwoods. After years of driving up I-5 to 299 and then to 101, we took the advice of Google Maps, and we went straight up I-5 to Grants Pass to 199 (Redwood Hwy) and back down into California (about 400 miles but less curvy and potentially safer). We pulled into Jedidiah at 2 am with a light rain and found our soon-to-be notorious site #41 as we rigged tarps and tents for a quick bivouac.
On the drive up, we conferred with Heffe currently living in the Pacific Northwest and arranged to meet up in our camp in the morning. I got up fairly early around 7 am and made coffee and breakfast. The crew woke to hot coffee and breakfast burritos to start off the day. As we geared up for the North Smith, Heffe arrived shortly after, and we packed the Dodge as we prepped for the North Fork.
Heading out, the rain stopped, and we were pleased to see partially sunny skies and drying roads for the shuttle in to the remote drainage of the North Fork Smith River. The drive in consisted of traversing a landscape that changed from Redwood groves to meadows to blank hills, and back again. Apparently the geology of the North Fork Drainage allows for deposits of copper and other minerals and the varying soils have provided an amazing variety of vegetation.
The previous rains had saturated the ground to such an extent that every hillside was cascading fresh runoff from the Coastal Range into the Smith River Drainage. A good day coming up! The remote put-in was “improved” with a toilet, changing areas, and a flat rock beach to drop off gear (thank you California Boating and Waterways!) Quite a crazy luxury for a river with a small season and in a remote location on a dirt road …very nice!
It was decided to take one raft (Justin, Alex H., & Jon) and two kayaks (Heffe & Wolf). We estimated the flow to be about 2,000 CFS. The trip was ready to put-in at 11:30 am, and I asked Wolf (the only one of us that had run the North Fork) how to get to the takeout in Gasquet on Hwy 199. He gave me the directions to head east over the bridge at put-in and then continue to a fork in the road where I would turn right and drop out of the canyon and then to 199. (sounded reasonable and plausible).
The boats pulled away from shore and I headed out on “Wolf’s Way” and at first the road seemed good with evidence of recent tracks in the wet surface and the ruts were “passable." That soon changed as the road turned into a trail littered with fallen trees and rock slides, but I had faith.
That faith took me into terrain worthy of the Rubicon Trail, and I made use of my low-range 4WD and my abilty to wedge large rocks off of the trail and to drag small trees to the edge of the canyon. After having to back-up a single track trail “trail” for over ¾’s of a mile, I tried my Verizon GPS …it worked! After spending over an hour in the middle of nowhere and feeling like a member of the Donner Party (albeit equipped with a 4wd Dodge truck), I had hope in technology as I headed back to a new trail spur that was only (by GPS) 8 miles to Gasquet!
The new road started out with promise (it was passable) and I got to within 6.8 mi of Gasquet when the road disappeared into 3 foot ruts, large rocks, large fallen trees, extreme mud and loose rock, I called it quits, turned around, back-tracked and found myself back in Gasquet at the pre-determined meeting spot (confluence of the North and Middle Forks) at 2:45.
Wolf was waiting on the road with a giant grin from running the North Fork Smith at what became over 3,600 cfs in flow (epic good flow) without any incidents and a crew that was ready to paddle the Middle Fork of the Smith through Oregon Hole. After listening to my “opinion” related to Wolf’s directions, a substantial lunch began with fantastic stories about waterfalls, caverns, primeval forests, and carnivorous Pitcher plants or its botanical name, Darlingtonia Californicus, and some awesome, continuous class 3 and 4 rapids, the crew headed out to finish the run through Oregon Hole and the Middle Gorge of the Middle Fork of the Smith River.
The Oregon Hole section is visible from the road (Hwy 199) and the crew attracted a crowd of touristas trying see what was going on at the river side as the crew scouted what they could. Every boat came through without a problem except for Wolf who submarined against a huge undercut and yet remained bolt upright in his kayak with only the top of his helmet still visable. Big fun… and I smiled broadly knowing that Wolf had experienced a “moment” that I could relate to clearly.
Take-out was at Myrtle Beach and only about 2 miles from camp. Camp was great; big meal, good stories, Alex H. on guitar, and no rain... or so we thought. Around 3 am, a light rain started and then the skies opened up at 4 am flooding our camp with over 3 inches of standing water. We were completely soaked. No worries, we headed off to the Hiouchi Café where we had a nice hot, dry, and substantial breakfast.
While waiting for our food, Paul Gamache rolled up with a friend and we exchanged info about the North Fork (he was leading a trip from CSU Humboldt’s outdoor program down the North Fork after our trip put-in). It was great to see him and catch up; but, as he left something was not quite right. As he got into his car right outside our window, he was laughing harder than he had a right to... damn... we soon found out why. He had reached up to our inflated raft and pushed in a valve and fully deflated a tube. Yuk, yuk. Little does he know what we did …it’s on! Written by : Big Poppah Resources: Smith River Alliance, California Whitewater Rafting
Part 2 continues next week! Bookmark this blog http://raftwetblog.blogspot.com
First W.E.T. River Trips starts March 6, 2010 this Saturday! We will be on the North Fork American and/or South Fork American. Days have been intermittent rain, big fat fluffy white clouds and blue skies. Looks like spring is here!
Mid- September is here and most of you are settling into the early fall season. This is my favorite time of the year in California. Mild weather (only 80 degrees!) and beautiful sunny skies remind us of how lucky we are out here on the west coast.
California... the Spanish name resonates with the history of gold rush towns and the wild, wild west. Yes, it is an expensive place to live. The trade-offs are many. Crowded cities with lots of traffic, homes that cost a half a million for just a basic 3-bedroom, 2-car garage house. For a newcomer, California can be overwhelming with multiple cultures and languages. The diversity here is rich.
We have every food from every place on the planet. Celebrations mark the calendar from every country. There is not a weekend that goes by that somewhere in California, someone is celebrating their own culture or national pride.
We celebrate daily on the river with our international guests. Predominately Asian, Eastern Indian, Middle Eastern, European, Mexican, Australian and South American, the guests come to play on the river with us.
We share the same love of the natural settings on the river. Some of their cultures love the river with a status of god-like reverance. We share that with them as we paddle whitewater rivers. We all love rafting! And that's a unifier no matter where you come from. Come share the river with us on the South Fork American or Middle Fork American... we will be American River rafting in California until Oct 4th.
The music scene is really hopping... like bunnies. Big fat bunnies. Big fat fluffy bunnies. DanDan wrote this little ditty a bit a go ... and the kool team is up in Portland with Mayyors and the Ganglians at the Portland Music Festival... wonder how it's going...
"I went to the Vox Gallery the other night and saw Wolf Eyes. It was loud! Wolf Eyes is a noise band from Detroit, Michigan, USA who has released well over 500 things on various labels with the main one being American Tapes. Other bands that are lumped into the same category or genre of music are Yellow Swans, Axolotl, Hair Police and Black Dice.
Afterwards, I went to my friends house. Their names are Daniel, Kandice, Tony, Kyle, Alex, Teddy and Alexa. They all love music and they play it all day on all 3 levels of the house. (Notes: the poor neighbors...) some really great bands jammin' under one roof such as Pregnant and What's Up.
They are making music that is so innovative that it goes beyond genres and classifications and into a whole new world of laptop-lullaby-psychedelic-blissed-out-sphinx-on-a-surfboard-style jams of eternal mind, body and soul. Pregnant just released an album on Lost Lamp Records called Beautiful Moon.
ONE TIME, at the same house, I saw a great show. It was Psychedelic Horseshit from Silt Breeze label and Fabulous Diamonds and Ganglians and Mom. It was so bone dog! bone dog! This show was the sloppiest of all hippie punk; slurred vocals through break, through a window of cheap beer and too much hair.
Old dudes in short shorts with shorter songs... handing out free 7" records and nobody even wants them. On the other hand, Ganglians rip a jankle pop-style and use reverb to the max. It is about as pretty as MOM's chicken feet throwing while smashing a raw egg on your face and singing through an Alvin and the Chipmunks style vocal effect to old 60's surf dance and kids songs mania. Whew!
Pschedelic Horseshit are from Ohio, I think. Check it out on Silt Breeze label, because if you don't you are a fool and you will never get to hear this band in the good early stages before they sell out and start opening up for death cab for cutie. Fabulous Diamonds are cool tooo. Check them out. They make music for rainy days in my opinion, at least, and I once heard someone label them as goth. I'm not too sure what that means, I always thought that goths liked minimal techno. Hehe.
At this very moment, I am at the house that I have been talking about this whole time. I am using Kyle's (from the Ganglians) computer to type this shiz.
I AM BLIND I AM TIRED (tired... I am the definition of tired, dude!)
ALEX JUST PUT JENS LEKMAN ON THE HOUSE STEREO REALLY LOUD, IT IS FUNNY.
Death Sentence Panda are f*ing vicious female-fronted radness. They are going to be playing a show in Sacramento with Sactowns own Mayyors, Sucks and the newest all-girl band on the scene, FATTY ACID featuring every girl that I know including my girlfriend on drums. They are a super punk puzzy dance with no breaks and no practice. They sound great, and it makes me feel like a wussy." DanDan WhiteLite ~~
The Tahoe Paddle Fest is coming on August 1st - 2nd! This free festival encourages children, teens and adults to participate in healthy, sustainable outdoor activities and paddling sports. The Tahoe area is home of Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada, an indigenous people from this locale. The Washoe Tribe is an event sponsor of this fun festival.
This first annual paddle event will highlight non-motorized watercraft with a nod to the indigenous water craft that might have graced beautiful Lake Tahoe long ago. Watercraft from indigenous cultures to modern times will include dugout canoes, standup surf paddling and outrigger boats. Racing these crafts will be another highlight to the weekend.
Tom "Pohaku" Stone, University of Hawaii professor who is an authority on Hawaiian surfboards and outrigger canoes will also serve as a keynote speaker.
Promotion of safe boating and the importance of checking for the invasive mussels that could destroy Tahoe's sensitive ecosystem will also be encouraged. Tahoe Basin and Educational partners are providing free demos or educational outreach for this event.
Tahoe Paddle Fest is located close to several paddling rivers including the world famous American River trips. Both California whitewater trips on South Fork American and Middle Fork American are within 1.5 hours from the Tahoe area. Close enough to paddle the white water river while enjoying the displays and exhibits from the festival.
Contact Tahoe Paddle Fest for more info or call them directly at 530.318.7599 to reserve sponsorships or exhibitor booths.
See you on the water!
Thank you to Tahoe Paddle Fest for this summer update! Thank you to Ecomentum Green Marketing for cool surf pic of Prof Stone!
Recently, I was speaking to one of the younger members of the blogging team. He writes about the foibles of his youth and how he resolves the pending issues of the day. I gather that his life is full of adventure as each day unfolds to bring either good tidings or sorrow. He is young and full of spirit. The decisions he makes daily are hard. There are so many temptations, so many wrong things that can happen. The one constant in his life is his family, his good friends, his music, his art and rafting on rivers.
Was life this hard when I approached it as a young adult? Yes, it was. Sometimes, I didn't think I would survive. I was always worried about money. There never seemed enough funds to cover the daily living cost. I can remember eating top ramen noodles because it was dirt cheap and satisfying. I wonder if "they" eat that, too...
He said to me that sometimes he wished that he could just go back to the warm embrace of his family... have mom do his laundry again... have dad slip him a twenty for gas... and waking up in a bed with clean sheets. He said he never imagined how much he would appreciate all the little things that mom and dad would do for him. He missed it very much, but he knew that he couldn't go back. He knew that he was an adult in a sometimes, childlike mind.
I imagine how difficult it is to ward off the temptations, the bad friends, and to make critical decisions to launch himself into full adulthood. He told me that his music and being outdoors on river trips was his greatest joy. He will be on our rafting trips this weekend enjoying himself with his friends. There, he can forget for a while, the seriousness of life and just enjoy what Mother Nature brings.
People from all walks of life are entering the zone of relaxation and party mood this weekend. Some are on vacation while others are just doing a quick trip nearby enjoying great discount prices with their family and friends.
On our rafting trips, we are seeing a trend of last minute reservations. Not only does that stress out our staff, but it must also stress out our guests. We know that you are scrambling for something to do this weekend. We know you are trying to organize people who may be just as busy as you. Believe me, we know... as we repeat the same pattern for ourselves.
This weekend... I am not sure what I will be doing. I waited 'till the last minute, too! I think the easiest thing will be to get on the online rafting store to do a quick purchase for a trip this Sunday or Monday. I gotta go rafting... I just have to spend this hot weekend on the water outdoors. And taking the ski boat out is too expensive or going to the coast is daunting, because I don't know if I can get in at the last minute on a hotel or b&b.
So I am going rafting with friends... and I'll be thinking of all of you last minute, disorganized people like myself as I paddle the rapids and breathe a sigh of relief as I enjoy the river and the water. Peace...
This past Mother's Day on Sunday, we went to a pool party. Yah... 90 degrees and melting in the heat. How can one day in California be raining and snowing and a week later, it's 90 degrees HOT!
IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!
Come on down folks for the classic white water trips out here in the West! The most popular whitewater river is South Fork American, a California river trip full of rapids designed for anyone.
Bring your family and friends and tell them you did the whitewater rodeo section of the American River. They will be impressed! Now let's go!!!!!!!
I want to share something with you all. My nightmare of trying to organize my friends to go rafting with me. Geesh, what a bunch of flaky friends! OMG! I can't believe it.
I started this project 3 months ago after the holidays. I saw everyone at Christmas and we all sat down to talk about our annual rafting trip this year. We always get together with about 18 to 24 good friends to catch up to the stuff from the year and to get crazy together.
No one could decide on a date, so I chose the date for everyone based on my needs and my schedule... yes, I was selfish, but I wasn't going to take 10 different dates to try and work it out with everyone. So I chose, June 6th... Saturday.
I contacted this rafting company (WET River Trips) to find out if the date was a good one to plan. They said yes and they put me on a courtesy hold of about 7 days. I had to extend that courtesy hold two times! My flaky friends...
Anyway, finally, I got a deposit to the rafting company and was confirmed. Weeeeee! Mission accomplished... or so, I thought. Then my wonderful, flaky friends started inviting their friends... omg! You wanna add how many more??? 10 more added, so 10 more to account for... I sent an update to the rafting company for my South Fork American trip. No problem there... now to collect the money from my friends' friends.
It's about a month to go and I am having the worst time collecting funds from these friends' of friends...
I contacted the rafting company and capped my numbers to 24 people. Those other last minute wannabees can book themselves! I have taken care of my 24 friends and the rest of the last minute flakys can organize their own. LOL! I am looking forward to rafting with my friends and I don't want to organize the last minute flakys... I just want to have a no stress time on MY rafting trip!
Note: from WET River Trips... does this sound like your trip? Then, don't stress, just take care of your close friends and family; let the last minute peeps, reserve on their own... we do not want OUR guest trip leaders to stress about anything!
If you need our help, let us know. The Online Rafting Store is a godsend for those of you who are organized. Every price is every 6th free, so when you reserve in the online store, remember to pay that way...
EX: you got 12 friends, reserve for 10 in the online store, and remember to tell us in the comment box that you actually have 12... not so difficult! We'll see ya on the river... where the water will make you stress free!
Pictures from Big Poppa Photo Album in Picasa! Thanks for the pics of the early Middle Fork American trips going on now... and these folks in the pics above were super organized when they reserved! Thank you to the peeps who just went with us on the MoFo!
Day Two of Spring, we hit the South Fork and North Fork American Rivers. Some adventurous couples ran the Chili Bar section of the South Fork American with Drew and Booty, and a bachelor party ran the North Fork with Justin, Alex H. and Greg D.
The flows were perfect and the weather cooperated. That night in camp at Camp Lotus we had students from UC San Diego that came up early for the NoFo on Sunday.
Day Three of Spring, we picked up the UCSD students at Camp Lotus and drove to the North Fork American...then the rain started... and by the time we reached Weimar and Colfax, it was snowing BIG FAT FLAKES of Spring snow!!!!! The North Fork American was 1,700 CFS (cubic feet per second) ...perfect... and the snow turned to rain. (UC Berkeley wha 'sup?)
By the time Justin and Alex hit the takeout at Ponderosa Way, the sun was out and the golden California Poppies were open and blazing orange: a beautiful California Spring on amazing California Whitewater!
We're now 18 days into our season and we've been on the river 15 of those days, and we've run the North Fork American and South Fork American repeatedly. What's next? Who's next? Back to it!
So far... Country Mike, Drew, Booty, Robin, Nick, Duff, Greg D., Chad, Bird, Alex H., Chris Z., RoBo, and Justin have answered the call... so where are you Saul, Jonny, Jason, Meg, Mag, K-Dawg, Rob, Wolf, D-Rex, Mac, Theo, Tom, Kyle, Ninja Mike, Disco E, Cool J, and Heffe?
Well, now that I have a little time in between working all day on the river, and writing papers all day for school, I figure I will take a break to briefly document some of last summer’s better adventure rafting trips. The year started off very well for the W.E.T. crew, completing the 2 day run of Generation and Giant Gap on the North Fork American River. Along with several other W.E.T. guides, notably J. Orban and Data Dax, we made the 5 mile hike into the Generation Gap with some Kayaker assistance (Heffe, fem Alex, and The Wolf), and put on at a perfect spring flow on a perfect spring day.
The Generation Gap has been run multiple times before in rafts, but was still a very challenging class V run, involving a few good portages, some quality boxed-in canyons, and Wolf-scouted rapids called “lefty lefty, scrapey scrapey.” (Note from WET staff: LOL!) On the second day we reached the confluence with the North Fork of the NoFo, and got a healthy boost in water to run the Generation Gap with somewhere a little under 2000 cfs. (For the record the Kayakers portaged Locomotive, and we styled it in the raft with Orban guiding). The run finished with no mishaps, a few sketchy backwards moments, and a bunch of tired, cold, hungry, and happy guides.
The highlight of summer boating was without question Wolf and my descent of Upper Cherry Creek. With little argument about attempting to make the six to ten mile hike, and nine mile high Sierra run, The Wolf and I set out in the Toyota searching for steep drops, big hits, and granite super highways. After receiving great beta from veteran rafters such as Guy (“you’re going to die”), we were fired up to check out what the upper Tuolumne tributary had to offer.
Along with us, and central to the success of the trip, was Fem Alex and adventure dog Marley, who provided quality ground support and photography. To my best knowledge, Upper Cherry has been run maybe three other times in rafts in the last five or so years. While we were not the first raft to make it down the run, I am almost positive that we did make the first decent in a bucket boat. The Wolf Special, a 10 foot, superlight, all black, two thwart, PVC bucket boat, was the perfect inflatable to boat this run in.
We set out early in the morning with a heavy load and a long day ahead. Before leaving on the trip I struck a deal with Wolf, where I would carry all gear for the trip (food, sleeping bags, first aid, throwbags, repair, top-off pump, ect.), if he would carry the boat. Good to his word, Wolf hauled the raft with a camstrap like a purse, while I managed the hike in with a hefty drybag load. Without any major incidents we hit the river around 3:00pm, and then made the hike up into Cherry Bomb gorge to begin our run.
Due to anticipated lower flows, we opted out of hiking into the section above Cherry Bomb because we didn’t want add miles of additional portages to our trip. As expected, we had a fairly low flow, which made for a great amount of water for exploring the run. Our first set of rapids involved a 200+ yard slide, into a boxed-in teacup section. Luckily both Wolf and I have had extensive slide and waterfall practice up on South Silver Creek, so we were fairly prepared for how the GI Jane bucket boat would handle down the drops. Even with our foreknowledge, I think we were both surprised at how deep you can go in a raft when you’re full of water going over teacups. After an extremely long first day, we camped just below the drop known as “Dead Bear,” and enjoyed a spectacular high Sierra evening.
The next morning we awoke like little kids on their birthdays to about a mile and half of read and run class 4+ slides and small drops. The highlight of day two was probably a 35 ft. off-vertical falls, into a picturesque, Shangri-La pool. This one was so fun, Wolf and Fem Alex hauled the boat back up the granite cliff for another run.
The entire trip went without mishaps. While there are several significant portages on the run, (dependent on flow), we were probably able to boat about sixty percent on the water, which was much better than what I had in mind when we set out. We managed to make it to Cherry Lake around 5pm just in time for a healthy three mile paddle across the flat-water. To top the run off Wolf ran the seven mile shuttle up the ridge to our cars, cruising in to pick us up at 9:30pm, just in time to make the 1:00am Denny’s crowd in Jacksonville, and our 8:00am South Fork American rafting trips the next morning. All in all it was an outrageous summer full of good times on the water.
Hope everyone had a good rest this fall and winter, so we can gear up and go big this coming spring. Also mad props to Wolf’s Tunnel Chute flip for some of the best rafting photos I’ve ever seen.
Note: Thank you Alex for the memories! WET crew is ready for rafting! Cya all on the water!
California is amazing. Go with the flow....and "flow" happens.
The rest of the US is locked in ice, flood, and freezing wind. This past week California weather has enjoyed high temperatures in the mid-to high sixties and even the Sierra Nevada have seen highs in the 50's. The skiing and snowboarding is great. Rafting trips and kayaking adventures are happening everyday. 2009 rafting season is starting up! We have more rain and snow is coming our way.
In the meantime, we're loving the weather and sipping the lemonade that the planet has produced for our geographic corner of the world. Even the ski resorts have gone with the flow with sundecks and "beach-style" recreation like volleyball added to the lodge activities, skiing and snowboarding.
The whitewater season will be big fun in the " Warm California Sun" (the Ramones version)! Hey Ho, Let's go!
Ok ...check this: 13 feet of snow in 13 days and the storms stop two days before Christmas Day. The next 10 days are forecast to be clear and mild....Perfect timing. Perfect storm(s). Perfect...Just perfect. The 2009 whitewater rafting season looks to be solid!
Last year at this time, the snow pack was 56% of normal. The snowpack that feeds the North Fork American, Middle Fork American, and South Fork American Rivers is now at over 86%...30% more water than last year and last year was pretty awesome!
The news from the Northern rivers is even better with over 100% of snowfall on the Siskiyou and Lower Cascades Mountain Ranges that feed the Klamath, and California Salmon Rivers. Again...perfect!
Keep on eye on the snow packs @ Kirkwood and Sugar Bowl..for a few really good reasons: to plan you next few months of Boarding and skiing and to Book those early group rafting trips on the North and South Fork American Rivers. Also, the Middle Fork kicks in when the run-off starts to subside. The California trips fire up in March and then it is simply....ON!
