August 26th, 2008 Webmaster
The Tuolumne River and Cherry Creek rafting runs have about a week left to their season. The final day for whitewater rafting flows on these two incredible runs is Monday, September 1 (Labor Day).
If you feel yourself getting a little green with envy as you think of everyone else hiking up Clavey Falls and swimming away the afternoon, rafting the Tuolumne’s class IV rapids, or jumping in for swim practice before an epic day on Cherry Creek, there is an antidote to your pain.
The Tuolumne River is by far my favorite river in California. The sheer beauty of the land scape and magnitude of the rapids.. just stunning. There’s no question why the Tuolumne is a California classic.
Happy Rafting
June 30th, 2008 Webmaster
Sad but true, the 2008 Merced River rafting season is pretty much done. Rafters & kayakers may be able to sqeek another couple of days out of the Quarter Mile section but flows probably won’t hold out through the July 4th weekend.
June 20th, 2008 Webmaster
Today is June 20th.. the day of the Summer Soltice in the North Hemisphere. It is officially summer and temperatures are beginning to heat up. With that said many spring rivers will be petering out in the coming weeks.
According to the All-Outdoors Blog.. this will be the last weekend for rafting and kayaking on the Kaweah River near Three Rivers, CA. We also got word that the Merced River is still holding on and is expected to flow until July 4th. It also appears the Upper Kern and the Kings River will be around for another couple of weeks.
Once our beloved California Spring rafting rivers run out it will be time to move onto the reliable dam controlled rivers like the South Fork and Middle Fork American Rivers as well as the Tuolumne, Cherry Creek and Lower Kern.
And remember even though Schwarzenegger declared a state wide drought.. California Rivers have plenty of water for rafting in 2008.
May 27th, 2008 Webmaster
I just got word this morning that Cherry Creek (The Upper Tuolumne River) will begin to have flows low enough for rafting and kayaking in June.
Cherry Creek usually doesn’t begin to run until mid-July because the flows are too high from spring run-off. Runnable flows range from 1000 cfs to 2000 cfs.
Cherry Creek is Class V. It’s considered the most difficult commercial whitewater rafting run in California. This river is best experienced with a commercial rafting company.
May 24th, 2008 Webmaster
A message from Hetch Hetchy Water and Power regarding flows on the Tuolumne and Cherry Creek from May 23 - May 29.
Read more…
April 15th, 2008 Webmaster
The good news is we are in for a good rafting and kayaking season in California this year. The April snowpack measurements came in right at average.. about 96% of normal to be exact.
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April 2nd, 2008 Webmaster
44th Annual Kern River Festival is Happening April 19 & 20 (Sat - Sun).
The Line Up:
- Saturday, 4/19 - Raft Races, Slalom practice, Poker Run, Brush Creek Race (pending FS permit approval).
- Sunday, 4/20 - Wildwater race, T.J. Citizen Slalom race (Junior Olympic qualifier).
Read more…
March 29th, 2008 Webmaster
It’s official. The 2008 California whitewater rafting season is underway. The North Fork American River was flowing around 100cfs early in the week.
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March 3rd, 2008 Webmaster
California Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced a state average of 118% of normal. This is outstanding news for the California rafting industry. But lets not get ahead of ourselves yet. A lot can happen in the next few month… we could double our snowpack or lose a bunch of it.
Quoted from CDEC Snow Survey Reports (PDF):
Today’s snow survey was the third of the 2008 snowfall season. The most recent electronic sensor readings show Northern Sierra snow water equivalents at 122 percent of normal for this date, the Central Sierra at 110 percent, and the Southern Sierra at 130 percent. Statewide, the percentage of normal is at 118 percent. Electronic sensor readings one year ago showed the Northern Sierra at 69 percent of normal, the Central Sierra at 64 percent and the Southern Sierra at 52 percent. The statewide average was 63 percent.
February 22nd, 2008 Webmaster
January and early February were outstanding months for precipitation here in California. I recall driving over Donner pass in early December in route to the America Outdoors Conference in Reno… the snowpack was 0%. I mean the ground was brown.
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