In California, once all the snow has melted and the high sierra runs are finished for the year, we struggle for a few months to find fun rivers to paddle until the rain starts again. Fortunately, there are several reliable dam released river to keep us occupied. One of these is the Burnt Ranch section of the Trinity River. This awesome run is a class IV-IV+ and is filled with fun boofs and rapids in a gorgeous canyon. Check out the video created by Daniel Brasuell from one of the times we…

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California had an epic snow pack this year that has lead to a few often dry runs having boatable water levels. One such river was the Rubicon. The Rubicon River flows into the Middle Fork of the American River above the commonly kayaked and rafted Tunnel Chute run on the Middle American. The Rubicon has always had a reputation for being a really great class IV-V overnighter run, but unfortunately hasn’t had enough water to be kayaked in six years. According to kayakers who have been boating…

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Last weekend was the Kern River Festival in Southern California. There were multiple events ranging from the Brush Creek down river race to the Hooligan, make your own boat race to a stand-up paddleboard race.

 

The day after the races, a few friends invited me on a trip down Upper Brush Creek. This section is not run very often but another group had been in earlier in the year and the water level seemed perfect. With the warning to watch out for trees we set off to find the…

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Thanks to American Whitewater, California has been getting more and more scheduled damn releases during the dry summer months. For the month of September, this included the South Fork of the Feather River. This is a gorgeous 8 mile stretch of class IV-V whitewater with plenty of rapids to keep you entertained. The run starts off with a bang as you put in in a small eddy, ferry across the river, and plunge off a 10 foot drop into the first gorge.…

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Once the Sierra and High Sierra runs have dried out, we have to depend on dam releases to get our paddling fix. One of my favorite summer dam releases in California is the Cherry Creek section of the Tuolomne. Whenever I get a day off work, I head up to paddle.



Mushroom Rapid…

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