I just got home from a month long kayaking trip in California and I've got to say it wasn't exactly the hot and sunny California that I remembered. Actually, it wasn't hot and sunny at all, more like cold and rainy. And the water levels? They were a bit high most of the time. It was one of those things you just had to embrace. We wore dry suits and had cold hands. We life-styled and did other obscure activities. We did on overnighter in the rain. It was sweet.
I started off the trip in San Francisco visiting my big brother during what is claimed to be one of the best parties in all of California- Bay to Breakers. It lived up to its hype for sure, and involved walking like 10 miles in costume. I dressed up as a devil chicken.
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| My Brother and I the morning of Bay to Breakers |
Next up was some time spent around Sacramento, finding things to do when the water levels weren't exactly conducive to kayaking. Ever heard of kite skating? Stand up paddle board surfing? I also managed to sneak in a little 49 to Bridgeport run of the South Yuba.
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| Robby Hogg kite-skating down an open road in Sacramento |
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| Nick Urquarhart SUP surfing the South Fork of the American |
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| Chad Pickens at Corner Pocket of the South Yuba |
From there I decided to head up to Chico to spend some time with friends there and check out the town and nearby rivers. My friend Sean Corbett and I started off my visit with a trip down the local run, Butte Creek. Butte Creek is a class 4-5 creek with lots of fun rapids and beautiful scenery. The scariest part of the trip however was the shuttle ride on the back of Sean's new motorcycle!
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| Sean boofing on Butte Creek |
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| Our Butte Creek shuttle vehicle |
I also got a chance to cruise over to the North Yuba one day to get to do a section below Bullards Bar Dam which empties into the Middle Yuba. This section has not been done very often because before recently, there was no gauge available to know how much water the dam was releasing. With the introduction of the new gauge, I have a feeling this run will get done more often. Like every river in the Yuba watershed, it was absolutely beautiful and involved lots of great class 4-5 rapids.
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| Nick Murphy arriving at the put-in |
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| Will Pruett stepping up to a line the rest of us walked |
After hanging out in Chico for a few days it was time to go on a little road trip (those cheap Sierra Nevada Pale Ales are just too dangerous) so Sean, his roommate Scott, my Kiwi friend Rachel and I all loaded up and headed North to the Klamath watershed. Almost immediately after arriving into the area we ran into some good friends and spent the weekend enjoying the local rivers, camping out and spending time with friends.
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| A must-have camp accessory- the Sling Shot | |
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| The Clear Creek Crew |
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| Rachel Curtis enters the biggest drop on Clear Creek (this rapid dished out some beatings) |
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| Sean making amends for the swim he took on the rapid above |
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After our weekend up North, we headed back down to Chico, now with a couple of Europeans in tow. Sean and Scott were nice enough to offer us all to crash at their place for a night or two. We ended up staying for the next week...
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| Sean and Scott's front yard |
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| Lifestyling in Chico (David and I sharing a ride downtown for $3 pitchers of Sierra Nevada) |
Even though the weather was predicted to be less than ideal, Rachel (the Kiwi), Tomass (the Latvian), David (the German) and I (the American) decided to head up the South Branch of the Middle Feather to hopefully get in some good creeking. Unfortunately for us, the weather forecast turned out to be spot on. It was 35 degrees as we were gearing up at the put in. The hail and snow come soon after. Yes it snowed on us in June. Fortunately the super fun waterfalls and rapids the river had to offer allowed us to temporarily forget about the dismal weather.
After making it about 3/4 of the way down the run, we decided as a group that the conditions (high water and slick granite) might hinder us from finishing the run. Just downstream of us lied a mandatory portage that required ferrying above a 100 foot waterfall and walking around on steep granite. We ended up deciding that the best decision was for us to start hiking our boats at out of the steep gorge rather than continuing downstream. There was no trail and definitely no shortage of manzanita. I have to thank David for helping me and my kayak get up the mountain.
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| David stomping one of the many sweet drops on the South Branch |
After the South Branch adventure, we spent a day inside recovering, watching "Flick Chicks" as the German would say. But one day indoors was enough for us to decide we needed to get back on the river, rain or snow. So we decided to just embrace the crappy weather the best way we could and do an overnighter in it. With highs in the low 60s, rain forecasted for the entire weekend and a high side of good water level, we geared up to do the Devil's Canyon of the Middle Feather.
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| Rachel loading up her boat with overnight gear |
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| Our international crew at the put-in |
Our first day on the river was great and included two distinct and beautiful canyons and tons of class 3-5 big water style rapids. Unfortunately because of the weather, there weren't many good picture taking moments.
After finishing up the second canyon, we decided to stop to camp for the night. The men got a fire started while Rachel and I got a shelter set up and some hot water boiling for soup and tea. Eventually the weather cleared enough to take a little on the Pacific Crest trail which ran straight through the camp.
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| David handling the boiling of the water |
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| A view from the living room |
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| Looking back at our camp from the Pacific Crest Trail |
After a restful night of sleep to the sound of pouring rain, we woke up to a bit of sunshine and a slightly higher water level. The second day of paddling was awesome, with non stop class 4-5 rapids the whole way down. With our trusty Latvian probe leading the way, we charged through the day pretty quickly with only one mandatory portage.
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| Me dropping into a sweet rapid (Photo by Rachel Curtis) |
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| Me entering one of the larger rapids of the day (Photo by Rachel Curtis) |
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| Tomass finishing up the mandatory portage | | | |
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And that pretty much ended my springtime Cali trip. While it was not exactly the trip I had been expecting, it turned into something much better. Sure the kayaking was awesome, but even more so was spending time with great friends and making lots of new ones along the way. Now if that snow would just start melting so things will drop in before I return to Cali in July!
