Monday, August 07, 2006
Electra Run, Mokelumne River, kayaking class II, Aug 6, 2006
BruceH, TaylorC, JaimeC and I kayaked the Electra Run on the Mokelumne River (Amador County, California, USA) at a flow of 1100 cfs (Dreamflows). BruceH paddled his Dagger Crossfire, TaylorC was in my Dagger RPM, JaimeC used my Prijon Rockit and I paddled BobL's Dagger SuperEgo. We headed down river after a brief paddle school in the big pool at put-in.
The flow was too high to surf on The Green Wave, but there were numerous tiny and small playspots everywhere throughout the run. A perfect day for Taylor and Jaime to get introduced to river surfing and for BruceH and me to have fun showing them how its done. Truly a delightful flow rate; maybe the best surfing I've ever seen on this run.
And then there were the spots where the river got to play with us, so we also got some practice rescuing swimmers. The webbing that I tied onto the rear loop of the SuperEgo made it much easier for swimmers to grab on and hold tight while getting towed to shore.
Blackberries were ripe and made a very nice treat at lunchtime.
We all ran nice left-to-right lines at The Slot rapid. S-Curve rapid was a little tougher and we had one upset there. With all the surfs, swims and rescues I think we all got full workouts by the time we got to take-out just below S-Curve rapid.
Dinner and beers on the patio at Jose's Mexican restaurant in the town of Jackson were just right. And then we topped it off with ice cream at our gas stop.
A cloud of bats was taking flight as we crossed the causeway over the Yolo Bypass.
More about: Kayaking Trip Reports.
Tags: kayaking, whitewater, rivers, paddling.
 | JaimeC.Her first river kayaking trip. Already surfing. Having way too much fun. (photo by TaylorC) |
Waters of the Thousand Playspots
The flow was too high to surf on The Green Wave, but there were numerous tiny and small playspots everywhere throughout the run. A perfect day for Taylor and Jaime to get introduced to river surfing and for BruceH and me to have fun showing them how its done. Truly a delightful flow rate; maybe the best surfing I've ever seen on this run.
 | BruceT.Surfing in the SuperEgo kayak. It never ceases to amaze me how much fun a tiny wave-hole can be when paddling a tiny boat. (photo by TaylorC - friends who bring cameras are always welcome on my trips!) |
And then there were the spots where the river got to play with us, so we also got some practice rescuing swimmers. The webbing that I tied onto the rear loop of the SuperEgo made it much easier for swimmers to grab on and hold tight while getting towed to shore.
Blackberries were ripe and made a very nice treat at lunchtime.
We all ran nice left-to-right lines at The Slot rapid. S-Curve rapid was a little tougher and we had one upset there. With all the surfs, swims and rescues I think we all got full workouts by the time we got to take-out just below S-Curve rapid.
Dinner and beers on the patio at Jose's Mexican restaurant in the town of Jackson were just right. And then we topped it off with ice cream at our gas stop.
A cloud of bats was taking flight as we crossed the causeway over the Yolo Bypass.
More about: Kayaking Trip Reports.
Tags: kayaking, whitewater, rivers, paddling.
Labels: trip
