BRT Insights - WW Kayaking & Hiking

Back among the living - how great to get back out on the whitewater!!

After three weeks of hacking, coughing and snorkeling with a cold I finally felt almost back to normal. Very little rain fell on the northern Coast Range this past week, so those rivers were not running. Fortunately, the Sierra got lots of rain and the NF American was running, so BillJ and I went for it.


Additional pictures from this whitewater river run.
Pictures were taken with a water-resistant Olympus 720SW camera.

Kayaking on a whitewater river is a great way to spend a rainy winter day in California!!

Shirttail Run on NF American River (Placer County, California, United States) is a great classII+ run with a short winter/spring season, so you have to jump on it whenver you find it with a good flow. The unpaved roads to put-in and take-out are mostly gravel, so they were still driveable on a very rainy day like today. Class II+ boaters should have a great day on this run as long as they stay out of a few boat-eating holes. Experienced boaters should find lots of great playspots. Everybody should enjoy the pretty canyon and great water quality.

BillJ & I eddy-hopped and surfed our way down the run pretty rapidly. We didn't stop for lunch. Paddling downstream in the mild sections was a good way to keep up our body heat. The flow was a little low for the surf spots at Surf City, but we found a great wave a little ways downstream and spent a lot of time there. I'm not sure exactly where it was, but I'll have no trouble recognizing the old metal bridge wreckage that was on river-left in the background of my pictures.

We got to take-out at 3PM. The gauge is quite a ways downstream, so we are estimating that the white water flow we boated on all day passed the gauge at ~6PM (1100 cfs.)

On the way home we stopped at the local whitewater shop - Sierra Outdoor Center, Auburn, CA.

More about:
• Shirttail Run, American River NF Guide Page.
• Whitewater Kayaking Trip Reports.

Tags: kayaking, river, whitewater, paddle boating.

Labels: trip