BRT Insights - WW Kayaking & Hiking

Creek restoration to improve salmon spawning habitat to begin in 2009.

Restoration of Battle Creek (Shasta & Tehama County California USA) may eventually contribute to recovery of Sacramento River salmon and steelhead populations. Removal of some dams and addition of fish ladders on some remaining dams will help wild salmon to access more miles of creek that contain prime spawning habitat. Mary Marshall, Project Manager of the Battle Creek Restoration Project at US Bureau of Reclamation, said via email "Currently it is planned for implementation to begin on North Fork Battle Creek in Spring of 2009. It would take approximately until the end of 2010 to complete the North Fork work, which includes placing a screen and ladder on two dams and removing one dam. At this point it is not known when work on South Fork Battle Creek will begin."

Additional restoration in the California Delta is also needed to enable fish to survive.

For too long California's water policies have neglected the needs of fish, other wildlife and the fishermen that depend upon them. Water quality improvements and habitat restoration is needed in the California Delta to enable the salmon that hatch in Battle Creek to migrate down the river, survive the journey through the California Delta and reach the ocean. Delta Smelt is another endangered fish species in the California Delta. "Scientists believe a variety of factors have contributed to the smelt's decline, including excessive water exports from the Delta to Southern California, water pollution, and invasive species that outcompete smelt for food." (Scientists breed smelt) These same factors may also contribute to the salmon crisis that is forcing the salmon fishing season to be reduced or cancelled this year on the west coast USA.

Battle Creek is also a great place for whitewater kayaking.

Battle Creek is undoubtedly some of the best whitewater in California that has never been described in any printed river guidebook. As we approach the project start dates I will try to keep up-to-date and post updates on whether or not the construction will impact access to Battle Creek for kayaking, water flows through the whitewater sections, etc.

For more information:
• Battle Creek Directory - Recreation & Conservation. (30 websites)
• California River Conservation & Water Supply Policy.
• Scientists breed smelt in case species becomes extinct in Delta - Sacramento Bee 31mar2008.

Tags: water, water supply, water policy, river conservation, river, California Delta.

Labels: conservation

A cool overcast day was great for whitewater kayaking in California.

JimH, BillJ & I met MelodyS, Will & Wally at the Hwy49 bridge in Lotus, California. Then we shuttled up to Chil Bar to meet with Jay. We had 1600 cfs of flow on the Chil Bar Run on SF American River (El Dorado County, California, USA). I can't believe that its been more than a year since I last kayaked this run!!


Will got some good surfs at Gremlin Wave/Hole.

Cloudy days are great for photography on the river.

Gentle, even lighting and a lack of glare on the water make cloudy days great for river photography. I'm slowly getting acquainted with my camera and seeing a higher success rate in my pictures as a result. On a kayaking trip there just isn't time to fiddle with the camera before taking a photo. All of my fiddle time is used up getting my boat into a sufficiently stable position to attempt a photo. The kayakers are already past me and in the eddy if I need to spend any time getting the camera ready to shoot. It has to be click, click and then immediately shoot to get a lot of the best action shots. And I'm also doing panoramic photography to capture more of the beauty of the river canyons; my wide shot at Troublemaker Rapid was a panorama of 2 overlapping photos. I took 171 photos on this daytrip and I'm pretty happy with the results. More photos from this kayaking trip.

Kayaking on whitewater rivers is exciting, challenging and big-time fun!!

I had a great time running Meatgrinder Rapid, catching more eddies there than I had on my last few trips there. We did a lot of surfing and had lunch at Maya Rapid. Then I got reacquainted with my favorite surf spot just below Maya. This medium-sized, very fast, wide wave is just for bow surfing, but it takes some paddling skill and edge control to get on it. Then my long kayak (Wave Sport Frankenstein) requires lots of edge control to avoid burying the bow and immediately flushing out. Jim & I ran down to First Threat Rapid and I got into a good spot to photograph everybody else going through, including some pretty dramatic shots of the rafts going through. We raced through Second Threat Rapid, took a short break and then paddled Third Threat Rapid and the class IIs down to Troublemaker Rapid. Two of us portaged Troublemaker, but I was glad to see that the rapid has recovered from the vandalism of a couple of years ago. Troublemaker is back to its old character as a very interesting class III+ rapid, with definite runnable lines. I used up the last of my energy sprinting across the big pools at Coloma and surfing at Gremlin Wave/Hole. All in all a very fun day with some combat rolls and one unexpected combat swim by various members of our group.

On the way home BillJ, JimH & I had a great dinner at Hacienda Hardwick barbecue grill & wine bar in Vacaville, California. Chefs Oliver, Terry and Betty know how to cook it up just right!!

More about:
• Whitewater River Trips - California Kayaking Reports.

Tags: whitewater, river, kayaking, paddle boating, rafting.

Labels: trip

Whitewater River Kayaking & Rafting Guide & Maps - California.

Recent Creek Flow Estimates.

Estimated as 60% of the flow on Deer Creek or 50% of the flow on Battle Creek (Tuthill, cacreeks.com).
• Deer Creek near Vina, CA, creek flow data - USGS.
• Battle Creek at Coleman, creek flow data - USGS.

Whitewater Rating vs. Flow Rate.

class . . . . flow (cfs)
III+(IV) . . 300 - 1500 - flow on Antelope Ck

Creek Description - Antelope Creek - Payne Place to Dairyville Run.

Antelope Creek is a springtime rainy season and/or snowmelt run in the Sacramento Valley. Antelope Creek drains off the western slope of the Sierra and joins the Sacramento River just south of Red Bluff. The scenery and isolation on this run are excellent. Just two drainages south of Battle Creek, the geology of the Antelope Creek canyon is remarkably different and quite beautiful. Hogsback Rd from Red Bluff to the middle put-in is very rough; high clearance vehicles are helpful, but 4wd vehicles are probably not necessary. (Tehama County, California, USA)

Driving Directions, Distance, Estimated Time & Road Conditions.

Mapquest provides directions, distance & time from your house to the river.
* From Davis, CA to Dairyville, CA - driving time 1 hour 58 minutes.

California Road Conditions (Delays or closures due to weather, construction, etc.)
* California Travel Information - highwayconditions.com.
* Road Conditions - California Dept Transportation.

Topographic River Map, Road Map & Local Business Search.

• The map below is interactive - click and drag on the map to adjust the location.
• Point or DoubleClick on the red markers below to see their names.
• Use the tool on the left to zoom and pan.
• Click on the Map button for a road map, Topo button for topgraphic map.
• Click on Google logo for road map & local business search (gas, food, camping).
• Full screen topo map and coordinates of additional landmarks - see below.
• Topographic map user instructions.

There is no blue line on the Map view (road map) for Antelope Creek. Use the Topo view in Acme Mapper to see the location of the creek.

Full-Screen Topographic Map - Antelope Creek.
Markers on the topo map show locations of some landmarks listed below (A & B).
Point or DoubleClick on the markers to see their names.

More River Landmarks - Geographic Coordinates.
Copy/paste the coordinates below into the search box at Google Maps or into the Find box at Acme Mapper.
* N 40.33595 W 121.91614, Hwy 36 x Paynes Creek Road x Plum Creek Road
* N 40.29642 W 121.81194, Plum Ck Rd x Hogsback Rd.
* N 40.27055 W 121.85288, Finley Lake.
* N 40.26983 W 121.87597, Hogsback Rd turnoff.
* N 40.23240 W 121.87930, Payne Place, campground, upper put-in (A).
* N 40.24134 W 121.96567, (Name ??) side road, middle put-in (B).
* N 40.20984 W 122.09457, Grafitti Rock, upper take-out (C).
* N 40.16686 W 122.13638, Cone Grove Park, lower take-out (D).

Local weather in Paynes Creek, California.

Plan your trip Local Radar Detailed Forecast

River Guidebooks & Whitewater Guides Online.

• See online river guides in Antelope Creek Directory.
(Display options - alphabetical 100. See section 1.)

Whitewater River Trip Reports NEEDED !!

• I'm happy to post or link to well-written, whitewater boating trip reports from guest authors, especially if boating pictures are included. Please contact me to submit your trip report.

Whitewater River Recreation Links - Antelope Creek.

• Antelope Creek Directory - Recreation & Conservation - Tehama County California USA. Website resources for Antelope Creek. (Display options - alphabetical 100. Section 1=whitewater, 2=rafting, 3=conservation, 4=fishing, 5=camping-hiking, 6=local-info)

More about:
• How to use guides to white water river rafting and kayaking - BRT Insights.
• Creeks & rivers nearby: Mill Creek, Butte Creek, Sacramento River Valley Region.
• Whitewater River Guides for California - BRT Insights.
• California River Maps - Atlas & Gazetteer by Delorme, 2008.

Tags: kayaking, river map, river, whitewater, paddle boating, California.

Labels: guide

Whitewater River Guide & Maps - California.

Recent Flow Data for Battle Creek.

(id=9484)

(id=9284)

Approximately 200 cfs are needed on the CDEC gauges near NF or SF put-in to get started down the creek. These flows combine a short distance downstream at the NF/SF confluence. Considerable water is diverted from the creekbed and is then returned just upstream of the USGS gauge near take-out. Thus, the USGS gauge below take-out registers considerably higher than the flow that is actually in the creekbed downstream from the NF/SF confluence.

Whitewater Rating vs. Flow Rate.

class . . . flow (cfs)
III+ . . . 600 - 2000 (measured on USGS gauge at takeout)

Creek Description - Battle Creek - Coleman Fish Hatchery Run.

This is a springtime rainy season and/or snowmelt run in the Sacramento Valley. Battle Creek drains off the western side of Lassen National Park in California and joins the Sacramento River between Redding and Red Bluff. The scenery and isolation on this run are quite good. The NF put-in offers a short section through a narrow volcanic canyon. The SF put-in offers some good playspots in a wider canyon. Some distance downstream from where a pipeline crosses the creek is a class III+ rapid, the toughest rapid on the run. There are lots of other class II & III rapids throughout the run. Spring wildflowers along the shuttle road can be spectacular. (Shasta & Tehama County, California, USA)

Driving Directions, Distance, Estimated Time & Road Conditions.

Mapquest provides directions, distance & time from your house to the river.
* From Davis, CA to Cottonwood, CA - driving time 2 hours, 5 minutes.

California Road Conditions (Delays or closures due to weather, construction, etc.)
* California Travel Information - highwayconditions.com.
* Road Conditions - California Dept Transportation.

Topographic River Map, Road Map & Local Business Search.

• The map below is interactive - click and drag on the map to adjust the location.
• Point or DoubleClick on the red markers below to see their names.
• Use the tool on the left to zoom and pan.
• Click on the Map button for a road map, Topo button for topgraphic map.
• Click on Google logo for road map & local business search (gas, food, camping).
• Full screen topo map and coordinates of additional landmarks - see below.
• Topographic map user instructions.

There is no blue line on the Map view (road map) for Battle Creek. Use the Topo view in Acme Mapper to see the location of the creek.


Full-Screen Topographic Map - Battle Creek.
Markers on the topo map show locations of some landmarks listed below (A & B).
Point or DoubleClick on the markers to see their names.

More River Landmarks - Geographic Coordinates.
Copy/paste the coordinates below into the search box at Google Maps or into the Find box at Acme Mapper.
* N 40.35544 W 121.63910, Battle Ck Falls.
* N 40.35021 W 121.66496, Battle Ck campground, Lassen National Forest.
* N 40.42400 W 121.98601, CDEC gauge on NF.
* N 40.40600 W 121.98001, CDEC gauge on SF.
* N 40.42447 W 121.98699, Put-in at NF Battle Ck and Wildcat Rd (A).
* N 40.40578 W 121.98064, Put-in at SF Battle Ck and A6 Manton Rd (B).
* N 40.42284 W 121.99768, NF - SF confluence.
* N 40.42627 W 122.00819, Baldwin Ck confluence.
* N 40.42160 W 122.01729, pipeline crosses the creek (C).
* N 40.40216 W 122.12996, take-out upstream from a small dam (D).
* N 40.40147 W 122.14497, Coleman National Fish Hatchery.
* N 40.39824 W 122.14629, USGS gauge.

Local weather in Cottonwood, California.

Plan your trip Local Radar Detailed Forecast

River Guidebooks & Whitewater Guides Online.

• See online river guides in Battle Creek Directory.
(Display options - alphabetical 100. See section 1.)

Whitewater River Trip Reports NEEDED !!

• I'm happy to post or link to well-written, whitewater boating trip reports from guest authors, especially if boating pictures are included. Please contact me to submit your trip report.

River Recreation Links - Battle Creek.

• Battle Creek Directory - Recreation & Conservation - Shasta & Tehama County California USA. Website resources for Battle Creek. (Display options - alphabetical 100. Section 1=whitewater, 2=rafting, 3=conservation, 4=fishing, 5=camping-hiking, 6=local-info)

More about:
• Using these guides to white water river paddleboating - BRT Kayaking.
• Rivers & creeks nearby: Bear Creek (Shasta County), Antelope Creek, Sacramento River Valley Region.
• California Whitewater River Guides.
• California River Maps - Atlas & Gazetteer by Delorme, 2008.

Tags: kayaking, whitewater, river map, river, California, paddle boating.

Labels: guide

Assembly Bill 2502 will improve California Delta habitat for fish and other wildlife.

"Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, is authoring legislation for the state to purchase a trio of Delta properties – Prospect Island, the Little Holland Tract and Liberty Island – which are now owned by the federal government and a nonprofit land trust. Wolk's Assembly Bill 2502 would transform these tracts into a state recreation area, with an endowment fund to help restore marshes and levees." (Sacramento Bee 25mar2008) California residents should write to their state representatives to express support for this proposed legislation.
• California State Legislature - Find Your Legislator & Contact Information.
• Know Your Legislators - leginfo.ca.gov.

On many California Delta islands farming has caused soil erosion as much as 10 to 20 feet below the level of the river that surrounds them. Due to their ancient inadequate levees, these islands are certain to become flooded during one of our next big storms or earthquakes. Perhaps we should take advantage of this opportunity to buy-out the most severely eroded islands and add them into the habitat restoration program.

Sacramento - San Joaquin River Delta fisheries in crisis.

The recent decline of many California Delta fish populations is a catastrophe. Not everybody can appreciate the importance of saving the Delta smelt, but we should all understand why we need to save the salmon. The reduction or closure of salmon fishing along the entire west coast USA is a disaster for commercial and recreational fishermen and the communities that depend upon them. The problem is likely to result from many causes, so solutions to the California Delta salmon crisis will need to address many issues. Fluctuations in ocean conditions may be out of our control. We should act now to restore the degraded habitats in the California Delta. We should also export LESS water from the California Delta to southern California.

Much of the water exported south from the California Delta is used in the selenium-polluting agriculture of the western San Joaquin valley. It is foolish to allow destruction of the California Delta just to support continued irrigation of these toxic soils in southern California.

In California we can joke a little while fighting bitterly in our water wars, but the first of many real killing wars over water is already underway. Economist Jeffrey Sachs said that the conflict in Darfur is really a war over water resources. (Jeffrey Sachs interview - Daily Show 18mar2008)

(I have submitted an edited version of this post to my California Legislature representatives California State Senator Mike Machado and California Assembly Member Lois Wolk.)

For more information:
• California Delta Water Supply Policy & River Conservation.
• California Delta Directory - Water Policy, Conservation & Recreation. (75 sites).

Tags: California Delta, river conservation, river, water, water supply, water policy.

Labels: conservation

Subscribing to the newsfeeds that interest you is quick, easy & free.

See the left panel to subscribe to this blog in a reader, subscribe via aggregators, or have the feed sent to you via email.

Newsfeed Information and Tutorials.

• For information about newsfeeds see Web feed - Wikipedia and RSS Learning Center.
• Here is a brief tutorial about how to sign up for newsfeeds.
• Here is a list of newsfeed aggregators. Web-based aggregators organize your chosen feeds for reading in a web browser. Desktop news aggregator software can be installed on a computer and used to read the feeds. Aggregators are built into many web browsers and POP email softwares. Email based aggregators send the updates to you via email. Aggregators for mobile devices can display newsfeed info on cell phones, PDAs, etc.

Read newsfeeds in your web browser software.

Many websites enable you to set up a free account where you can collect (aggregate) your chosen newsfeeds. Subscribe to my blog via aggregators - see the left panel of my blog.
• My Yahoo & iGoogle homepages enable you to read your chosen newsfeeds and provide other frequently updated content such as TV schedules, weather, etc.
• Newsgator is a simple aggregator that is just for reading newsfeeds.
• Other Aggregators (Wikio, Rojo, Newsburst, My AOL, feedlounge, netvibes, bloglines). I think these are mostly simple aggregators.

Newsfeed updates sent to you via email, instant messaging or Twitter.

• FeedBlitz - subscribe to any Blog or website and get updates via email, IM or Twitter.
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More about: Newsfeed Basics and Tips for Bloggers.

Labels: blog

When the news media do not tell you all you want to know on your topic(s) of interest, then you can find more news on the Internet.

I read a big city newspaper and watch (too much!!) cable TV news, but these sources are not providing me with enough information specifically about water in California. Water issues are so critical for whitewater boating recreation, and also for everyday living, working and paying taxes in California.

Here are the newsfeeds that I am reading to provide a greater knowledge base for my blogging about river conservation and water policy issues in California. This gives me long lists of news headlines and lets me selectively read whatever articles my time and interests permit. Some of you may be interested in these newsfeeds and others may be interested in going to the online news sources to find other newsfeeds on different topics. Newsfeeds are provided for free with advertisements on the pages. Newsfeeds are dynamically updated to provide up-to-the-minute news that is not limited by the delivery schedule of your newspaper or the broadcast schedule of TV news.

Newspapers.

Major newspapers typically provide dozens of newsfeeds on a wide range of topics. California newspapers that provide newsfeeds include Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, Stockton Record, Red Bluff Daily News, Marysville Appeal Democrat, and Los Angeles Times.

I am currently reading the following newspaper feeds: Sacbee - Environment, LA Times - Environment, Stockton Record - Environment, Stockton Record - Agriculture.

Search Engines.

Search engines like Google News and Yahoo News provide newsfeeds for any keyword search that interests you. These contain news from newspapers and many other sites on the Internet.

I am currently reading search engine newsfeeds for keyword combinations including: peripheral canal, delta conveyance, river restoration California, California water, river California, Klamath River, California Delta, and San Joaquin River.

Blogs.

All blogs provide newsfeeds. Many of the sites listed in my River News Sources are blogs and I'm realizing that I don't visit these individual websites as often as I should. I'm hoping that picking out the very best of the water politics blogs and subscribing to their newsfeeds will help me to keep better informed about what they have to say. I subscribe to the newsfeeds from blogs written by some of my kayaking buddies. I also subscribe to the newsfeeds from my personal sites to keep an eye on how my content is displayed via the feeds.


It is quick and easy to subscribe to the newsfeeds that interest you. I'll write more about that in a future post.

More about: Tips for Bloggers.

Labels: blog

Whitewater kayaking on a great spring day in California.

MelodyS & I met Roberto, Danny & UrsS at Salmon Falls and loaded into Urs' truck for the shuttle to Greenwood River Access. The Gorge Run on SF American River was running at 1700 cfs (El Dorado County, California, USA). While getting dressed my full drysuit seemed like too much on a warm sunny day, but I was glad to have it once I got into the cold water of the river.


We surfed and floated through the class II section. At one especially good eddy line Melody, Roberto and Urs put on an exhibition of stern squirts.

More photos from this whitewater river kayak trip. It was nice to have a fully-charged camera battery this time!

We had a nice leisurely lunch at the usual spot on river-left a little ways above Fowlers Rock Rapid. Redbuds and some other flowers were blooming. We saw lots of ducks & geese, and the geese were back in their normal quiet state of calm.

The Gorge is a great whitewater run on a lovely spring day.

At today's flow the line to the left of Fowlers Rock was runnable without too much rock scraping and Urs ran part of the rapid over there. I made my intended line at Satans Cesspool Rapid, again running right along the top of the curling wave in the middle of the rapid. In fact, I made pretty good lines everywhere except at Bouncing Rock Rapid. There I missed my line and my attempts to power back onto my planned route got me into the corner of the hole together with Roberto. His boat smacked me, but fortunately it hit mostly the padding of my pfd so there was no problem.

Doing the shorter run from Greenwood put-in was good for me in my present state of fitness. I got in a little surfing, had enough energy to get to take-out in good form and had only a couple of brief moments of emergency bracing. I was running very careful lines though, mostly avoiding the biggest waves and not catching too many eddies.

Today I did a little test of the old dogma that cotton kills!! Cotton does soak up more water and cools you off more than synthetic fabrics do if exposed to the wind when wet. But sealed up under my drysuit my cheap old cotton t-shirt and sweatshirt seemed to work just fine. They also didn't pick up that wonderful stench that we are all so familiar with on our polypro garments.

Lake Folsom was at a level of 407 feet so we could paddle the last set of whitewater rapids after Surprise Rapid and floated the river current all the way to Salmon Falls take-out.

More about:
• Gorge Run American River SF - California Whitewater River Guides.
• Whitewater River Trips - Reports on Kayaking in California.

Tags: whitewater, river, kayaking, paddle boating.

Labels: trip

The Colbert Report today was dedicated to water and featured a visit to the American Museum of Natural History in honor of World Water Day.
• Water is Life - Colbert Report 20mar2008.

The American Museum of Natural History has an exhibit about the power of water. "Water surrounds us. Its force and abundance are the backdrop of our lives. Salty or fresh, water is everywhere - falling from the skies, rushing to the sea, lapping the shores, deep within the Earth - cycling in volumes that boggle the mind."
• Water - American Museum of Natural History.

March 22 World Water Day will be observed, but hardly celebrated. "Leaders who adopted the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 envisioned halving the proportion of people living without access to basic sanitation by the year 2015 - but we are nowhere near on pace to achieve that Goal."
• World Water Day.

More about: Water Supply Policy and River Conservation.

Tags: water, water policy, water supply.

Labels: conservation

Get the latest updates from everything that I am posting online.

• BRT Insights - Whitewater Kayaking blog. (newsfeed) This blog began with a river kayaking recreation focus. It has expanded to include my commentary on river conservation and water policy issues in California.

• Bruce's Photo Gallery - Picasa Web. (newsfeed) This gallery contains my river kayaking trip photos.

• delicious.com/brthomas Bookmarks. (newsfeed) This is a growing directory of websites focused on river recreation and river conservation in California. It is organized based on the natural watersheds and river canyons that are so important.

• Photos from brt_brt_brt - Flickr. (newsfeed) This gallery contains photos from my soccer team, some river kayaking photos and fauna from Sacramento Zoo.

• brthomas6's Channel - YouTube. (subscribe to my channel) This channel contains some short video clips that illustrate the fun of river kayaking and the beauty of the river canyons. I'm planning to add more videos that illustrate the basic skills for performance and safety while kayaking on whitewater rivers. YouTube does not provide newsfeeds, but they do have an internal system that allows people to subscribe to channels that interest them.

• Favorite WW Kayaking blogs. (newsfeed) On this site I combine the feeds for some of my favorite whitewater river kayaking blogs from a wide variety of authors. I rate blogs on a variety of factors including the quality of their content, relevance from my California-centered perspective, and on their Google PageRank. There are many ww kayaking blogs, but only a few have combined consistently good quality content with the publicity necessary to get good ranks at Google.

• Water policy in California.(newsfeed)
On this site I am including only the water-related articles from California Progress Report and filtering out the articles on many other topics that this site covers. In the future I may expand this newsfeed to include water-related articles from other California news media or blog sites.


• River Conservation - BRT Insights. (newsfeed)
On this site I am including only the river conservation and water policy articles from my BRT Insights - Whitewater Kayaking and filtering out the recreation-related articles.

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You can save a favorite or bookmark to the site(s) above that interest you and check back periodically to see if there is any new content posted. Bookmark this blog:


You can also copy/paste the newsfeed links above into your favorite newsfeed reading system. This will bring the new information into a convenient central location and make it easy for you to read it. More about this in a future post.

More about: Tips for Bloggers.

Labels: blog

Whitewater river excitement & water conservation issues displayed vividly in a big-screen format.

"Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk combines exhilarating river-rafting action on America's most iconic river, family fun and the grandeur of the Grand Canyon to tell an engaging story of how ordinary people can make a difference for our parched planet - one that is running out of clean, fresh water so fast that the U.N. estimates that 40% of the world could face life-threatening shortages by the year 2050." (MacGillivray Freeman's Grand Canyon Adventure : River at Risk.)

"Set against the immense backdrop of the majestic Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon Adventure will take IMAX Theatre audiences on an exhilarating river-rafting adventure down the Colorado River in the company of a team of explorers who are committed to bringing awareness to global water issues." (Grand Canyon Adventure - Esquire IMAX Theatre, Sacramento, CA.)

"The Grand Canyon, especially as seen from a boat, maximizes the potential of 3D film. From the splashy, water-droplets-in-your-face opening sequence to the sweeping red rock vistas, viewers can get a feel for the up and down motion of riding in the bow of a dory or what it's like to stare down the wave train at Lava Falls from behind the oars." (Grand Canyon Adventure - 3D Imax Film March 14, 2008 - Canoe & Kayak Paddling News.)

I haven't seen this one yet, but the trailer and the review in Canoe & Kayak sound great. IMAX 3D movie technology is incredible and I've totally enjoyed every other movie I've seen in this format.

Tags: water, water supply, water policy, river, whitewater, kayaking, paddle boating, rafting.

Labels: conservation, video

Whitewater kayaking is a great way to spend a sunny winter day in California.

Will, MelodyS & I carpooled to meet up with JohnS, Tobias, BrentD, & UrsS at Salmon Falls. It was neat to also run into ScottA & ChuckS who I'd last seen on the river a hundred years ago, maybe longer. We shuttled a lady from another group up to put-in at Greenwood River Access, but the mileage hogs in our group decided to go up to Lotus & park at the bakery. DawnD joined us there to put-in just below the Hwy49 bridge on river-right. (Parking there is OK on Sundays when the bakery is not open for business.)

The Gorge Run on SF American River had 4 hours of peak flow ranging from 1600 to almost 1800 cfs (El Dorado County, California, USA). The river was not being turned off completely overnight, but it was turned down and the daily peak flow of 4 hours was still clearly visible in the hydrograph from the last few days.

UrsS got some good rides at Barking Dog Rapid!

More photos from the kayak trip taken with my Olympus 720SW water resistant camera.

We had an upset at Barking Dog Rapid and many rescue boaters went downstream in pursuit. So just a few of us were left to do just a little surfing at Barking Dog before heading downstream. We enjoyed the sunshine, the clear air and the rare downstream winds through the long class II section of the run. It would have been a great day to take even more pictures, but my partially charged camera battery ran out at Highway Rapid. I had noticed some poppies blooming along the road down in Sacramento, but spring flowers were not yet blooming at the slightly higher elevations along the river. Pairs of geese were honking at each other at many places along the river. I guess they were competing for nesting sites. We had a quick lunch on river-left a little ways upstream from Fowler's Rock Rapid.

Whitewater river rapids provide a mental and physical challenge.

Despite our high level of boating experience and the great familiarity of our group with the GorgeRun in particular, some of us were focusing intently on making good runs at Satans Cesspool Rapid. I remembered getting tossed around there two trips ago and was determined not to let that happen again. I planned to run it on the fly like I did successfully on the last trip, but my entry line didn't feel right so I made a last minute decision to eddy out on the left and reset. Then I peeled out, ran a perfect line along the top of the curling wave and got through without even getting splashed. We had one more upset at Bouncing Rock Rapid, but this one had a quick happy ending. At Hospital Bar Rapid I followed MelodyS and Will on a semi-sneak route. We entered left to miss the big wave then immediately back to the center to avoid the rocks sticking out on river-left. Despite my great line at Satan's I got no points for technical merit on today's run due to the foolish emergency bracing that got me through in some places at the end of the day when my energy reserves were running low. Got to get my fitness back up to a decent level!!

Lake Folsom was at a level of 391 feet so we again could enjoy the last whoop-de-doo of whitewater after Surprise Rapid and float the river current all the way to take-out at Salmon Falls.

Thanks again to JohnS for organizing a great group on a great day for kayaking on a great whitewater river!!

More about:
  • Gorge Run American River SF - California Whitewater River Guides.
  • Whitewater River Trips - Reports on Kayaking in California.

Tags: whitewater, river, kayaking, paddle boating.

Labels: trip

Whitewater boaters (kayakers, rafters & canoeists) may lose interest in our rivers once they reach the flatlands but we should all pay more attention to the declining health of many of our rivers in California.

Many different fish populations are dropping dramatically towards extinction in many of our California rivers. Even if you are not a fisherman or a fish-eater you should care about this as an indicator of the declining health of our river ecosystems. Once the fish are all killed, then there will be one less reason preventing the developers from damming and draining all of the water from all of the rivers.

• Unprecedented Collapse of Central Valley Salmon Is No Surprise - Indybay 19feb2008.

• Total fishing ban on salmon weighed - sacbee 29feb2008.

All California taxpayers should be worried. Our no-tax-increases Governor actually wants to raise our taxes to build the Peripheral Canal in the California Delta and many dams in northern California to send more water to special interests in southern California. This Governor who claims to be pro-environment is really working to destroy the river environment by continuing the failed water policies of the 20th century. We can get more water at lower costs by adopting modern technologies of underground water storage, water recycling, and water conservation.

• Water Policy Debacle for California 12dec2007.

For more information:
• Water Supply, Water Policy & River Conservation in California.
• California Delta Directory - Water Policy, Conservation & Recreation. (75 sites).

Tags: river, whitewater, kayaking, paddle boating, rafting, canoeing, dam, water, water supply, water policy.

Labels: conservation