Sunday, January 18, 2009
Electra Run, Mokelumne River, kayaking class II, 18jan2009.
Whitewater kayaking in California is great on a sunny, warm winter day.
JimH, BobL, MattM and I kayaked the Electra Run on the Mokelumne River (map & guide) (Amador County, California, USA) at a flow of 450 cfs. At this flow the whitewater was good, especially for playboating at Green Wave. It got up to 66 degrees in Jackson, CA, unseasonably warm for this time of year. The winter sun was low in the sky making most of the canyon very shady and the water temperature in the Mokelumne River was really cold, so we had to wear most of our winter boating gear.
BruceT playboating on a little Mokelumne River surf wave (photo by JimH).
BobL getting ready to make the next move kayaking down a whitewater rapid on the Mokelumne River (photo by JimH).
MattM maneuvering through a whitewater rapid on the Mokelumne River (photo by JimH).More Mokelumne River kayaking photos by JimH.
After not doing any kayaking the past three months it was a good warmup/tuneup for me to get back out on the river and have some fun on the good old Mokelumne River! There were lots of shallow submerged rocks everywhere, but there were clean lines to run all of the rapids without any bumping, grinding or boat abuse. It was fun to run the river all the way through Devil's Toilet Rapid, the biggest rapid on this section of the Mokelumne River. Fortunately, I had just enough gas in the tank to make the long climb up the hill to the road and the shuttle car.
Then on the way home we chanced upon a taco truck, so we stopped for a bite to eat.
More about:
• Mokelumne River Overview - California Whitewater Paddleboating Guides.
• Mokelumne River Recreation & Conservation Directory.
• Kayaking Trip Reports - BRT Insights.
Tags: playboating, Mokelumne River, California, kayaking, river, whitewater, paddle boating.
Labels: trip
