South Fork American River, CA. Summer release level

[dkeller]

This past weekend four of us (myself, oldest son, coworker and his son) flew into Sacramento and drove out to Coloma,CA to paddle the South Fork of the American River.

We met up with a guy we met three years ago paddling the Middle Fork of the Salmon and he welcomed us out to paddle (served as a great guide) the South Fork which literally flows past his house (just down a small hill) in Coloma. Weather was warm (80 - 90) and sunny and the water cool (dam fed) with flow release of around 1400 cfs on Fri and about 1600 cfs on Sat. On Friday we paddled the middle Class 2-2+ section and the lower Gorge Class 3-3+ section for a total of around 16 miles and then paddled the upper Class 2-3+ section which is about 6 miles. Easy to look up YouTube videos and descriptions of the river and rapids. Highlight on the gorge section was Satan's Cesspool which we all ran cleanly. Only major swim was my son at Scissor's rapid (Class 3) where we had to chase him about 1/4 mile although he got himself to shore on his own after running a few nice rapids holding onto his kayak.

I and coworker ran IK's while our two sons ran Jackson Flow kayaks.

Second day highlight was Troublemaker (class 3+) and the last rapid the upper section. No swims and actually walked back up and ran it again. Easy path there along river left where the big turn and drop are located.

We also took some time on the day we arrived to tour the historical area of Coloma (gold discovered there in 1848 which set off the gold rush) and stop off at a really nice farmer's market that had great local fruits, breads, etc. Really nice people.

Sat afternoon we drove out to see the put in for the Middle Fork of the American river which was thru some awesome mountains and down into a fairly deep gorge. We did not have time to do the hike to Tunnel Chute rapid (class 4) but still had a great time.

All in all, really recommend trying out that area for paddling and hiking of one in the area or looking for a new river(s) to paddle in the late spring and summer.

PS. I tried to upload files that were under 1MB but kept getting error that they were too large.

[Mango]

Thanks Lee.
You could post this and pictures on Coastals on Facebook.......
We have a group going out in September to that area.
Would like to see the pictures.

[dkeller]

Cannot figure out how to post on Coastals FB page. Especially multiple photos/videos.