Forest Rambling

I had heard whispers of the mystical G-Wave. A wave said to be so magical and rare that people would do anything to catch a ride. There was even talk of some fairly high profile paddlers playing on this wave, only adding to the allure. It’s located about a mile or two downstream of the confluence of the North Fork American and the Middle Fork American, just outside of Auburn (also known as the Confluence run). The wave itself becomes really good from 20,000 cfs to 25,000 cfs, with some saying it goes a few thousand above and below the ideal flow bounds.  Thanks to Brian for this b/w idea. The runoff was so icky brown it was almost kinda disgusting to stare at for hours editing. So naturally following a torrential downpour, a small crew assembled to run the North Fork American Confluence run. This is a run I’ve done once before, but honestly didn’t like much due to the lack of any significantly interesting rapids. Of course, I had only ran it at 3,000 cfs. This day we were projecte...

Saturday: Dry January? Meet moist February. As a different kind of dry January wound on, all of us kayakers, skiers, and winter sport enthusiasts slipped deeper and deeper into a lack-of-precipitation induced depression. Though just as things were getting dire, precipitation forecasts started showing signs of a fairly large atmospheric river approaching the west coast.  Sure enough, t-2 days to the start of the precip, my iPhone flood warnings started popping off. Usually this means it’s going to be a great time.  All in my crew slept tight Friday as the rains began, knowing that the giant storm was raging and the rivers were rising. Our agreement was to wake up early and check the flows then decide which river to run.  There were a handful of runs we were eyeing; however the forecasts were calling for some absolutely outlandishly high flows. In fact, even the most seasoned veterans in the crew were concerned that flows would be too high. So our safe bet was the S...