Discussion about paddling the South Fork of the Feather began when a group of us, Sam Drevo, Chris Totten, Todd Collins and myself were headed down to California for a whitewater symposium. We heard that this dam released run was in for the rest of October, none of us had run it and we were all excited to experience this section of whitewater.
Todd and I headed down to California on Thursday and met Sam and Chris in Chico, CA. We met some of Sam's friends at a bar in town to give us the beta on the South Fork. "You gotta do it, it's so worth it”, they enthusiastically shouted (after a few beers) “but, the shuttle sucks and it's really confusing." They wrote out directions from the put-in to the take-out and it was literally three pages long, front and back! Taylor, Sam’s friend, went on to say that the shuttle is about 1 hour from the take-out IF you don't get lost. So, after hearing this, we huddled and Todd and Chris shouted out, "Let's do it!" The only problem we had was that Sam needed to be in Coloma, CA for the beginning of the symposium by 5:00 pm that next day. After assessing our time schedule, we huddled again, "Let's not do it, but wait until our trip back and hit it on our way home." That ended up being a wise, wise decision, 'cuz our adventure starts like this:
We left the symposium at 3:00 pm on October 16th and projected arriving at the take-out of the South Fork of the Feather around 10:00 pm. We took our time to get there by stopping in the towns we were passing through. We were fortunate to have another addition to our group, Boomer. We met this awesome guy at the whitewater symposium and he had done the run the week prior. In our group of now 5 paddlers, Boomer was the only one who had ever done this section of river - not only that, but he was the only one who had any clue about the maze of logging roads we were about to enter. The caravan of three cars was led by our fearless leader Boomer. We arrived at the put-in (which is actually pretty easy to get too) around 10:30 pm. The put-in is a large dam, with a great pull-out for parking. "Sweet, I thought, that wasn't too hard." Well, to make a long, long, did I say long story short, we finally pulled over (not even finding the take-out) at 2:30 am. You know it's about time to pull over when you start seeing Sasquatch!.
The next morning, we awoke with sunny, crisp weather. We had breakfast and went on our way to find the take-out once again. Boomer continued to drive a little longer the night before and swore he had found the take-out. But Todd and I think he was hallucinating because the next morning we continued to drive and drive and drive and drive the same roads as the night before in search of the take-out. Finally, we came across this tucked away, left-handed turn in the logging road that was marked by a paper plate that said "Andy". Sam was so sure that this marking was a "kayaker" mark, so, we turned down that road and sure enough, we found the take-out . . . call it kayakers’ intuition.
Once we got to the take-out, we had another hour of driving to the put-in. We changed quickly and hopped in Boomer's truck. Use caution when approaching the put-in during the week, because there was a lot of logging going on. Logger’s definately don’t expect kayakers, so drive slowly. We found many huge trees being slid down hillsides and a lot of machinery and trucks along the curvy roads.
The river is about 400-500 ft down from the road, but there is an easy trail (at the put-in) down to the river. The river was running about 300 cfs. I wouldn't have wanted to run it any higher for my first time, since the eddies were small and moving even at this level. However, any lower than this and you would be fighting your way through many rocks.
"Are you nervous", Chris asked me. "No, not yet. I'm only going to think of each drop when I get there." I answered back. But, once I got down to the river and saw the first drop I said, "Chris, now I'm a little freaked out." The first drop consisted of a 12 foot ledge. Not only is this the first drop right as you put-in, but the ferry across the river to get into the river left eddy, is a pretty aggressive ferry. Your line was to ferry across, and delayed boof over the left side of the drop. If you miss the ferry and end up going over the right side of the drop, you are in for a very bumpy, rocky ride. I think looking back, this was my favorite drop. We all had fairly good lines. I think Boomer penciled in, but came out fine.
This first drop was our entrance into the Class V gorge. We continued downstream like a bunch of ducklings following our faithful, fearless leader Sam. He boat scouted everything and pointed out the lines for us to follow. We came upon the 30 footer in the gorge. Chris, Todd and I portaged 400 ft up, 400 ft over and 400 ft back down to the river. It was actually pretty sketchy - lots of gravel rocks to climb up. Sam and Boomer took a sneak route through the knarly rapid, I believe on river right, above the 30 footer and got out and portaged the 30 footer on river right.
One of the ledges at the beginning of the run, looked a bit sticky and I guess felt like kicking butt this particular day: I was up first! I sat above the drop, picking my line and timing each stroke in my head. “I know the hole is sticky, but you can do it”, I said to myself. I took a deep breath, picked up some speed and took a boof stroke . . . I landed flat, but not far enough in front of the ledge hole. I sat there paddling as hard as I could forward, and all I felt was the holes’ force pulling me back in. “Eeeeek”, I squeaked as my elbows came up in a defensive forward paddle, “Shit!” I took a couple more short, quick paddle strokes and the hole finally let go. “Thank God!” Boomer headed over the lip of the drop after everyone else . . . he disappeared. As Tod and I hung out downstream, waiting for Boomer to come our way, Sam and Chris watched as both Boomer and his boat got recirculated in the ledge hole. Finally, his boat came down, right past me, but as I looked over the horizon line of the next rapid, I chose not to go after his totally submerged boat. As his boat continued downstream, Sam and Chris watched as Boomer did laps in the hole, over and over again. Todd scrambled out of his boat with a rope. Boomer finally came out, with his paddle in hand, and got to shore.
We were playing with the idea of not finding Boomer's boat and having him and another person walk out. If we had decided to do this, I think we would still be there looking for them. This run is seriously in the middle of nowhere, so take that as caution. Boomer decided to walk downstream a ways and we were hoping to find his boat. As we rounded some class II boogie water, Sam yelled out "Eddy out, eddy out!" Now, thinking to myself, "Holy Shit, the 20 footer we are looking for must be right around the corner and I don't see a lot of eddies, oh god, oh god, I’m going over it!" I caught this small, moving eddy buried in brush, got out as quickly as possible and scrambled to a safe spot on shore. Little did I know, Sam was shouting eddy out, 'cuz he found Boomer's boat. I felt a little lame knowing that I was flailing everywhere for no reason - glad nobody saw me. After getting Boomer's boat to shore, Sam did some patchwork on it with duck tape, we all gave it some love and everyone continued downstream.
More and more Class IV+ whitewater stacked one on top of the other. We then came upon another ledge. Sam told us the line,”Just boof it and you’ll be fine.” “No biggy”, I thought. Chris styled it and I went next. Once again, I sat above the drop analyzing my line and timing. I peeled out and boofed. I ended up flipping at the bottom and rolled up facing the ledge hole. “Hmmmm dejavu”, I felt the force of this hole pull me in. I took the strongest back strokes I could and managed to pull myself away. You definitely needed a boof stroke. Next Todd went, followed by Sam. Their lines were very similar . . . they both totally disappeared, but came up away from the hole. After Sam went over, he said the hole was a LOT stickier than he thought. As Boomer came over the drop, his boof stroke was a little off and got stuck in the hole. He came out of his boat very quickly, tired from the first swim. We collected his boat and paddle right below this drop.
Since the portage around the 30 footer, Boomer informed us that there was also a 20 footer we needed to portage as well. So, we approached each horizon line with butterflies in our stomach. “Is this the 20 footer?” we’d ask Sam each time he stopped above a drop. We found out that the 20 footer is a ways downstream, I’m guessing in the last 3 miles of whitewater. You can imagine the intensity that was added to each drop, not knowing where the 20 foot waterfall was! Once we got to it, we didn't even stop to look at our line. This 20 foot waterfall significantly narrows down into a small chute. It looked good to go, but everyone was getting tired and cold, so we portaged and continued to paddle. More class IV+ rapids for another ½ mile and then the river started mellowing out . . .THANK GOD! I seriously don't think I could have taken another boof stroke.
Finally, we got to the reservoir. I was so happy to see flat water. We paddled 8 ½ miles of whitewater. In this 8 ½ miles, there were continuous, steep boulder gardens and ledges for about 7 ½ miles of it.
It was a pretty exciting run for me. I’m so used to getting out and scouting if I don’t know the line. But on this river, if you get out and scout every horizon line, you would make this section of river a multi-day journey.
We spent about 7 hours total on the river . . . scouting only a couple of drops, portaging twice, resting from some swims and the rest was full on paddling . . . AWESOME!
We had such a great team that day. Everyone supported each other and motivated each other. Todd and I talked about this river the entire trip home. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. For more information about this trip, along with more pictures (we didn’t have enough time to stop and take photos), go to www.oregonkayaking.com.
See Ya on the water! ~Heather~