Trip Report: American (South Fork "Gorge") - February 26, 2005

Run: Greenwood to Salmon Falls
Difficulty: III to III+
Flow: 1500 cfs

Headed out for the second run of the 2005 season from Greenwood Creek through the Gorge to the Salmon Falls take-out. Despite the threat of rain the following day, the weather was great with sun for almost the entire run. The flow was somewhere around 1500cfs or so. As a result some of the more fun & familiar features had washed out and there were some new surprises just underneath the surface. No major incidents, the river was pretty quiet. The final stretch past Hospital Bar through "Surprise" was actually a lot of fun - perhaps since the lake was low.

I'd like to get up there when it's flowing about 2,500, but regardless there's never a bad day on the river.

2005 Season is Open! - Trip Report: American (South Fork C-to-G) - Feb 12, 2005

Run: Marshall to Greenwood
Difficulty: II-III
Flow: 2000 cfs

I kicked off the 2005 season with a meander down the South Fork of the American, just from Marshall Park (Coloma) to Greenwood aka "C to G".

Beautiful sunny day, nice flow, probably around 2000 cfs. An extra layer and liner under my helmet as well as some pogies did the trick and I wasn't cold at all.

The problem with 2000 cfs is that some of playspots get washed out on the run. There were some fun boofs, and there was a nice wave at Barking Dog. Apart from that it was very routine and kinda boring. But, a good day to get my feet wet (so to speak). There was a group doing the Gorge that day, but I figured it'd be better to wait until next week before heading down there. The flows have been spikey, up to the high 2000's. For my first run since last Fall, I decided that running Satan's or Hospital Bar at 2800 cfs was more than I wanted to bite off.

I did the run with a group from GCP (Gold Country Paddlers), which worked out well. I used their ListServ to find out who was heading up and then just hooked up with them at the park. Very easy.

Anyhoo, the weather is supposed to rain all week and perhaps even through the weekend. That might make the run pretty interesting, so we'll see how the flows look after a week of rain.