American River (South Fork) - Video of Troublemaker Rapid

Map of the River

Troublemaker Rapid on the South Fork of the American is one of the more challenging rapids on the run. It is dramatically different in winter with flows over 5000 cfs versus the typical summer flows of 1500 cfs. Here are some clips showing different lines at different flows. If you notice the rocks in the middle of the river in the second set of clips, you can see how far under water they are at the higher flow. Quicktime is required for all of the movies.

Here's a view of the entire rapid to give some perspective: Video 10MB


High Flow (5500 to over 6000 cfs):

* Here is Brian's line river left, going across the tongue and then over "Gunsight" which is completely submerged. He tries to catch the surf wave at the end but doesn't quite make it. This is the obvious and easiest line at high flow: Video 10MB

* Here's Dave's line on river right just left of "Double Trouble" on the same day: Video 12MB

* Melvin takes the same line as Dave, but eddies out above Double Trouble first: Video 9MB

* A couple of guys head down together, one takes a nice line down middle/left but the other eddies out at the last second. You can't see it from the video, but there is a nasty ass rock pile on river left below Gunsight. At that flow you need to punch out of the eddy to get around to the right of Gunsight to avoid it - some might say the eddy isn't a good option once you get towards 7000 cfs. Check it out: Video1 9MB and Video2 9MB

Low Flow (1500 cfs):

* This is me on the "standard" line at most flows - eddy hop down river left then peel out to either go over Gunsight or go around to the right. Depending on the flow level, Gunsight can get very bony on the far side: Eddy Video 9MB and Gunsight Video 16MB

* Brian takes a tighter line further towards river right and catches the eddy further down after Troublemaker: Video 9MB.

You may note that there is no video of me running the rapid at higher flows - I promise you I did, just no one had the camera. ;-)