Cali Trip - Part 2: The SF Yuba

...Continued from part one:

Hwy 49 bridge over the SF Yuba

After another night out underneath the stars, we once again awoke to bright sunny skies and warm morning temps. A few of us were up earlier than others, so we went into Downieville to see if the store was open and to check river levels by poaching WiFi from the Yuba Theater. Both Shawn and Jason made a phone call to their wives while I looked for a cup of joe. Unfortunately, not much was open and it was lookin’ like I was out of luck. After the phone calls were made and levels were checked, we jumped in the car to head back to camp. As we were pulling out of town we noticed a little diner with its open sign lit. After some quick deliberation, we decided to let the other chumps cook their own breakfast while we had ours cooked for us.
As we entered, it became obvious that this was the town's greasy spoon, equipped with an older waitress that wasn’t afraid to serve up a good dose of attitude with your meal. I understand having a bad day, but I think she was having more of a bad life; I literally thought she was going to crack a frying pan over Jason’s head when he "manned up" and asked for separate checks.

When we returned to camp, Eric and Amanda were packing up since they were departing that day for other adventures. While they were doing that, the rest of us discussed what we would run that day.
Based on the Dreamflow gauge, 49 to Bridgeport was still sitting around 1050 cfs. I was really hoping to hit it below a grand, and even that was on the high side of what I was planning to do it at. The decision was made to let it drop for another day and see where it was at then. Bill mentioned that Edwards to Purdons (E to P) on the SF Yuba was really fun and didn’t run that often. Since it was at a nice medium flow, and had also been highly recommended by Leah Wilson back in Eugene, we decided to give it a go. Essentially, E to P is one run up from 49 to Bridgeport on the same river, so it shares some of the same qualities, but is a bit easier and not as gorged out.


SF Yuba - Edward's to Purdon's (E to P)
As it turns out, finding the takeout made up the biggest adventure of the day. Even with Bill having been there a couple of times before, and the use of my GPS, we got lost more than once, and pretty much drove in a giant circle. After finally pulling out a map and some directions I forgot that I had printed out, we got back on track and finally reached the Purdon's Crossing bridge. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones who were planning to enjoy this section of river, for the parking area was packed to the brim with other boaters, along with people that just wanted to lay out on the rocks like lizards. I guess 70-80 degrees and sunny skies will do that. I was actually wishing I had a shorty drytop and shorts instead of my damn drysuit.

View looking upstream from the
takeout bridge, at Purdon's Crossing
(photo by Shawn Haggin)

After dropping off my car, we headed to the put-in at Edwards Crossing. We pulled up to find the same situation as the takeout, a jam packed parking lot that forced us to park quite a ways up the road on a very narrow pullout. Not wanting to get geared-up until the last minute (due to the heat), most of us hiked our gear down to the river before putting it on. After we all had launched into the water we headed downstream.
The run immediately felt bigger, after being on the small creeks and lower volume river the previous days. I was pretty glad we had decided to run this before 49 to Bridgeport, for it would allow us a good warm-up on some pushier water. Since Bill had done the run before, and boat scouting was fairly easy, we didn’t get out of our boats at all and made quick work of the run. Unfortunately, this meant that I wasn’t able to take any pictures, which is a shame since it was another beautiful run. I would have to give it a solid III+/IV rating with a couple of drops that were solid IVs. Probably the most memorable part of the run was all the people in their birthday suits, lining the banks throughout the run; it did make a couple of rapids harder than they really were, due to the distraction…
At the takeout, we hiked up the steep bank to the parking lot. We had planned to head over to the Chamberlain Falls section of the NF American for a lap on that one as well, but after the time spent finding the previous takeout and the fact that we had a big day ahead of us tomorrow, we decided to call it a day and head back to camp to hang out.
A more detailed trip report of this run can once again be found on the "A Wet State" website (here).

Chris, Shawn, and I share some bromance at the takeout
(photo by Jason Naranjo)

SF Yuba - 49 to Bridgeport
The next morning we made some hearty breakfast burritos and headed towards the river. On the way, we stopped at a gas station to once again check levels, and luckily it had dropped to ~950 cfs, setting up what we were pretty sure would be a great day.

The gauge used for 49 to Bridgeport.
We ran it on the 31st and had ~950cfs.

We had planned to meet Aaron Loft at the 49 Bridge put-in, but before we could do that, we needed to first drop off a car at Bridgeport, the takeout. After dropping off my car, we headed back the way we came and then took a right on Hwy 49 toward the meeting spot.
As we pulled in, Lofty came into view sitting in the parking lot doing some construction on his Nomad. I’m still not sure what exactly he was doing to it, but the whole cockpit was taped up and it looked like a pretty serious operation.
Knowing that I wouldn’t be the last one on the water, I relaxed and took my time packing my gear down to the river bank, where once again I planned to get suited up. The weather was warm, but not the sunny weather we had the previous day, much more overcast. Although it does take some of the solar courage away, I find it easier to read rapids with the high clouds.

The put-in comes equipped with stairs
and nice flat rock to gear-up on!

The view downstream was an impressive one, and the run pretty much starts out with a bang and no real warm-up; in fact, some of the hardest rapids of the run are in the first mile. One of my favorite things about this river is the white granite that forms the rapids and lines the banks. It makes for a kayaker's playground, with smooth boofs over ledge drops, and technical boulder gardens. It doesn’t come without its hazards though. Probably the most feared (for good reason) are sieves. Luckily this run has a reputation for being pretty clean, with only a couple of rapids that have real trouble spots. In my opinion, it is not on the level of consequence of the Tobin section of the NF Feather, where they are in play for essentially the whole length of the run. All of this said, the white stuff is certainly a draw for me, and I don’t think there is anything more symbolic of the California Sierra runs like its granite.

View from the put-in looking downstream at a couple of
warm-up rapids. The hwy 49 bridge is spanning overhead.

View looking downstream from atop the hwy 49 bridge at a
couple of the bigger drops at the beginning. The mandatory
portage is just out of view and around the corner.

Once everyone had geared up and slid in, we headed downriver. We ran a couple of entrance rapids before we came to the first real horizon line -- a two-part drop with a big hole center-left at the bottom where the water slammed into a large boulder, backing up the hydraulic. After some quick boat scouting, it was determined that there was a narrow line hard right which could be used to sneak past the grips of the hole. The line was not hard to hit, and everyone came through cleanly.

Just below this drop is the next horizon, a decent sized hole with an airplane turn that skirted it. The line here was to drop into it from river left, and right angle down the tongue that directed you to the center of the river below the drop. A missed line here could have resulted in some rodeo action, but the line was not too hard, and once again everybody rejoined in the eddy below.

The airplane drop from above, the view
partially being blocked by the trees
(photo by Shawn Haggin)

Jason does it right down the tongue of the airplane turn

Immediately below this drop was the start of a maze through the giant white boulders. Everybody had eddied out, and they were walking down the bank to give it a scout.
The first part of the drop consisted of some fairly pushy water, but open line, through the top of the maze. The second part of the drop basically dropped over a steep pile of boulders with a couple lines and a couple places you didn’t want to be. To me, the drop didn’t look that clean, and I didn’t really like any of the line options on down the steep boulder pile.

Looking downstream into the top part of the boulder maze

With that, I gave the others the signal that I was planning on walking it. Bill had also come to this decision, but headed downstream first to set-up safety for the others since the mandatory portage was lurking just below this drop. As I walked back to my boat, I saw Chris and Shawn run the first part and catch an eddy river-right, just above the boulder jumble. They each pulled out and had really clean lines down through it. Next came Jason, who also styled it in similar fashion; although he did mention to me later that it was pretty trashy and he bounced off a couple of underwater rocks on the way down.
The portage route was pretty easy on the river's left bank, and I was back in my boat and below the drop with the others after only a few minutes.
I was then asked if Bill was planning to walk it, to which I replied, “That’s what he told me”. Since we planned on having a nice safe trip down the river, I signaled to Bill to confirm. Apparently he had changed his mind after watching the others have such clean lines, and he motioned that he was indeed planning to run it.
After a few minutes of sitting in the eddy below as safety, Bill had still not come down. I got out of my boat and climbed up onto the rocks to look upstream and make sure everything was alright. Soon enough, I saw him paddling down through the first part of the drop. I gave everybody the signal that he was coming down. After eddying out for a brief moment in the same one that the others had used, he lined up on the bottom part and dropped in. Unfortunately, he was flipped near the top of it by a tricky curler, and ran the remainder upside down. He rolled up easily at the bottom as we all cheered him on. As he paddled over to the river left eddy where Shawn, Jason, and I were sitting, you could tell something was wrong and he was in pain. As it turns out, he had hit his head pretty good on one or more of the many rocks forming the drop, which was confirmed by the deep scratches on his helmet. The pain was in his neck, and obviously the primary concern was whether it was spine related. After a quick examination and a breather, we made the determination that it wasn’t a major injury; however, it was difficult for him to move his head from side to side without pain. Obviously this would not allow him to continue downstream effectively. We now had to figure out how to get him up to the road so he could get to his car, which luckily was at the put-in less than a mile upstream.
At this point, Jason decided to head downstream to let Chris and Aaron know what was going on. They had been figuring out the best way around the mandatory portage, and were probably wondering what had gone wrong. This left it to Shawn and I to safely get Bill across the river so he could hike up the steep bank to the road. Since we would be ferrying above the unrunnable portage, we took extra precautions even though it wasn’t a difficult ferry. I went across first and set-up a rope, as Shawn accompanied Bill during the crossing. Everything went without a hitch, and he was now safely on the river-right bank. After verifying a couple more times that he was OK, we parted ways and Shawn and I headed down to the others and the portage route.

Since the river was at a solid flow, it allowed us to make our way down about half of it via a little side channel. Once we had to get out of our boats, it was a pretty easy hike down to where the others were stationed on river left below.

Jason empties his boat (actually mine) below the mandatory portage

Right after the portage was the biggest runnable drop to this point, Mr. Squiggly. There was a pretty decent sized hole at the top of the drop, where it then funneled down through some other large hydraulics, before ending in slack water at the base. For some reason, no one in the group gave it much thought, and started the portage around this one as well. Perhaps, with the incident we had just encountered above, we were playing it a little too conservative, but once again our goal was to get everyone down safely, and hey, it’s always good to leave something for future runs as well…

Below Mr. Squiggly, the river mellows out quite a bit and allows you to take in the views for the next mile or two. Just as you start wondering when you’re gonna come to the next big horizon line, the walls start to gorge up, signaling the next stretch of harder water. This part of the river has some really fun pool-drop rapids in a gorge that was much tighter than what we had been through above. That said, the drops were certainly no more difficult.

Lofty runs one of the beginning drops in the second gorge
(if you count the top section as the first gorge)

Once in the gorge, the first drop that I actually got out to take pictures for, I believe, is called “Tower”. After a technical lead-in, the river splits around a couple of boulders in the middle of the river. The left line formed a banking turn against the wall and looked fun enough, however, the right side had one of the classic boofs that 49 to Bridgeport is known for. Basically, two rocks form a narrow slot where the water piles up slightly on the right one, forming the boof platform. The drop is probably 6 to 8 feet, and can launch you pretty good if you hit it correctly. Unfortunately, I got a little squirrely just above it and didn't hit the target dead on. I hate screwing up such an awesome boof opportunity.

Jason scouts the lead-in to Tower

Chris gives Tower a thumbs up after a quick scout

Lofty nails a nice boof off of Tower

Chris digs in at Tower

Shawn airs it out

After Tower, we ran a couple more gorged-out drops before coming to a river-wide 8 to 10 foot waterfall. After contemplating the drop for a few minutes, we all decided to shoulder our boats around it. There appeared to be a few different lines with sweet looking boofs, however, it appeared to be dropping onto a shallow shelf in the middle, and had pretty decent holes on either side. Since none of us had done the run before, we played it safe. I've since been told that this ledge is referred to by some as Marshmallow Drop, due to its soft landing, go figure...

After we had all made the portage, another group of boaters headed toward us from upstream. Without even boat scouting, they all fired off the waterfall Blue Angels style. Kickin' ourselves a little for not running the falls, we pulled into the eddy next to them and exchanged greetings. Apparently these guys were locals and graciously offered to show us some of the lines below. I believe the guy's name that was giving me beta was Joel. He was super friendly and tailored the lines to my comfort and ability level, based on a few questions. He mentioned that we had some mellow boogie water before the "goods" started in the next gorge.
Once we got there, we ran quite a few horizon lines based on verbals and following close behind. A couple of the drops were fairly large and probably verged on 4+/5-. One particularly fun drop was a low angle slide into a large hydraulic at the bottom. It was fairly benign, and put a smile on all of our faces.
We were now sitting in some slack-water above a pretty good horizon line. Joel described the drop as a large pushy S-Turn that should be eddied out left at the bottom to scout the next drop from shore. I asked him how big the eddy was and what happens if you end up running the next drop. His response was "You're really gonna want to scout it..."
With that, I entered the drop in the main flow, and followed the current down through the drop. As soon as I saw the eddy that I needed to hit, I set my angle and busted through the seam and into it. The outflow of this drop was actually flowing into the next one pretty good, so I was grateful that he had described what side the eddy was on.

The giant S-Turn that leads in to Eat the Meat

We made our way down the giant granite slab on river left to scout the drop below us, appropriately named "Eat the Meat". Basically, the drop funnels down through some pretty pushy water, ending in a big hole at the base. Luckily the hole was diagonal downstream to the left, so an unintentional ride in it probably would have only lasted for a few "ends".
At this point, Joel and his crew (who had run the drop without scouting) were sitting in the river-left eddy below. As he called to me, I ran down the rocks to see what was up. He basically said to run the drop as the name implies and hit the gut of it, mentioning that trying to sneak it on the right to the eddy on that side was harder than it looked, and usually results in a flip or going into the hole backwards. After that, he told me that they were going to be taking off downstream and we should only have a few more scouts after the next drop, "Corner Pocket", which was just below us and that they planned to walk around. He stated that he had taken his lickin' in the big hole at the bottom, and didn't feel like having one of those days. After thanking him and waving goodbye to their crew, I headed back up the rocks to the others.

Chris, Shawn, and Lofty were already getting into their boats to run the drop. I talked it over briefly with Jason, and we both decided that neither of us felt like dropping in and once again made the easy walk around.
Both Chris and Shawn had similar lines, heading to the right and breaking through the soft part of the hole on that side.

Chris partially through Eat the Meat

Shawn running a similar line as Chris at Eat the Meat.
If you look carefully, you can see Joel and his crew
portaging Corner Pocket on river right.

Shawn busts through the soft part of the hole at Eat the Meat

Aaron, while trying to get even further right (possibly to get into the bottom right eddy) was spun around in the tricky current and went into the bottom hole backwards, just as Joel had described. He flushed out and quickly rolled up after spending only a couple of moments in the hole.

Aaron in the large eddy between the S-Turn lead-in and Eat the Meat

Lofty gets spun around in the middle of
Eat the Meat as he tries for the hard right line.

Lofty throws an end in the hole at Eat the Meat

Below Eat the Meat are a couple of river-wide holes before reaching the entrance to Corner Pocket; both of the holes can be fairly easily punched on river right. I felt that this was the most visually impressive section of the canyon and was worth spending a couple minutes to take in the view.

I had been told (and had read) before the run that a small one to two boat eddy on river right at the very edge of the lip is used to portage Corner Pocket. Although this eddy does exist, there is also another larger eddy just above it, which is much easier to catch, and adds only a very minor amount of extra work. After choosing this option, we all made the long but easy walk around the drop to a rock shelf at the base of it. Here we rested a bit, ate a snack, and enjoyed our surroundings for 15 minutes or so.

Looking up at Corner Pocket, where the bottom hole is notorious for dealing out
punishment. The left-hand wall is extremely undercut with a strong eddyline
feeding into it, not a place to swim. Far upstream in this picture is Eat the Meat.

The crew takes a break and tells fish stories
at the end of the portage around Corner Pocket

Now that we were below Corner Pocket, we knew we still had a few big drops before the river started to mellow out a bit. I didn't take any more photos for the rest of the run, since we wanted to make tracks. That said, there were definitely a couple of standouts.
The first was a drop called "Around the World" (a.k.a. Typewriter) with a fairly long lead-in to a diagonal hole on river left which you rail-slide to get back to the center of the river. This one actually tripped-up a few in our group, and provided some good rodeo moves.
The next memorable one was a ledge with a sweet 6 to 8 foot boof center-right; I believe this one is called "Dues". We all had stylish lines off of this one.

We then came to a long/complex drop above which we got out to scout from river right. Essentially, the entrance had a nice 6 to 8 foot boof ledge where the river then made its way down through the next series of moves. Included in this was a rather tough looking ferry above a sieved out lower part of the drop; although at this flow it was pretty filled in and you probably could have made it through even if you were out of control. However, being out of your boat was certainly not an option. Both Aaron and Chris ran the entrance boof and then got out above the ferry where they started the portage; the rest of us just portaged from the top. I'm certain this drop must have a name since it is one of the largest on the run. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any information about it, but it might be the one referred to as "Hairy Ferry", it's at least in that area, and the name was somewhat suggestive.

The last drop of any significance is "Tiger Tail". Once again we scouted this one by walking down the rocks on the left side. We only went about halfway down but determined the whole drop looked good to go. It's a pretty long drop with a couple of moves that need to be made. This includes a decision to go right or left of a midstream rock at the very bottom. I opted for the left side slot, and came through without issue. There were quite a few spectators on shore, which indicated to me that we must be getting close to the takeout. I wonder how many of them actually know what lies upstream...

From here it was pretty much class III to the takeout, with maybe a couple bordering on class IV. Soon enough, the wooden covered bridge came into view, which marked the takeout at Bridgeport.

The wooden covered bridge at the takeout

I was pretty happy to have finally checked this one off of the list, which had been a goal of mine for some time. Although I did have a few portages, I know I'll be back to take down some of those as well; the run is well worth the drive down and truly a classic. In the end, I felt like it was of similar difficulty (or slightly easier) to the Devil's Canyon wilderness run on the MF Feather, but obviously not nearly as long. Although most of the big drops can be portaged fairly easy, and most don't have significant consequence, it's still a solid 4+/5- run that would be an epic adventure to hike out of in most spots.


As we reached the parking area, we were relieved to see that Bill had dropped off our gear at my car; this indicated that he was off the river safe and sound. I later called him and he told me that after a precautionary visit to the hospital, he confirmed that he had not suffered any spine or bone damage, and therefore was determined to be soft tissue related. I was pretty bummed that he wasn't able to finish the run with us, since he had also been wanting to do it for awhile and I know he would have really enjoyed it. I guess we'll just have to make sure to get down there again so we can be there when he does...

We were all pretty tired out after the run and celebrated with a couple of beers at the takeout. Shawn and Chris had more than the rest, and provided some comic relief for the next couple of hours (at least in their minds). After going into Nevada City for dinner, we headed back to camp for some cowboy T.V. and our last night's sleep in the Sierras.

Lofty explains the finer points of California livin'.
After a few cold ones of course...
(photo by Jason Naranjo)

The next morning, we ate breakfast and packed up camp. Everyone but Chris hadn't had their fill of boating, that along with the fact that Shawn hadn't done Lavezzola convinced us to do another lap on it, which is documented in part 1 of the trip report, here.

After taking off of Lavezzola (which ended up being much better with more water), we loaded up and headed back to our home state, Oregon. Everybody but Shawn was planning to stay at Jason's parents house for another night on the way back. Before Chris and I left California, we made one more stop for a burger and fries at In-N-Out, a Cali staple.

Chris after puttin' fuel in the tank

What a great trip! Thanks to everyone who made it happen, including the ones that didn't even come along (i.e. Leah and Gabe). I'm sure there will be another one next year!

Cali Trip - Part 1: Pauley and Lavezzola Creek

After a great trip down the MF Feather last Memorial Day weekend, (trip report here) Jason, Shawn, Chris and I decided to head down to California once again this year for another boating adventure. Originally, we had discussed doing another multi-day self-support trip, this time on Deer Creek, however, with the unpredictable water levels, we decided it would be best to just head down there and boat whatever had the best flows. With the large amount of snowpack in Cali this year, our concern was that levels would actually be too high, but cooler than normal temps kept the levels at bay, and they only came up slightly due to the rain that was hammering the entire west coast. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to bring Deer Creek to a boatable level, so instead we headed further south to attack the Yuba drainage.

I had heard of Downieville as both a world class kayaking and a mountain biking destination, so I was pretty excited that this was where we were planning to base our operation. I had also drooled over trip reports, photos, and videos of runs like Pauley Creek, 49 to Bridgeport, and Giant Gap; they had been on my list for awhile now and I was really looking forward to knockin' a couple off.

It was now Wednesday evening, and the time of our departure had come. Chris, who was coming down from the Portland area, met me at my house where we tried to shove all of our gear into my Outback. Normally, two people with boating gear wouldn't be a problem in this type of vehicle, but as anyone will tell you, I pack everything but the kitchen sink, and man do I love gear! After packing 'er full, we headed south to Grants Pass where we would meet up with Shawn and Jason at Jason's parents' house. Jason, who now lives in San Diego, flew up here just to go on the trip; it really shows how much he likes me...oh, and the other guys and boating as well, I guess.
Once Chris and I arrived and traded pleasantries with Jason's folks, we headed to the bar "JD's", which is part of our southern destination ritual. Usually this place serves up quite a few stories of interesting encounters and misadventures, but this night it was pretty quiet, which I assume had to do with it being the middle of the week. After a couple of rounds of beer and shuffleboard, we headed back to Jason's abode for some rest before continuing south.

The next morning, I awoke to the smell of bacon and eggs which Jason's mom had prepared for us. Like every other time I've been to their house, they treat you like one of their own and give you the star treatment; it was good to be back! After devouring breakfast, we headed to the grocery store to grab some food for the trip before making our way to the California border. As tradition would dictate, our first stop in Cali was the Sierra Nevada brewpub. It's fairly expensive, but the food is pretty good, and man I love their beer! We had lunch and did a small self-tour of the brewery before heading to our final destination, Downieville.

When we finally pulled into Downieville, it was drizzling rain, which was very reminiscent of the state we had just come from. Is this really what we had traveled to sunny California for!? Being the wimps we are, we all decided to just kick in on a hotel room and wait for the rain to subside before camping out, hopefully the following day. We ended up staying at the Riverside Inn, which as the name suggests, sits right on the Downie river which flows through town. Both Pauley and Lavezzola (separated only by a single ridge) combine to make up a majority of the flow of this river, with each of the confluences being ~1 mile upstream from our hotel room, basically within walking distance.

Topo of Pauley and Lavezzola Creek.
The cool thing is you can lap both in the same day since
they're short, (~3 miles each) separated by a small ridge,
and share pretty much the same put-in and takeout!

The room was ~$100 an night which wasn't too bad since it was split four ways. It also had a full kitchen, free breakfast, and a fireplace to sweeten the deal and make it a little more romantic for the other guys...

Our room (photo stolen from their website)

View from the back porch of the Downie River

View from the back porch looking at the bridge into town

Downieville

Downieville with the ridge separating
Lavezzola and Pauley in the background

Once we had settled in, we decided to do a little recon and scout Pauley, as well as head up to the Love's Falls section on the NF Yuba to see what that was all about. (Love's Falls on Oregon Kayaking) After a quick drive up the road from our hotel, we parked at the "Second Divide" trailhead which can be used to hike into Upper Pauley. (adding ~1.5 miles to the normal run) The normal put-in can be accessed by simply hiking down the hill from the trailhead, skirting the private property on the uphill side. (being careful not to trespass on their land) Since we were just scouting, we quickly ran up the trail to scout the upper stuff. We peered over the edge in a couple of spots where we saw what appeared to be a lot of fun class 3 to 4 drops; although, since we were between one and two hundred feet above the creek it was hard to tell for sure.

Shawn scouting Pauley Creek from Second Divide Trail
(photo by Jason Naranjo)

After looking at Upper Pauely for a 1/2 hour or so, we headed back to the car and drove up past Sierra City to the Love's Falls on the NF Yuba where the PCT bridge passes overhead. It had actually started to snow on us as we drove through Sierra City, and soon it was dropping quarter sized snowflakes. We parked as soon as we saw the PCT sign, and then hiked down the trail about 1/4 mile to the bridge. I have never run this section, but my understanding is that the bridge can also be used as a put-in to avoid trashy class 5 stuff above. What we could see from the bridge was pretty sweet looking with a huge classic boof just below us. It certainly looked like more than I was willing to bite off, especially with no warm up and a solid flow of water. After drooling over the back-to-back ledge drops, which made up all of what we could see, we headed back to our sleeping quarters.

Shawn and me on the PCT bridge over the Love's Falls section
(photo by Jason Naranjo)

View from PCT bridge looking upstream at the Love's Falls Section
(Photo by Jason Naranjo)

Once we were back at the hotel, I called Eric, who would be meeting up with us the next morning. Next, we cooked up a mean pot of pasta, had some beers and mountain taffy, enjoyed the fire, watched some bizarre comedy channel, and crashed out for the night. The next morning we woke up to partly cloudy skies and a free breakfast at the innkeepers' quarters. They were a nice couple and told us (in a roundabout way) they don't get many mountain bikers and kayakers staying there because of how cheap we are... Can't say I was too surprised. About the time we finished up breakfast with our hosts, Eric and Amanda rolled up in his ultimate shuttle rig. Since they had driven until 2am, Eric decided to sit a lap out and catch us on the next one. With that, he graciously ran our first shuttle.

Pauley Creek:
Based on the internet gauge on the Dreamflows website, (here) we had ~225 cfs, which is a low to medium-low level. After running the creek I would have to agree.
Since we were planning to do a couple of laps we decided to wait for Eric to hike into the upper section, and instead put-in near the Second Divide trailhead. It's about a 5 to 10 minute scramble down to the creek depending on where you want to put-in; we decided to start just above the first technical drop we came to. The first thing that struck me was how beautiful this place was, it was going to be a great day!

Shawn pulls out of the eddy at the put-in to Lower Pauley

After a fairly mellow warm-up section, and an easy class IV mini gorge, we arrived at the first major drop of the run, a ~12 footer, Federal Falls. At this level it was pretty straightforward down the right side with no real hydraulic at the base. I've heard that at higher flows, the hole gets pretty sticky and left is actually the preferred line. I set up for some shots while the other three ran it nice and clean. I quickly put my camera away and peeled out of the eddy toward the drop. I ended up taking my boof stroke way too early, (which I have a habit of doing) and subbed out pretty good, but came out upright with a big smile on my face; good fun!

Chris stretches for the delayed boof at Federal Falls

Shawn drops over the lip of Federal Falls

By this time, Chris and Shawn had already scouted the next drop and gave me the sign to run it left, which I did without issue. The others came through shortly after.

Chris digs in at the ledge just below Federal Falls

More mellow water ensued until we came to the next horizon line, a nice slide with a small boof, followed quickly by another small ledge. We all ran it starting center left and angled right down the slide. After the boof, a quick move was made back to the left to run the bottom ledge.

Next up was a fun 6 to 8 foot ledge, which allowed for a nice boof. Chris signaled the line down the middle and we all fired it up with good lines.

Jason drops over the 6-8 foot ledge

Jason and Chris relax just below the ledge drop shown in the previous photo

(photo by Shawn Haggin)

A couple of river bends later, the wall narrowed down signaling the second waterfall, Split Falls (a ~15 foot drop). After a quick scout, I offered to run it first so I could set-up for some photos from below. The line that I planned was to set-up on the right side of the narrow entrance, angle left down the slide and hit the boof about halfway down. Luckily everything went according to plan, and I was now sitting below what would be my favorite drop of the run. One by one, the others came through with similar lines and results.

Chris hittin' the kicker at Split Falls

Shawn droppin' in to Split Falls

Jason gets airborne at Split Falls

From here, the rest of the run was class 2-3 all the way to the takeout at Pauley Falls. Unfortunately this 20 footer looked a little bony to run on this day. I was wishing the creek had another 75 to 100 cfs to clean-up the entrance a bit; in a couple of days I would have my wish...

Soon after we had gotten back from grabbing the second car from up top, Eric showed up at the takeout ready for some action. This time we hiked up Second Divide until we saw a sign for Third Divide Trail (probably about a mile and a half). Shortly after this, a spur trail heads down to the right and to the creek. All in all, it was a pretty easy hike which maybe took 20 minutes. There is a cool little mining cabin and outhouse here that is worth checking out, if you have a few minutes.

After putting on, we quickly had to portage a river-wide log before continuing downstream. What followed was what I considered to be the best section on Pauley, minus the waterfalls. To me it felt more tight, technical and gorged out, with low stress class III/IV drops stacked on top of each other. We ran it at a fairly rapid pace, so I didn't get out to take any photos, except at one of the taller ledge drops.

Eric goes over one of the taller ledges on the upper section of Pauley

Soon enough, we were back to where we had put on the first time, and since we now knew the lines we blazed down with Eric following by sight and verbals. Since I already discussed the run above I won't go into too much detail, but a couple of parts are worth telling...
The first one happened at Federal Falls. Since we knew it was a pretty safe drop, we all conspired to lead Eric over it with minimal beta. My understanding is that he was told there was a small ledge coming up that you wanted to be right on; the line was correct, just the height was a little off. =) I came through last, only to see Eric with a big smile on his face, apparently he had a great line and was very accepting of our little prank.
The second occurred at Split Falls. I was dragging a little behind, and as I approached the lip I could hear all sorts of hootin' & hollerin'. I was used to this behavior paddling with Jason over the years, but decided to eddy out left and peer over the edge to see what all the commotion was about. As it turns out, they had all bombed over the fall "blue angel style", and Shawn had gotten stuck in the hole. Unfortunately, Eric was right behind Shawn, and also got stuck trying to avoid hitting him. Luckily they both made it out without swimming and had a good laugh about it afterward.

In the end, I would have to say that Pauley Creek is a great run, even at these lower flows. Basically, it was low stress class 4 which made for a nice warm-up to our trip. We had planned to also run Lavezzola, but we were a little tired and had heard mixed reviews on the run. With that we called it a day, and headed back to the hotel, which we decided to keep for another night since the weather was once again looking iffy.

The following morning we were greeted with bright sunny skies and warmer temps; according to the innkeepers it was forecasted to get into the mid 70s. This is what we came to Cali for!

Wild Plum (NF Yuba):
It was now Saturday, and we decided we'd run the "Wild Plum" stretch of the NF Yuba (called the "Sierra City" run on Oregon Kayaking). The flow for the NF Yuba at Goodyears Bar was ~1400 cfs (here), which correlated to ~650 cfs at Sierra City (here).
We paddled from Wild Plum campground to Shangri-la Resort. According to our highway miles, this made for a ~11 mile day on the water. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the run, however, I can say that it is really high quality with miles of continuous class IV, and a couple of IV+ gorges. It's definitely worth doing if you're in the area. I have to say I was a little tired out by the end of the run. Here is a trip report from the "A Wet State" website, Wild Plum.

Since the weather had gotten so nice, we decided to man up and do some campin'. Eric had spent another day on Pauely and Lavezzola with his buddy from Sacramento, Bill. I had paddled with Bill in Oregon and we had a great time on the river, so I was glad he was showing up for this trip. Eric, Amanda, and Bill had already picked out a site and set-up camp at Ramshorn, about 5 miles west of Downieville. It ended up being a pretty nice campground with only a few other people staying there. This would be our home for the remainder of the trip.
As soon as we walked into camp, we were told of their day of boating, which came with high marks for Lavezzola. I made the comment that I wish we would've done it, and no sooner did the words come out of my mouth did Eric jump on the idea of another lap. It was only 5pm, and although I was worn out from already boating quite a few miles, I didn't want to miss out on doing the run while we were in the area. He was also able to corral everyone else, except Shawn who wanted to get started on the fire; the boy loves building a fire...

Lavezzola:
Based on the internet gauge here, Lavezzola had an estimated 250 cfs, and once again a medium-low flow. Amanda needed to grab some things in Downieville, so she graciously offered to run our shuttle. We once again headed up the road which follows the ridge separating Pauley from Lavezzola. This time we drove past the Second Divide Trail for a short distance to where a bridge crosses over Lavezzola Creek, marking the put-in. Since both Eric and Bill had done the run before, they were able to guide us down without scouting from shore. I have to say, I was actually pretty impressed with the run; although I don't feel it was as good as Pauley, it's certainly a great addition if you're already there. There were a couple of standout rapids, with two of them being double drop ledges. It also has a few sections that were similar to the upper Pauley run with more of a tight mini-gorge feel.

Jason in one of the bigger drops on Lavezzola
(taken on the last day at higher flows)

Shawn on the same drop
(taken on the last day at higher flows)

Jason and Shawn enjoy the scenery in one of the beautiful mini-gorges
(taken on the last day at higher flows)

Shawn runs the second tier at one of the fun double drops
(taken on the last day at higher flows)

The author drops over the first tier of the same drop
(taken on the last day at higher flows by Jason Naranjo)

Jason dropping over the second tier of the double ledge
(photo by Shawn Haggin)

Shawn and me enjoying the sun and fun somewhere on Lavezzola
(taken on the last day at higher flows by Jason Naranjo)

It should be noted that there is a recommended portage about three quarters of the way through the run. It has a tricky slot leading into it, but the main drop can be portaged starting above or below this. Once past this portage, it's pretty mellow to the takeout, with maybe a few more class III drops.

Jason below the recommended portage.
No real clean line off this bad boy, and the left wall is
extremely undercut with lots of water pushing into it.
(taken on the last day at higher flows)

On the the last day of our Cali trip we actually ran Lavezzola again so Shawn could get a taste of it, and since it was short it would still allow us to get an early departure back to Oregon. On this run down we had ~75 more cfs which really improved the quality of the creek. It helped fill-in some of the shallow gravel sections as well as made the big drops more fun. In fact, a couple of the holes packed a little punch. I nearly paid the price with a missed line that sent me into the left wall which knocked me back into the hole; this sequence can also be seen in the video below.

The author goes for an unintentional hole ride
(photo by Shawn Haggin)

Once we finished up with the run, I decided to walk over and take a look at Pauely Creek Falls to see if the increased flow from a couple days ago would clean it up enough to run. After inspecting it from a couple of different angles, I decided to give it a go. Shawn and Chris agreed to hangout below the falls, and Jason agreed to man the camera. I put in at the eddy just above the falls and ferried over to river left where I planned to run it. After a quick glance over my shoulder I peeled out and gave a good stroke off what I had assumed to be the flake. However, the entrance made sort of a tricky double-flake and once again I boofed a little too soon. I entered the base of the falls a little more vertically than I wanted, but luckily it was deep enough and I came through without issue.

The author takes an early boof at Pauley Creek Falls
(photo by Jason Naranjo)

The author emerges from the base of the falls
(photo by Jason Naranjo)

Shawn and Chris spectate from below Pauley Creek Falls
(photo by Jason Naranjo)

It was good to have both Pauely and Lavezzola checked off of the list, for I had been wanting to do these two class IV classics for awhile now.

Next up E to P and 49 to Bridgeport!

To be continued...


Here is some head-cam footage of our trip down both Pauley and Lavezzola Creek:

Pauley & Lavezzola Creek from Nate Pfeifer on Vimeo.