Forks of the Kern, Aug. 6-7, 2011 & Jun. 21-23, 2016

Tony Crocker

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This was another item on the first year of retirement bucket list as I've heard about this river for a long time. The upper Kern is natural flow from the west side of Mt. Whitney, so I started inquiring in May when it would be running and when I would need to reserve. The natural flow does not necessarily mean a longer season, just a later one. In average years the best time is around Memorial Day. This year there were 9 trips canceled for water being too high including the July 5 trip I had considered after my last Mammoth trip. Forks of the Kern can be run commercially between 1,000 and 4,000 cubic feet per second. My trip was at 1,400cfs and the river will be too low within 2 weeks.

There is a 1,200 vertical ~50 minute hike down to the put in at 4,600 feet where the Little Kern River joins the Main Kern.
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Each person carries his/her own gear down the trail in a big dry bag with shoulder but no waist straps. The difficult access means that the rafts and supplies must be sent down the day before by mule at a minimum cost of $1,700. A minimum of 5 clients is required as 2 oar boats worth of supplies are need for support. My trip had 11 clients, 2 paddle boats and 3 oar boats with supplies. Due to the above logistics a 2 day trip is $747, nearly double the cost of other Sierra 2 day trips where the put ins and camp sites have easy road access.

Forks of the Kern has some Class V rapids, 3 of which are scouted before we run them and one of these we portaged because the guides thought we needed ~2,000cfs to get through it safely. There are lots of long Class IV's that would be the highlight rapids on most other Sierra rivers.

On the first day with briefings and the hike down, it's already time for lunch and we start down the river about 1PM. After a few light warmup rapids we stopped at Freeman Falls (just a couple of minutes walk from the river) for a swim.
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In the first rapid below Freeman Falls I fell out but fortunately within reach of an extended paddle to get back in quickly. Pictures with a disposable camera were limited to scenery on Saturday afternoon.
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Guide Josh gives the thumbs up to the Needles in far background.

Although this is California's toughest commercial rafting trip it does work well for fit participants with limited experience because the first afternoon gives you a chance to practice on 7 miles with several Class IV's before the twice as long second day with the biggest rapids.

We spent the night at Durrwood Camp, originally built for mining in the 1950's but mostly used for a couple of decades as a fishing camp. Some of the buildings are still in fairly decent shape.
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View downriver from our campsite.
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This was the most comfortable weather I've had on a river trip. Lows were probably upper 50's, I was one of few that bothered to bring a tent. Highs were mid 80's with a steady upriver breeze in the afternoons. Elevation is 4,000-4,500 feet while most CA whitewater trips are ~2,000 feet lower and blazing hot midsummer. Water was around 60. In normal years when this trip is 2-3 months earlier it can be cold. We wore helmets and farmer john type wetsuits for safety reasons because of the long rapids.

There were many large rocks just below the surface and occasionally the rafts could get stuck on them, as the other paddle boat is here.
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We would unstick the rafts by shifting weight to the high or low side depending upon the situation.

The first Class V we scouted was Vortex. View down:
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And up:
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The largest opening in the picture above was changed by flooding 5-6 years ago and the hole below is considered too dangerous for rafting now. Rafting is now done through the smaller drop at left which the guides said was inadequate at 1,400cfs.

So they portaged the rafts on the other side of the river.
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The paddle rafts were secured upside down between the rocks to make a slide for the heavy oar boats to get down. I forgot there was a gear bag in our paddle raft that had been loosened when we went to scout. So my watch is now somewhere at the bottom of Vortex!

The Maze was a good example of a technical Class IV requiring much maneuvering of the paddle boats to get through.
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West Wall was the next Class V we scouted. It was distinguished by its length more than its big drops. View up:
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And down:
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We had one recreational stop on Sunday at a natural rock water slide.
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Late in day is Carson Falls, probably the biggest drop.
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The drop is 10-12 feet, no perspective in the picture. One of our group shot some great video of the oar boats in Carson Falls. I hope to get that online sometime.

At any rate, Forks of the Kern fully lived up to its billing. If you want lots of adrenaline filled whitewater, this is the place.

Trip info from Whitewater Voyages: http://www.whitewatervoyages.com/rivers ... forks.html

I also found this site with rapid descriptions and some pics: http://cacreeks.com/kern-fks.htm
 
Cool Stuff. Thanks for sharing...

We did the Upper Kern on Aug 2.... had a great time in class 3 an 4's... Might try the forks next year....Whitwater Voyages is great, especially the 2 for 1 deal on Tuesdays we got for our trip.
 
Nice report. Looks like fun.

I've never paddled in CA, but looking at your pics with my boater's eyes, I guessed the river must get run at much higher flows, so I looked it up in the AWA river database. Here's the link: http://www.americanwhitewater.org/conte ... inerView35

Sure enough, the range of "runnable" flows is 500-5000 cfs. I'm gonna guess it gets run (by private parties) at flows higher than 5000 cfs as well. (I noted that the picture on the AWA page was taken at 5500, for example.)

Needless to say, with 2 to 3 times as much water, that river would be a lot faster, a lot "pushier," with many more large hydraulic features and likely some pretty significant holes.

Tony, any idea of the average vertical feet per mile, or the overall vertical drop over the 16.8 mile run? Somewhat surprisingly, that information is not included on the AWA page.
 
flyover":l32s0fgs said:
Tony, any idea of the average vertical feet per mile, or the overall vertical drop over the 16.8 mile run?

Quote from http://cacreeks.com/kern-fks.htm:
Gradient: 64 fpm for 14½ miles, then 40 fpm

Cherry Creek, which Andrew and I did Memorial Day 2007, http://cacreeks.com/tuol-up.htm:
Gradient: 105 fpm average, 200 fpm in Miracle Mile

Cherry Creek is scarier IMHO than Forks of the Kern, but the Forks are much longer and thus a bigger workout with perhaps more conditioning required.

flyover":l32s0fgs said:
Needless to say, with 2 to 3 times as much water, that river would be a lot faster, a lot "pushier," with many more large hydraulic features and likely some pretty significant holes.
Report and a few pics from the Class IV+ Tuolumne River at 7,000cfs July 3-4, 2005.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1110

These Sierra rivers are more "technical" in terms of precise paddling, avoiding getting stuck etc. in lower water than higher water. The faster "pushier" aspect of higher water is what makes rescuing swimmers more difficult. So the river companies are more conservative about equipment, how much experience required etc. when it's really big as in early July this year and in 2005.

The Zambezi below Victoria Falls at 12,000cfs (as low as it ever gets) in November 2002 was a different experience. Our raft flipped twice. I got a long turbulent ride but there are almost no rocks to hit or get stuck on so it didn't seem as potentially dangerous as a rock strewn obstacle course like Forks of the Kern or Cherry Creek.
 
Liz was not with me in August 2011 so I thought she should get a shot at Forks of the Kern. In this very average season the water peaked at 2,000cfs the first week of June and gradually declined to about 900. A heat wave pushed the snowmelt up to 1,200cfs for the 3 days of our trip, so a very similar flow to my other trip. On the hour+ drive from Kernville to the trailhead we stop at a Sequoia tree.
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This is near the southern limit of their range.

Again we have the 1,200 vertical hike down to the put-in at the confluence
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Dry bags don't make the most comfortable backpacks, so it was a relief to get those off after an hour's hike.

This was trip where the utility of dry bags was demonstrated. Whitewater Voyages only had 4 guides, so the gear boat was a bit heavy and got stuck here:
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The oar frame at center is not visible, so about 2/3 of the raft is underwater including most of the dry bags. Guide Tom is leaning out the back here, but the raft was not extricated for at least 10 minutes until other guides hiked up to it and pulled it off that rock with ropes.

First night was at Durwood Camp, same as on the 2-day trip in 2011. The largest building had burned down since then.
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Unfortunately our camera batteries died so we took no pictures the second or third days. The second day included the portage of Vortex, though the guides ran the rapid with us watching instead of pulling them through on ropes like last time. We also had the long West Wall rapid and a short hike to Peppermint Falls. Peppermint lands on some colorful rock rather than into a deep pool and there was room to walk behind and under the falls.

On day 2 of a 3-day trip we pulled into camp not much past 2PM. Around 3:30 we rowed out to a small rapid in front of camp to "surf" it for while. You lean in to the whitewater just above the raft to hold it in place, but of course it's possible to fall out or flip the raft, both of which I experienced.

The rock waterslide from the 2011 trip was not flowing strong enough for that purpose this year, but on a 3-day trip there's time to hike up Dry Meadow Creek, which feeds it. The bottom of the hike is on steep enough granite to require rope assist and the dirt path above that was still quite steep, so Liz and I used ropes for another short section on the way down. Eventually you get up on top of rocks with a view down to slot canyon pools, to which some people haul kayaks. We continued a short distance farther which included a couple of pools where we could cool off.

We had lunch after the hike and soon approached Carson Falls. There's a four mile trail above Johnsondale Bridge where Whitewater Voyages sends a photographer for the final Class V of the trip. Liz and I were in the front of this raft with guide Andrew on oars as we were also carrying some of the gear.
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Behind us was one of the paddle rafts.

Now digging in to try and get some momentum through the big drop ahead.
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This big drop:
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Going into the hole:
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The raft was sucked down and to the right.
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Liz is now outside the raft and I'm on the right side. She did exactly what I did on the Zambezi in 2002, held on to the raft strap with one hand and her paddle with the other.
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The result was the same. The water was forceful enough to pull us away from the raft when gripping with only one hand. I'm looking for Liz over the right side but she's already being swept by the current.

Still looking...
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Liz followed the briefing instructions, curled up in a ball, and the current shot her under the raft and she emerged far to our left here.
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The pictures are time stamped, and this one is just 9 seconds after the third one above where Liz's helmet is still visible next to the raft. It seemed longer than that at the time!

Liz grabbed this rock before too long and we got over there.
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Andrew pulled her out of the water onto the rock while I used the oars to keep the raft in place.

Ours was not the only Carson Falls adventure. Guide Mike fell out while his customers remained in his paddle raft.
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We still had several Class IV's below Carson Falls before the takeout a few miles below Johnsondale Bridge. Forks of the Kern remains a bucket list whitewater experience. It's somewhat under the radar, probably due to its relatively short (1+ month) natural flow season.
 
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