The rest of my July 4 holiday weekend was spent whitewater rafting the Tuolumne River in the Sierra foothills below Hetch Hetchy reservoir. I took Adam and Andrew on this river first in August 2002. In late summer with controlled releases from the dam the river flows at about 1,000 cubic ft. per second. In mid-to-late summer low water flows the numerous class 4 rapids are a technical obstacle course of rocks. At the end of the trip one of the guides said we should come back in high water sometime.
With this year's bountiful snow I booked the trip in March for both of my sons plus Adam's girlfriend Aislinn. The company I chose, Sierra Mac, is small and specializes in the Tuolumne and its Class 5 tributary Cherry Creek. In March they expected water flow for July 3-4 to be a near ideal 3,000-3,500 cfs.
With the extended spring snowpack the late May heat wave brought water flows on the Tuolumne as high as 15,000 cfs. That is comparable to the 12,000 I saw on the Zambezi on November 2002 and the 18,000 in the Grand Canyon in June 2003. The water subsided some in early June but for our trip it was 7,200 cfs on July 3 and 6,200 cfs. on July 4. Other river companies were cancelling trips, but Sierra Mac ran ours with combination oar/paddle boats to give the guides extra control in the high water.
With this year's bountiful snow I booked the trip in March for both of my sons plus Adam's girlfriend Aislinn. The company I chose, Sierra Mac, is small and specializes in the Tuolumne and its Class 5 tributary Cherry Creek. In March they expected water flow for July 3-4 to be a near ideal 3,000-3,500 cfs.
With the extended spring snowpack the late May heat wave brought water flows on the Tuolumne as high as 15,000 cfs. That is comparable to the 12,000 I saw on the Zambezi on November 2002 and the 18,000 in the Grand Canyon in June 2003. The water subsided some in early June but for our trip it was 7,200 cfs on July 3 and 6,200 cfs. on July 4. Other river companies were cancelling trips, but Sierra Mac ran ours with combination oar/paddle boats to give the guides extra control in the high water.
I did do some river rafting this summer on the American River ~ tons of white water due to all that SNOW this year ~ WoooHoooo . . . quite a ride!