The Fields Dunaway Adventure Log: First Whitewater of the Season

We got back from Japan on Sunday night, which gave us 4 days to get over the jet lag, catch up on work, clean and put away all the ski gear, do laundry, shop for food, and then get all the boating gear out and ready to leave on Friday for the first whitewater kayaking trip of the season. No problem.

One of the most important tasks prior to the first trip of the year is to get all the spiderwebs, and hopefully spiders, out of the boat. Nothing like being all sealed in your boat and then feeling something crawling up your leg and wondering if that was a black widow cobweb, or one of its more innocuous cousins that you swept out the day before. Out of respect to our drought situation, and our time constraints, we opted not to implement the sure-fire drown them out technique whereby you fill the entire boat with water and let it set for a while. Instead we opted for a quick sweep, a couple of squashes, and the assumption that this early in the season our lower extremities would be swaddled in layers of impenetrable neoprene or gore-tex.

I must admit we were not as organized as usual. While we did not forget any important pieces of gear, we barely got ourselves there and didn't do a very good job of packing and prepping to be able to participate in shuttling other boats and people up and down the river. Fortunately, we were meeting a great group of boaters, the Los Angeles Kayak Club, as well as some super friendly and accommodating (and always organized) locals such as Brett, Liz, and Peter. All total, about 23 boaters showed up to participate in this LAKC event.

We all met in the park in Kernville Saturday morning and then divided into different groups that wanted to run different sections of the river. We teamed up with Don and Kyla, a father daughter duo from Vancouver BC that just happened to be kayaking in the area and stumbled upon the group. Since it was our first time in the kayaks in 7 months, we opted to warm up on the easy Lickety Split run into town, then move upstream to the more challenging Limestone section. Water flows were a user friendly 650 +/- cfs, already higher than last year's drought starved peak flow of 550 cfs.

Saturday night Brett and Liz graciously hosted a burrito feed and BBQ, as well as let several of us crash on their patio or in their boater's bunkhouse.

Sunday morning was the ritual meeting in the park at 10, and this time a large contingent opted for the Limestone run, pretty much the only choice available at these flows, besides the easy run into town. Our group consisted of 14 hard shell kayakers and two inflatable kayaks. It was a pretty experienced crew, with just a couple of boaters who had never done the run before, and one, David, who was making his first foray into Class 4. Needless to say, there is a significant amount of inertia to overcome to get everyone geared up and on the water, but once we got paddling it all went pretty smoothly. Everyone made it through the larger rapids upright and unscathed, and smiles and grins were plentiful. After the run and a burger at the local burger stand, everyone called it a day and began their long drives home. A big thank you to the LAKC for organizing the weekend and including us, and thanks to Brett and Liz for always being so welcoming to visiting boaters.

Below are a few pictures of our run on Sunday. They are all taken from my boat, so nothing from the big, exciting rapids, as I was pretty occupied at that time. Clicking on any picture should bring up a larger view.