Upper Middle Consumnes

KR trying to piece together the next mission via dreamflows

Over the past couple of weeks we have often remarked on what its like to be the tourist in a paddling destination like California. Back home we know what runs are good, who's been on them of late and what river to head to next.

Paddling in Cali doesn't come that easy to us, especially this year with the record snow pack. The high water levels have kept us on our toes so to speak. All too often the plan had been made, gear and cars packed, only to check the river flows and find that our planned run had risen beyond what we were happy to paddle. As it turns out, not all the adventure happens on the river. More like at the Coloma bakery.

Part man, part ginger wolverine. The one and only Keith Riley

We like it stacked. KJ and Tyler talk California polictics

The one river run that proved to be consistent was the Upper Middle Consumnes. Low volume, steep and packed with granite. It's almost always a winning formula.

Keith Riley, Matt Coles and I managed four laps on this gem over a week long period. We were also joined by team latvia (Tommas Marnics), Rachel Curtis (NZ) and Jake Greenbuam (our token American).

PGA. Post Granite Awesome

Making it happen. Foxy's first day in Cali. Can you believe it.

Matty dropping skatepark

The UMC is an amazing run. It does, however, have a way of exacting a carnage tax from those who venture into its granite playground. Be it on the river or simply trying to get to or from it there seems to be some form of mini epic.

Swims, broken paddles, broken boats, broken people, lost teams, lost vehicles, lost tempers and a very typical very long california shuttle. All of this in only 7 trips.

Tyler firing the Arahura or UMC?

That good!

After a couple of laps on the UMC we decided to break a little further north and have a crack at the Rubicon River. I paddled this run back in 05' or 07' and only remembered good things about it. Our flow then was about 800cfs. This time we gave it a nudge at 2000+ cfs and the Rubicon nudged back. The Rubicon only flows on big water/ snow pack years and as a result the river bed is filled with large Alders (kind of like willow trees). As a result there are no eddies to speak of. You are pretty much locked into a corridor of trees with no option to get out if you want. I'm sure the run goes at this flow, especially for the bold, very good and courageous. However, we dealt with a tree across the main flow and didn't rate the chances of it not happening again. The result, two miles in we pulled the pin and decided to practice the art of hiking out with our tails firmly between our legs. Good call.

The Rubicon put-in..... and take out.

T-Fox following the path of least resistance

Got wood?

Back in Coloma we made the call to...... yep, head back into the UMC.

Our luck did extend to having fantastic flows for pretty much all out runs on the UMC. 450-560 cfs meant that there was enough fluff in between at the good stuff to not pin ball down the run. At these flows all the bigger drops were good to go. It even mean that we could paddle two rapids that I had previously portages in recent years. It definitely added an extra element of 'aesthetic' to link a bunch the bigger rapids together without many eddies and without having to get out of your boat. Jackpot! This also cut down on paddling time as well. Just over two hours boating had as at the take out in time to meet our lovely shuttle drivers. Complete with chips, beer and bikini's. Thank you to Rach, Melissa, Soph, Amy and Laura.

KJR in the honeymoon stage of the run.... just plain fun

Matty Coles furthering his Calfornia kayaking education.

School was in session