Paul and I were looking for more epic whitewater, but the truth is that there isn’t much running in Cali when its not spring.  Most springs, Mid-March would be sweet for boating, but this is the coldest spring in anyone’s memory.  We were kinda struggling to find good stuff to run.  The mission of our spring break trip was to run as many new rivers in Cali as possible.  There are 182 runs in the Lars Holbeck & Chuck Stanley guide book (the Cali Whitewater Bible) and Paul had done about 50 of those, so we tried to run the ones that he hasn’t done that were running (i.e. very few runs to do).

This North Fork of the Yuba run wasn’t without many obstacles, but we managed to make it happen.  First, we didn’t have a shuttle.  We knew this going in, and we hoped to get an easy shuttle, which we did.  Second, my Subaru got a flat tire 10 miles from the put in.  This wouldn’t normally be  a problem, except the road into this river is very winding and steep.  Not good for spare tire, but we did it anyway.  Third, it was snowing, and although all the locals in Downieville thought we were crazy, we still went.  We earned this one in a big way.

Paul adjusts his 88 in downtown Downieville.

The Holbeck Stanley book says that this run is not worth doing, and mostly we agreed.  However, it is in the book, so we had to check it off.  The run starts with a few easy class III-IV rapids before the canyon.  As the walls close in, Big Dummy is marked by a large rock wall on the right and a huge boulder blocking the entire river.  This is recommended as a portage, but we found a small runable channel on the left side.  Some people run the right drop as well, but it is a difficult scout.  The small slot on the left and room below were a go, but they were seriously undercut.  Run with caution and set safety here.  There is more current running under the rock than it looks.  Portage left. 

The author drops into Big Dummy.  I got worked in here for a bit, right side up, but still getting pushed against the rock on left which is VERY undercut.

Below here is a sweet Class V, The Flake, that is difficult to scout but clean.  There is an awesome boof in the middle.  Boof hard left.  Paul missed and melted in, went super deep and got worked a bit before disappearing completely and coming out 10 feet downstream.  Sweet.  Right below this pool is a nice 7 foot slide.  Run left to right, and avoid piton in the left bottom.

Paul boofing The Flake a second too late.  Drop is larger than it looks in the picture.

The IV+ Little Dummy below looked good left or right, but we ran right. 

Paul scouts Little Dummy.  Left or right looked okay.

This is the end of the canyon section, and below here it mellowed to Class III before the takeout at Goodyear Bar.  We continued through the Goodyear Bar section. 

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