TR: Truckee River near Nevada line

This was a bad year for snowpack in California, so we have already been
reduced to running dam-release rivers. But even bad years can be good.
This year we finally boated the Truckee. Nice! Pictures here:

http://cacreeks.com/truckee.htm

C__ and D__ brought their young son in a small raft, while R__, T__,
and I paddled inflatable kayaks. We put in just below Boca reservoir,
which added ~200 cfs to the ~350 cfs coming down from Lake Tahoe.

Class 2 rapids started immediately, then tapered off for several miles
of flatwater. At a beautiful mini-gorge, rapids picked up again,
and continued without major flatwater for the remainder of the run.
The I-5 freeway and railroad tracks were usually visible on the left,
although we observed several nice secluded campsites. Around mile 4
the railroad tracks crossed to river right, and I thought there would be
a canyon ahead, but the river continued mild for another mile. Then!
A series of class 4 rapids!!

We stopped to scout the first one, Jaws, which everybody ran fine.
Around the corner is another rapid, Bronco. Some of us scouted right
and some of us scouted left. It turned out the route was on far left,
away from railroad debris. T__ had an close encounter with a rock,
and swam. This was bad because I was taking pictures, instead of
rescuing his boat, which I thought might float all the way to Nevada.
Fortunately D__ and his family chased it down.

T__ caught up with his boat under the bridge at Floriston, which is
where the commercial rafters take out. We wanted to go further,
so we had left our vehicle 2 miles downstream. The section of river
below Floriston is great! Commercial rafters ought to continue to
Farad at least; I'm not sure why they don't. Gradient is 77 FPM,
although most of the rapids are straightforward class 2-3.

We wanted to continue boating until Diversion Dam #1, which removes
a lot of water from the river, but there was no take-out there.
In fact boaters must continue another 7 or 8 miles to Verdi Nevada
before finding a legal take-out. I hope to return next spring
and run that section. It might be big fun at high flows.

"Bill Tuthill" <ccreekin DeleteThis @yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:46b3ea4e@news.meer.net...
> This was a bad year for snowpack in California, so we have already been
> reduced to running dam-release rivers. But even bad years can be good.
> This year we finally boated the Truckee. Nice! Pictures here:
>
> http://cacreeks.com/truckee.htm
>
> C__ and D__ brought their young son in a small raft, while R__, T__,
> and I paddled inflatable kayaks. We put in just below Boca reservoir,
> which added ~200 cfs to the ~350 cfs coming down from Lake Tahoe.
>
> Class 2 rapids started immediately, then tapered off for several miles
> of flatwater. At a beautiful mini-gorge, rapids picked up again,
> and continued without major flatwater for the remainder of the run.
> The I-5 freeway and railroad tracks were usually visible on the left,
> although we observed several nice secluded campsites. Around mile 4
> the railroad tracks crossed to river right, and I thought there would be
> a canyon ahead, but the river continued mild for another mile. Then!
> A series of class 4 rapids!!
>
> We stopped to scout the first one, Jaws, which everybody ran fine.
> Around the corner is another rapid, Bronco. Some of us scouted right
> and some of us scouted left. It turned out the route was on far left,
> away from railroad debris. T__ had an close encounter with a rock,
> and swam. This was bad because I was taking pictures, instead of
> rescuing his boat, which I thought might float all the way to Nevada.
> Fortunately D__ and his family chased it down.
>
> T__ caught up with his boat under the bridge at Floriston, which is
> where the commercial rafters take out. We wanted to go further,
> so we had left our vehicle 2 miles downstream. The section of river
> below Floriston is great! Commercial rafters ought to continue to
> Farad at least; I'm not sure why they don't. Gradient is 77 FPM,
> although most of the rapids are straightforward class 2-3.
>
> We wanted to continue boating until Diversion Dam #1, which removes
> a lot of water from the river, but there was no take-out there.
> In fact boaters must continue another 7 or 8 miles to Verdi Nevada
> before finding a legal take-out. I hope to return next spring
> and run that section. It might be big fun at high flows.
>

Looks great, Bill--very nice shots. What'd you shoot them with?

--
www.mattclara.com