Drought Is No Deterrent to River Rafters So Far

As long as water runs downhill, thrill-seekers and nature lovers will want to ride it in rubber rafts, come flood, dam or drought.

And they can, despite alarm about California’s acute thirst and lower snow packs throughout the West in general. Nate Rangel, operator of the Adventure Connection and state chairman of the Western River Guides Assn., said: “Even though we’re in the fourth year of a low-water situation, we’ve got pretty good water . . . in some cases excellent water.”

The difference now is that choosing the time and place is more important. Some free-flowing rivers unsupported by upstream reservoirs will dry up by mid-summer, if they haven’t already.

But even as restrictions on water use are imposed, the flows will continue where water releases from reservoirs are controlled for power or fishery purposes, and the white-water rafters will go with the flow.

Rafters need water but don’t deplete it. They are what environmentalists call “non-consumptive” users of the resource. Give them enough water to make a rapid and they’re happy.

“We get what we need when we need it, because our needs coincide with the power companies,” Rangel said. His company runs rafting trips on the reservoir-fed American River near Sacramento.

On other rivers there are mandates to maintain minimal flows for fish life. So even on, say, the Middle Fork of the American, they’ll almost always have some flow.

Bill McGinnis of Whitewater Voyages in Richmond said, “Quite a few rivers--the Yuba, the Merced and the North Fork of the American are affected more because they don’t have those upstream reservoirs.

“Those rivers in years with an above-normal snow pack will have about a 120-day season--end of March, April, May, June, sometimes into early July. In a year like this, they might have only a 60-day season.”

Jerry Ashburn of EarthTrek Expeditions in Santa Ana said: “People hear the drought stories and relate it to (there being) no river rafting. We’ve had a lot of people cancel because they hear there’s no water in the rivers. We’re running very good but you can’t convince them of that.”

Frank Stratton of Tour West in Orem, Utah, which books trips through the Grand Canyon and elsewhere, said: “We’ve had a 20% reduction (in business) but they’re booking for later. A lot of ‘em call in and find out there is water. We have to reassure them.”

In one curious twist, the drought has brought a historic white-water river back to life.

The old main fork of the Stanislaus, the old Camp 9 run, is where white-water rafting started in California after World War II. Adventurers brought war surplus life rafts to challenge the “Stan,” which had everything: beauty, adventure and a sense of history as it tumbled down the west slope of the Sierra Nevada through the Mother Lode country between Angels Camp and Sonora.

Passages such as the Rock Garden, Death Rock and Widowmaker Rapid became legendary, and by the ‘70s as many as 25,000 people a year were taking the run.

Then in the early ‘80s, following a 20-year court fight, the New Melones Reservoir was built at the bottom of the run. As the reservoir filled, opponents chained themselves to rocks and trees along the banks, but by ’82 the water had backed up into the gorge, drowning the river.

Now, with the reservoir shrinking into a puddle, the river, controlled by dams upstream, has found its way back, cutting through 20 feet of silt into the old cataracts and rapids.

McGinnis said: “Four years of light snow pack have caused New Melones to drop enough to reveal this run again.

“It’s not the same run, scenery-wise, because the trees have been killed by the reservoir, but the same rapids have re-emerged. The flowing water has cut down through the reservoir silt and you have the same classic rapids that were the birthplace of white-water boating in California.”

McGinnis’ company is running one-day trips for $89 on the Stanislaus, a chance for rafters to relive rafting history, as long as they don’t wait too long.

“This year and maybe next year,” Whitewater Voyages general manager Larry Ogden said, “--until the reservoir fills back up.”

The restored Stanislaus is rated Class III, in the middle of the rafting scale for danger and difficulty. The level and volume of water can alter a rating, making it less exciting or more dangerous.

“It depends on the river,” Ferguson said. “There were a couple of drownings on the North Fork American several years ago; people were trying to run it when there were a lot of exposed rocks and undercut things that usually aren’t exposed.”

Stratton said: “Some rapids improve when the water goes down. If it’s too high you’re just in the tube.”

Other runs, such as Cataract Canyon on the Colorado in Utah above Lake Powell, lose their punch. Normally a 20-mile, Class IV run, at its current low flows Cataract Canyon is only a Class III.

“It’s not as much fun,” Stratton said, “except for one rapid they call Big Drop. That’s always a tough rapid . . . always a thrill. But some rapids get so small you feel like jumping out and floating it yourself.”

McGinnis said some rivers change their character but remain just as difficult.

“The abruptness of the drops in some rapids makes up for the smaller waves. You still have a sense of plunging over steep drops.”

Most outfitters will switch to smaller boats for lower flows.

“It doesn’t have quite the same sense of risk or fear that the fast water and big waves and large volumes of water have,” McGinnis said. “Everything happens more slowly. But it’s still exciting, and the water tends to be warmer.”

Stratton said: “If the water’s real high, we’ll put on the big rafts because they’re safer.”

But low water, the outfitters say, is no reason to stay away.

“It doesn’t affect the food and the scenery and all the other things you go for,” Stratton said.