Going With the Flow : Tour Firms No Longer Are High and Dry as Whitewater Returns

The high-speed rinse cycle on the North Fork of the Stanislaus River has washed everything but the smiles off the faces of Randall and Karin Harrison after their first whitewater rafting experience.

“My wife got me to do this,” Randall said.

“It was just time to do something kind of crazy,” Karin said.

“ Fun crazy,” Randall said.

The most fun, Randall said, was when he fell out of the inflatable raft in the rapid called Blow Your Lunch. That could have been serious, but Harrison was in the hands of an expert guide, Guy Cables of Beyond Limits Adventures, which specializes in the wilder rivers.

Less fortunate a day earlier was Peter Sterett, 30, of San Francisco, one of four men rafting the North Fork of the American. A report said they had run the river 20 times, but they overturned in a rapid and Sterett’s ankle became wedged in a rock. Despite having two doctors--including his brother--in the party, Sterett was dead when they freed him 1 1/2 hours later.

Cables said California’s emergence from a six-year drought could mean the state’s best whitewater rafting in 20 years, but the increased attraction also raises the danger level.

Rivers in general and rapids in particular are rated from Class I to V for risk and difficulty. Novices such as the Harrisons are advised not to try IVs or Vs on their own. The North Forks of the American and the Stanislaus are Class IV.

With that in mind, Beyond Limits President Mike Doyle said, “It’s going to be awesome flows.”

Any IV or V, another of Doyle’s customers said, “is a roller coaster on water--if you like roller coasters and swimming.”

For those who prefer a kinder, gentler and historical experience, the East Fork of the Carson is back with navigable flows that should last into mid-July.

The East Carson is a Class II. Some canoeists take their dogs. Along the banks right now, Canada geese are nesting, some with furball goslings in tow. Travelers stop to soak in a hot spring, as frontiersmen did in the last century.

There is a river for everybody. With deep snowpacks and a mild spring, the runoffs will be steady and should continue right into next winter’s storms on some rivers. The long, hot California summer will be cooler this year.

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The 19.3-mile run of the lower East Carson starts in a mile-high pine forest of California near Markleeville and ends in the Nevada desert outside Gardnerville near U.S. 395. It’s the most popular of the few raftable rivers on the east side of the Sierra. As with most rivers, rapids and other highlights along the way are named, and the East Carson’s are rich in history.

Markleeville is a 19th Century silver-mining and logging center and the seat of rural Alpine County, population about 1,000. Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson and John C. Fremont passed through, sometimes crowding the resident Washoe Indians. The town was founded in 1861 by Jacob Marklee, who was shot dead in a quarrel in 1864.

Gunplay was not uncommon. In 1872, according Shane Murphy in his booklet, “The Lore & Legend of the East Fork,” one Ernst Reusch shot E.H. Errickson for stealing his bride of two weeks. Shot him through the window of the hotel while Errickson played cards.

More than a year later, as Reusch was being taken to Bridgeport for trial, he was seized by vigilantes, fitted with a noose and thrown off a bridge--thus, Hangman’s Bridge, where the rafting trip starts.

Customers may choose to paddle or simply ride along as the guide works the oars to control the drift. Said Jim Gado, operator of Ahwahnee Whitewater Expeditions: “The last few years there has been a very short window when you can raft here.”

Now, there is a crowd of canoes, kayaks and inflatable rafts at the put-in site under the bridge. Said Paul Washam, a local resident and outdoor writer: “The word is out that the river is hot.”

Rafters flush large flocks of swallows from their mud nests in the cliffs along the river. They splash through Snowshoe Thompson Rapid, a Class II named for the High Sierra mailman of the 1850s.

The East Carson Hot Springs are at 8.7 miles--a traditional lunch stop. Water bubbles from the earth at 104 degrees and trickles down the slope, tumbling over a 10-foot bank into the river. Guide Ken Brunges parks a raft underneath the waterfall to make a hot tub.

Brunges can handle more difficult rivers but says, “This is one of my favorites,” and it’s easy to see why.

Farther down, the rafts float through a beaver dam that has been breached by the strong flows. A raccoon scrambles away from the intrusion. The pines have given way to aspens, which will soon surrender to sage and chaparral.

Stateline Riffle carries the travelers easily into Nevada. Marshall Willard, a miner, built a stone cabin at 16.2 miles, and he built it very well. Abandoned in 1910, it still stands, warmed by the sun in a meadow by the river.

The travelers have floated almost 20 miles without seeing a modern structure, a power line or a paved highway. If they had time, they could have camped overnight on a grassy bank--an option offered by the outfitters, who are enthusiastic about this season.

“Even some of the guides haven’t seen some of the higher water we’re going to see this year,” Brunges said.

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Most say that 1983 was the last year to rival what this summer will be. Nate Rangel, president of California Outdoors, the organization to which most of the state’s whitewater companies belong, said it was a struggle, but that most survived the drought.

“Because the majority of our trips are on rivers controlled by dams, by and large everybody did OK,” Rangel said. “But we’re all looking at increases in reservations this season, from one-fourth to one-third.”

Said Dave Hammond of Beyond Limits: “The people have just been waiting for the water to come back. They weren’t aware that there were still good rivers. Everybody likes high water. The trips are more exciting.”

Early this month, Hammond led an expedition of two rafts with a dozen other guides down the Kaweah River out of Sequoia. Some were in junior high school the last time the Kaweah lived up to its Class IV+ rating for more than a few weeks in the spring. Suicide Falls and the Slickies--both Class V rapids--were trickling memories.

“We’re all here for training,” Hammond said.

Said Doyle: “At the beginning of the season we do guide training on all the rivers . . . run it four or five times on a weekend (before taking customers). If you know what’s coming around the bend, it makes it a lot easier.”

The Kaweah and Kern are Southern California’s nearest whitewater rivers.

“This year, we’ll be running the Kern through mid-July,” Doyle said.

Doyle does not recommend anyone trying a Class V river for a first whitewater trip, but he often takes novices such as the Harrisons on Class IVs, although everyone wears a helmet and wet suit, as well as the usual life jacket.

“You don’t have to be able to ‘read’ water,” Doyle said. “You just have to do what the guide tells you to do.”

Sometimes the guide will tell you he is going to let you fall out of the raft, an experience that might prove valuable on future runs.

“I told them at lunchtime we were going to go into this big hole on purpose and would probably tip the boat on end and people will fall out,” Cables said. “They wanted to do it.”

Sure enough, Randall fell out.

“As soon as he went in, he popped up right next to the boat and I had his jacket,” Cables said.

“That was the most exciting part of the ride,” Randall said.

Information on whitewater rafting is available from California Outdoors, (800) 552-3625.