Whitewater keeps flowing

DON’T put away your kayaks and rafts just yet. Last winter’s near record snow levels spilled so much water into California reservoirs that this year’s rafting and kayaking season will go on for at least one more month, whitewater guides and water officials say.

Rivers flowing from dams, including the Kern and the American, now have double and nearly triple the volume they did at this time last year. The rafting and kayaking season that normally ends in August will continue through September and possibly to mid-October.

The lower Kern River is flowing at nearly 2,900 cubic feet per second, compared with 1,000 cfs last year at this time. On the south and middle forks of the American River, the volume is at 1,500 cfs and 1,100 cfs respectively, about twice as much as last year.

“This year is tremendous,” says Louis Moore of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

-- Hugo Martin