California Whitewater – NF Toulumne

In early summer I took a trip to California for some Sierra whitewater awesomeness. This is my last trip report — just a little delayed.

High water on the South Fork of the Merced ended our last opportunity for a multiday trip in the Sierras. With the Merced spiking up uncontrollably, our friends and their friends telling us it would be terrifying. Jesse and Forrest thought the same.

Looping through Yosemite NP, we followed Jesse and Forrest towards the Toulumne drainage. Initially we looked at the Clavey River; it too was running high. Moving westward we hit the North Fork of the Toulumne River. This tiny creek wound itself steeply into a jagged ravine seemingly overflowing with brush. It didn’t even look that kayak-able. As Mike and I geared-up, I reminded myself that I had paddled much less aesthetically pleasing runs on the East Coast. Putting on the creek late in the day, Mike and I both carried overnight gear, just in case and because, man, did we really want to do a multiday. Jesse and Forrest were to drop our truck at a bridge on the Main Toulumne, a few miles below where the NF entered.

The NF Toulumne left quite a bit to be desired. The creek had two types of rapids. The first was easier class 3 running directly through bushes. The second was chunky shallow bedrock slots in short gorgers. The creek didn’t have quite enough flow in it – the only one that we’d seen in the last week that was such. Though if we had more flow, several of the bedrock rapids would have been no-eddies, out-of-control affairs. It was great to get back in my boat but the idea that permeated my thoughts was that I’d really missed out on some great rivers during this trip. My shoulder was feeling unbelievable well though. As the day wore on, as we took more hits, Mike and I just wanted to move downstream.

One mile above the North Fork’s confluence with the Main Toulumne, Mike took another errant hit and broke his kayak. We patched his boat and made our way to the take out where Forrest and Jesse waited with the truck.  Our California trip had been a disappointment -  an injury, water levels and lack of a coherent plan. Worn down and defeated, we laughed, loaded up and began the long drive home.