Feather River File CopCan

Bev and I have climbed, hiked, and skied in the mountains for many years. Our trips have ranged throughout Alaska, Canada, and Ellesmere Island in the Canadian artic; Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru in South America; Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa; Nepal and Afghanistan. Many of our trips were organized for the Sierra Club. They all tended to be quite adventurous. Now we were looking for projects less difficult, with lighter loads, warmer temperatures, and plenty of water and wood for good camping; but we still wanted a wilderness experience, and a little bit of adventure. We turned to river canyons.

The Middle Fork of the Feather River in northern California caught our eye. The river forms on the east side of the northern Sierra around Quincy and flows west cutting 40 miles through the mountains in a continuous series of canyons, gorges, and rapids, finally emptying into Lake Orovile. Jim Cassady in his book California Whitewater describes it as the "most spectacular and difficult river in this book". Between the start of the canyon at the road crossing south of Quincy and Lake Oroville there are foot bridges for the old and new Pacific Crest Trails at Onion Valley Creek and Hartman Bar, jeep trails from the south at Cleghorn Bar and Stag Point, two foot trails from the north, and, finally, the road crossing at Milsap Bar. There are no trails along the river. In many places helicopter access would be questionable.

River flows can reach 50,000 CFS during the spring runoff. But summer and fall flows are much lower, around 1,000 CFS. We figured we could get through, but we anticipated we would be climbing as well as swimming. We planned to carry very little gear; just food, a pot and a light bag. All was packed in doubled plastic garbage bags and stuffed in our packs. We could carry our packs and scramble along the banks, or tow our packs in the water, or put them under us and use them as flotation devices.

We decided to call this mode of transportation "river swimming". We held our packs forward under our shoulders in the rapids to protect ourselves from the rocks. By analogy with river rafting or river tubing, we could call this river packing. But this did not seem correct.

The last section discusses river boarding; going down the river riding a foam board similar to the boogie board used by surfers. The board is used both for support and protection of the rider. This is in some ways better than using packs for support and protection, but the boards would be difficult to climb with, if that became necessary.

HARTMAN BAR TO MILSAP BAR WITH DANIEL ROITMAN

1991

We selected the section from Hartman Bar to Milsap Bar for our first trip. Blair, a neighbor with a pickup truck, agreed to meet us at Milsap Bar. We would leave the van there, and he would take us to the Old Pacific Crest Trailhead, whence we could walk down to the foot bridge at Hartman Bar.

Daniel Roitman, a climbing friend, agreed to go down the river with us even though he realized we had very little idea of what we were attempting.

Start

91 Feather River

Finish

91 Feather River

Gorge

91 Feather River

From a kayaker's point of view, the Middle Fork of the Feather River is one of the most challenging rivers in California, perhaps in the US. The river builds on the east side of the Sierra, flows north to Loyalton, then turns west and cuts through the range in a fantastic series of rapids and gorges to the Oroville Reservoir. Much of the river is class 5. Names such as Atom Bomb Falls, Curtain Falls, and Granite Gorge adorn the maps. This river can flood to 50,000 CFS, but in late summer flows are low, frequently only 1000 CFS. We thought we could get through.

Daniel Roitman would go with us. Do we try to walk the banks? We will be forced into the river by vertical walls in many places. We decided to get in the river in the beginning and swim or float. We walked the Pacific Crest trail to Harriman Bar. We double packed all our gear in garbage bags and stuffed them in our packs. This made our packs a flotation device. We jumped in the river and swam along behind our packs. We put our hands on the packs and rode them through the rapids. Two days later we came out at Milsap Bar. Daniel called Ellen his girl friend and future wife to learn a huge firestorm had burned 3000 homes in Berkeley and Oakland.

MILSAP BAR TO OROVILLE LAKE WITH GUS BENNER

1992

Les and Pack

92 Feather River

Gus and Pack

92 Feather River

The 1991 trip had been a huge success. We had penetrated one of the wildest parts of California, enjoyed incredible scenery and beautiful campsites, but we had only covered about a quarter of the river, the third quarter. Gus and Emily Benner and Tarek Mileron would join us on the last quarter. We would swim from Milsap Bar down into the Oroville Reservoir. The reservoir was long and would be a difficult swim, so we asked Dennis and Connie McCullah to rent a party boat and meet us at the upper end of the reservoir. This was a wise move. We passed through the granite gorge, a deep channel overhung by polished granite cliffs. Beautiful, a little scary, as we had no idea where the river might disappear under a boulder jam. It was a relief to see the party boat.

RIVERBOARDING

1994

Bev in Troublemaker

95 Middlefork

Les in Troublemaker

95 Middlefork

Bob in Maytag Falls

94 Yuba River

On our trip to Copper Canyon with Rich Henke we became aware of the huge gorge that lay just upriver from Urique. None of the locals in Urique could tell us anything about it. We walked a few miles upstream and crossed the bridge to Guadalupe, stopped at a local restaurant for lunch, and asked questions. Nothing. The wide river bed disappeared into the hills. It must be a torrent during the rainy season. Now it was only a small stream between wide gravel banks. We began to plan.

It occurred to us that there might be something better than garbage bags to hold our food and gear. We visted Pacific River Supply in El Sobrante. We asked the clerk some very naive questions. After a while he asked us where we were going, to which we responded "The Grand Canyon of Mexico". This caused a pause in the conversation. We were talking to Jim Cassidy the owner, a Grand Canyon guide for many years, and a friend of Bob Carlson, inventor of the riverboard. He explained that we really should have helmets, gloves, knee pads, and other protective clothing. He suggested we go riverboarding with Bob Carlson. A trip on the North Fork of the Yuba was coming up in a week. We would run Maytag Falls. Bob would provide all the equipment and instruction. That sounded like fun.

A riverboard is similar to the boogie board used by surfers. It is thicker, provides more flotation, and has a tough slippery plastic bottom for sliding over rocks. You ride this down the river steering away from rocks (hopefully). Short "Churchill" fins provide enormous power for short desperate dashes. Bob pointed out that fish go down the river and miss the rocks; rats and little animals go down the river floating on sticks; With any kind of luck, we could go down the river floating on thick foam boards.

The approach to Maytag Falls starts about a hundred feet upstream. Looking down at the falls, there are some rocks just above that stick out; if you stay left, you will go down a flume, over the falls, and about fifteen feet into a boiling pool below. This all sounded fine in theory. Bob pointed out that, if you lost your board and were sucked down to the bottom of the pool, you should not try to swim to the surface. The torrent of water would make that impossible. You should swim down to the bottom and be flushed downstream by the current. Interesting idea.

The center picture above shows Bob in the flume. We watched him steer left of the rocks and down the flume in just the right spot. When I tried this I couldn't see the rocks because I was too low in the water and went over the main part of the falls. However, I flushed out. The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful.

Shortly thereafter Bev and I went down the Middle Fork of the American with Bob. The left and right pictures above show us in Troublemaker Rapids near Colma. We went again to the Middle Fork with Allen Steck, Gus and Emily Benner next year.

On these trips we were occasionally run over by rafts. We are in the water, moving at water speed. They are on top of the water, sliding, moving faster. It is important to duck your head when they go over. The look of consternation on their faces when they realize they are running you down is quite amazing. Fortunately, they seem smart enough not to hit you with their oars.