The personal first descent. Ones first journey down a run. This is where the saying of “you only get to run something blind once” comes from. It is such a cool feeling not knowing what is about to happen. What is around the next corner. I love the feeling of the unknown…… sometimes I have been getting alot of these kind of experiences lately. Being relatively new to the Northern California area it seems as though almost every time I go boating I get on a different river. My last two trips have been extra extra special. I will tell you of my latest trip first. I got my first experience with the San Joaquin River. It is so glorious down there. The run I did comes out of Mammoth Pools Resevoir. It is a granite wonderland. You can see the Crucible from the Devils Postpile section further up stream. It has every aspect of California that people have come to know and love. Big granite mazes, slides, boulders, sheer cliffs locking you in, and big long rapids. This little run has seem very few takers due to crazy long logistics, and uncooperative flows. This past month has been great as Ca Edison needed to do some work on the turbines releasing around 1000cfs. Which just so happens to be an optimal flow for this run. I hope you enjoy my video below, which is also currently featured on American Whitewater’s webpage for the run.
I also journeyed to the South Fork of the Feather River. This gem comes right out the Little Grass Valley Resevoir, is very cold, starts out with a 10 foot boof move only to venture into more difficult terrain in the first mile. Enjoy this video I made.
Please enjoy a few photos my friend Andrew Pernicano took during our couple trips down to the San Joaquin.
Austin Nickell and Jon Chin on the hike into the run. p. Andrew Pernicano
Preparing for the day ahead. p. Andrew Pernicano
Austin breaks through a class V rapid above another even bigger class V rapid. P. Andrew Pernicano
San Joaquin and South Fork Feather
The personal first descent. Ones first journey down a run. This is where the saying of “you only get to run something blind once” comes from. It is such a cool feeling not knowing what is about to happen. What is around the next corner. I love the feeling of the unknown…… sometimes
I have been getting alot of these kind of experiences lately. Being relatively new to the Northern California area it seems as though almost every time I go boating I get on a different river. My last two trips have been extra extra special. I will tell you of my latest trip first. I got my first experience with the San Joaquin River. It is so glorious down there. The run I did comes out of Mammoth Pools Resevoir. It is a granite wonderland. You can see the Crucible from the Devils Postpile section further up stream. It has every aspect of California that people have come to know and love. Big granite mazes, slides, boulders, sheer cliffs locking you in, and big long rapids. This little run has seem very few takers due to crazy long logistics, and uncooperative flows. This past month has been great as Ca Edison needed to do some work on the turbines releasing around 1000cfs. Which just so happens to be an optimal flow for this run. I hope you enjoy my video below, which is also currently featured on American Whitewater’s webpage for the run.
I also journeyed to the South Fork of the Feather River. This gem comes right out the Little Grass Valley Resevoir, is very cold, starts out with a 10 foot boof move only to venture into more difficult terrain in the first mile. Enjoy this video I made.
Please enjoy a few photos my friend Andrew Pernicano took during our couple trips down to the San Joaquin.
Austin Nickell and Jon Chin on the hike into the run. p. Andrew Pernicano
Preparing for the day ahead. p. Andrew Pernicano
Austin breaks through a class V rapid above another even bigger class V rapid. P. Andrew Pernicano