Lovers Leap of SF American (V)

I ran this run with HillH and KurtS on June 1st of 2008. There are very few information about this run except for "Best whiterwater in CA" (by Holbek and Stanley). H&S book says that this is 9.6 mile classV run, very steep with average grandient of 171 fpm. Mile to mile gradient are 160, 120, 110, 150, 190, 210, 210, 250, 180, 80 fpm. There is 30-foot waterfall at mile 7. Takeout at the waterfall makes this run easier for one day trip.

Along this run, there are many summer houses, approximately 20 of which are built in a location accessible by its own road from hwy 50. We could not find takeout road to the waterfall, but explored such a couple of roads and decided where to take out. Although none of us has run it, we met together early and tried to make a trip without guide. I lead other two and scouted at many spots out of the boats. Although there were many logs that made portage necessary, our impression of this run is "This is great run, worth to do". When we did it, flow at Kuburz was probably 400 cfs (gauge shown by dreamflows did not work). It was good flow to explore this run by first timer. Our rating of this run to mile 5 (or 5.5) at 400 cfs (Kyburz) is classIV+ with several classV-~V rapids. At higher flow of 600~800 cfs, this run would be rated as solid class V. We want to come back again.

Putin spot is just nearby the bridge in Strawberry. A little bonny, but enough runnable.


There were many logs that blocked the river. We portaged this log, but reput in just below.


In the begining 1.5 mile, there were a few nice boof or rapid that had 4~6 feet height. I missed to shoot them. This rapid (IV) is around mile 1.5.


This rapid (IV+) has continuous 3 drops. We scouted it out of boats. Hill is finishing the third one. On the river left, there is undercut, but not serious.


View from downstream of the rapid in above picture. This run is like small creek.


Getting flow higher by side creek at several places.


Nice slide. Kurt getting out of the hole. At higher flow, would this be more sticky?


I took many pictures on the boat while I was waiting others running down. It was not easy to focus correctly though using auto focus.


View from downstream of the same rapid as above.


We paddled underneath the log.


We scouted this rapid out of the boat.


We paddled down not to approach the log on the right.


The entire run look like this, very continuous. Sometimes, bigger rapids. At several spots, there were serious ones to scout.


There were many boof like this.


This was one of serious rapids at probably mile 4~5. This is view of the entry part. Nasty log!


Upper to middle part. In the middle, there was nasty hole looking sticky.


In the middle of the long rapids.


Middle to lower part view.


In the lower part, this creek splits to two separate flows. River left has nice 7-8 feet boof, but river right was bonny and looked nasty.


River right. We did not go.


All of us portated the upper-middle part of this rapid and reput in the middle and enjoyed the boof. In this time, Hill shot me by my camera.


Shot by HillH.


Below the rapid in above pictures, there was short recovery pool, but soon other rapids continued.


One of top 10 hard rapids among what we did.


Zoom-in view of the rapid above.


At probably mile 4.5 ~ 5, but I misunderstood that it was almost end of run at mile ~7. I was relaxed and careless and could not find the log quickly. I could not go over the rock, which is located just underneath of the top of my boat in this picture, then my boat was stuck/pinned. There was a log that made triangle with the rock and making sieve under the log. My boat were put in the corner. We tried to rescue my boat, but could not. High flow pressue pushed my boat down to the bottom. Although two float bags were put in the front and back, boat was under the water. I gave up rescuing my boat and decided hike down to the takeout. My boat was leashed with a tree by a rescue rope. Three weeks later, I came back to here by 50 min hiking. Boat was just nearby, but someone stole so many stuffs from my boat, throw rope, many caraviners, float bags for bow and stern, wing nuts to fix foot rest, spare paddle, even drain plug. In this country, there are fxxking people even in paddlers. This incident disappointed me a lot. I still feel bad when I visit Kayak stores and see padding gears such as throw rope.


What a huge log jam! Almost making log dam. I shot this from the right river bank while hiking down. This was a big portage.


A very serious rapid at ~ mile 5. Even if I had had my boat, I would have portaged it. Bottom part of the rapid was like toaster of Bogus Thuder of NFA Chamberlain run. After this portage, we were so tired and decided to take out before our original goal. Hiked up to the hwy 50 and hitchhiked to the original takeout.