California Whitewater Paddling: Extended Park Boundary and Park Boundary

In the early July of 2010, my son Ken-ya and I had a great opportunity to run the extended park boundary and park boundary run of Kweah river with Albert Sticker, Konrad Pehl, Albert's friends Jeff Gymer and Sean Sangree. Jeff and Sean guided us. We got to know Bill Pooley who is a friend of Jeff and Sean and who is the author of "The Kweah River Page. Bill has been spending his passion into everything about Kweah River. The Kweah River Page is awesome! and covers all information, river flow, weather, water temperature, and of course, river guide, etc. His house is located on Hwy 198 and a part of his backyard is a wonderful beach of the river. Thanks to Bill, we had a great camping experience there. Huge thank Bill for his hospitality. We definitely want to visit him again and paddle together next time.

Extended park boundary run is a 0.5 mi long stretch and Park boundary run is 0.6 mile. Both are very steep and continuous and have 190~200 fpm gradient with classIV~V difficulty depending on the flow. In our three times run, flows changed a little in a range between 5.25 feet and 5.45~5.5 feet, but the difficulty changed a lot. When we ran, they were rated classIV+ (with two V-). Because they are short runs, people do the two stretches three times a day. Kenya and I joined the group after others had done once, so we ran both runs twice on the first day and once on the following day.

Shown is the dreamflows flow at Three Rivers that is located several miles downstream than the gauge at Park Boundary, just west of the entrance of Sequoia National Park and the end of the Park Boundary run. The gauge indicated 5.3 feet at 14:00 (7.11.2010), 5.25 feet at 18:00 (7.10.10), 5.45~5.50 feet at 11:30 (July 11,2010), which would be 840 cfs, 800 cfs, 960 cfs at Three rivers, respectively, when they were added flow from East fork of Kweah and reached Three rivers.

The put-in of both the Extended Park Boundary run and Park boundary run is located inside the Sequoia National Park, because of which entrance fee is required. Kenya hiking to the putin of of the Extended Park Boundary run. It's about quarter mile long, no hike up, not bad at all.

The river view from the hiking trail.

Upstream view (Ash Mountain run, V~V+) from the putin. A big drop is seen.

"Double Bubble" the Put-In drop (IV+) seen from downstream

Jeff running the Double Bubble.

Korand Pehl running No name rapids (III+)

Albert Sticker running No name rapids (III+)

The upper Slalom (IV).

A video for the Upper Slalom and Slalom rapids. At gauge 5.45/5.50 feet high, it's rated V-. Video was taken at gauge 5.3 feet.

Kenya ran the Slalom. He hand-paddled in the mid-last part of this rapid, but not intentionally. Here is the "Boater and Kweah News" from The Kweah River page

# 07-11-10 The Extended Boundary saw many runs in the last three days. Your webmaster entertained guests Masa San and Kenya San from Sacramento. Kenya San at thirteen years old demonstartated himself as a solid Class 4+ boater with 4 runs on the Extended Boundary at levels of 5.20 feet to 5.45 feet on the Boundary gauge. He can be seen coming through the Chute at the completion of his Extended Boundary run on Saturday as Picture fo The Day. Not only is Kenya the youngest ever to run the difficult Extended Boundary but his run at 5.45 feet is a very stout level at the high end of the normally runnable range. Kenya sports a bulletproof hand roll on both sides that he used when a hole depaddled him and he hand rolled up out of the hole, ran the next drop hand paddling, and reteived his paddle no problem. Impressive! Watch for this youngster up on Hospital Rock someday as soon as Dad gives him the OK.

The upper part of the Slalom.

The middle part of Slalom

Jeff running the Upper Slalom (gauge 5.3)

Jeff running the Slalom (gauge 5.3)

The exit of the Slalom from downstream

The Dam (IV), which is still inside of the National Park and the putin for the Park boundary run.

Jeff entering No.11 rapid (VI~IV+ difficulty, V consequence) that has the ugly undercut hazard on the river right.

On the right of Jeff, there is the undercut hazard. Bill says that many people had problems there. I ran this rapid at gauge 5.45/5.5 and had no problem.

After the No.11 rapid, there are several III~IV+ rapids. At the Dinely bridge on Hwy 190, there are no parking space for takeout. We got into Gateway run and kept padding to the Bill's backyard. Kenya running the Chute (IV). Photo by Bill Pooley.
This image is copied from "The picture of the day" at The Kweah River Page.