The "Intrepid Eleven" Run the First Tuolumne Trip of 2006
The eleven brave boaters that signed up for our April 8th Tuolumne River trip had an epic one day journey. Most of the roads in Tuolumne county were closed that weekend and the river was raging so we put together a special trip for them after nobody wanted us to cancel it.
We started our trip by hiking two miles downhill along the South Fork of the Tuolumne. At put-in, we found that the river was 5,000 cfs instead of the 3,800 cfs that was reported. Our guides were up to the challenge so we put on and ran the Tuolumne at one it's most difficult levels. Some guides say that 5,000 cfs is the most difficult level on the Tuolumne because we have to run the big rapids right down the middle. At higher flows, it's easier to sneak around the big holes that lurk in the middle of the river and can flip boats.
April High Water on the Tuolumne River
We'd normally take out at Ward's Ferry bridge, but both roads in were closed so we had to paddle an additional mile across the reservoir to a 150 foot long log jam. Here we slowly pushed logs out of the way and paddled through it. After the log jam we had a motorboat tow us across Don Pedro Reservoir we arrived at Moccasin Point Marina. It was an adventurous day!
