Cali Quickie 2019

All photos by Emily Raville.  Thanks Emily!

Like most years, the natural progression of spring 2019 led to local water levels dropping throughout April and being dismally low in May.  Dam released runs around the southeast keep us entertained and sharp as we started cooking up plans for summer travel to chase snow melt in the western US.  A plan for a three week trip to CO in July was coming together nicely, but a couple old friends and I were also kicking around the idea of a reunion of sorts for early June in one of my favorite paddling towns, Kernville, CA.

I had spent some time in Kernville on multiple previous trips either to run various sections of the Kern River itself or getting laps on the classic bedrock playgroud of Brush Creek, a tributary of the Kern.  As a paddling destination, the Kern River drainage is a little weird in the fact that if you are there when Brush Creek is running at a good level, the Kern itself is likely to be very high and most of the classic sections above recommended levels.  However, if you are there later in the runoff when a lot of the sections of the Kern are at more ideal flows, Brush Creek is almost certainly low and likely too low.

With the huge snow pack from the winter of 2018-2019 it seemed like we were finally going to get our chance to catch Brush Creek with really good flows.  We only had a week in June when we could go, so with fingers crossed we bought plane tickets and put the plan in motion.  The gamble paid off with a week of laps on perhaps the friendliest 350 FPM creek anywhere!  Over our time there Brush had consistent flows between 3.75 and 4.5 feeding our souls with granit goodness and just enough push to keep our focus.

 Until Next Time...

Adam Goshorn

kayak session