This is my favorite drainage for day runs in Cali (so far). They crashed a road up the main Kaweah Canyon back in the day to harvest the giant Sequoias for timber, so here is one classic Cali watershed that doesn't require you to be your own pack mule to access it. Fortunately, they soon found out that the Sequoias are crumbly and worthless for timber, so you can still go and oxygenate yourself amongst them after a day of kayaking. King's Canyon/ Sequoia is the only national park I know where you can go kayaking legally, so even though the 80$ a year for a parks card is steep, it beats 1000$+ fine for illegal runs in other parks. And the crazy thing is that we kayakers haven't f-ed anything up yet! Or needed to be rescued by rangers with their mad skills! Crazy! These pics are some East Fork, as well as some middle Kaweah above hospital rock. To do that run, turn off to the right onto a dirt road when the paved one starts heading up and away from the river at the hospital rock. Go till it dead ends, hike down the left side of the stream that flows into the Kaweah, and put in below the horrid undercut you will see there. From here down to the normal hospital rock take out at Potwisha campground, everything is runnable. Wheee! If you want to know which pics are East Fork and which are Mainstem, you should go run them both, then compare and contrast. Photos are by Eric Giddens and Kevin Smith, kayaker is myself, Taylor Cavin, paddlesports enthusiast.
No comments:
Post a Comment