level six news

CALIFORNIA CLASS THREE

Greetings whitewater boat riders!
Well, the fine state of California has been treating us very well over the past two weeks! After three solid days of cold kickin it at Chris Schell’s house in Corona(which was incredible by the way, can’t thank the Schell family enough), Max and I headed up to Kernville for a quick warm-up to California creeking. Brush Creek is a super fun low volume run about 20 minutes out of town and was a sick first California run.

Portage #1 on Brush Creek.


Max rolling into Portage # 2.


Hiking up for more action.



Another cool thing about the Kernville area is that it offers a wide variety of paddling opportunities. Max and I put on to a section of the Kern River that was rated as class five at 2,000 cfs, and it was running around 7,000! I think the quote of the day by Max was, “we know that we don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into.” A couple miles of dodging extremely big holes downstream, Max and I flushed into a very very large rapid. I was in front and worked it out through a couple of big holes, but before I knew it I was staring into the guts of a riverwide monster of a hole! I crested the lip and took her deep into the corner of the hole, but I couldn’t quite plug it and started throwing down a sweet rodeo ride in my Magnum. Max dropped in with me, but luckily flushed out pretty quickly. A solid 40 seconds later I finally managed to work my way to the side, and loop out of the thing with exactly zero energy left in my body. We took a quick break, and successfully ran(with extensive scouting this time) about 3 miles of burly whitewater before we were confronted with something that looked like it belonged more on the Stikine or Tsangpo than the Kern. I had had enough, and with some effort talked Max out of routing the beast on his own!

The next day we paddled with a Southeastern crew on the Middle fork of the Thule River, a high quality run that I would definitely recommend, kind of like Linville but without all the huge sieves.

Typical Thule Rapid.


Sprinkles probing a sketchy 20 footer.


With Chris, Daniel and Dylan driving up from LA, we decided to rendezvous the next day back in Kernville and get on the famous teacups of Dry Meadow Creek. We were also joined by my friend Fergus Coffey from Massachussets, and headed up to Dry Meadow after two warm-up runs on Brush.

Teacup #1.


Filming John on drop #3- Superfreak!


The teacups were quite an adventure to find, but we soon found ourselves in one of the most incredible gorges that I have ever seen in my life! The actual teacups section is very steep, but just downstream of the last runnable drop, the river plummets over a 40 footer, then immediately off a 60 footer, and then another 50 immediately afterwards, all of which land on rocks… the place gives you vertigo just walking around!

Anyways, good lines were had, and our day ended with a 2.5 mile big water paddle down the last section of the Forks of the Kern, and with me talking Max out of yet another even more monstrous big water rapid!

Schell boofing out of Dry Meadow, and into the Kern.





After a day off and a solid drive to Northern California, our trip began to seriously take shape. After meeting Pat Keller and Scott Harcke in Coloma, we bought some supplies and headed to Big Kimshew Creek. I’ve seen the footage of this creek and heard the stories of two mandatory 40 footers, but I had no idea how good it actually was… this creek is absolutely incredible, and I would say it’s definitely top 3 on my list, along with Toxaway and Raven’s Fork.


Scott on the first big rapid.


Rolling off the lip of Big Kimshew Falls.


Austin and Pat in the sick gorge after Big Kimshew Falls.


The run was 8.5 miles of basically nonstop action, with a couple of miles over 400 fpm, and only two portages! I would definitely say that Frenchy’s is my favourite rapid of the run, with a big burly lead in rapid, and then a Sunshine-esque charge across the lip of a 40 footer to avoid piling into the wall. Absolutely incredible.

Entry rapid.


Pat flying on Frenchy’s.



My buddy Dylan Bruce was also lucky enough to celebrate his 21st birthday during this trip. Here's Dylan sticking a cool line on Upper Pauley Creek after a 3 mile hike-in on his birthday.


Here's Dylan stoked that he's 21.


Here's Dylan not stoked at all.


Alright, well that's all I've got for now ladies and gentlemen, we'll hopefully have some Royal Gorge/SuperDink/South Silver action shortly. Until then, stay classy!

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans



**All shots by Max Kniewasser and Fergus Coffey** Thanks boys!