California Boating

By Emily

Everytime I think California Kayaking I think Steep Creeks, Smooth Granite
and Fun Water. The past week I got to see some other types and parts of
California that I havent seen before. My first stop was at the Auburn
Whitewater Park where the water was a Medium flow and the wave was going to
be sweet. We arrived not knowing if there would be a spot at all, but
figured since we drove all the way, might as well go check it out. After
paddling down and seeing over 25 naked men, there is a wave called gay wave
on the river, we arrived at the park. To our excitement there was a wave, it
was fast foamy and a TON of fun. The boys were throwing every move while i
was working on helixs and blunts. I had a blast and the boys showed me up
big time. Jason Craigs Mom was more than kind enough to run our shuttle and
pick us up at the park. Only she could only park 2 miles up out of the
gorge. If anyone ever plans on going make sure you find out if the gate is
closed or open. The hike isnt bad at all because its on a road but it is not
easy because its straight up. I started hiking fast, because everyone else
decided to sit around for awhile i thought i could race nick by starting way
earlier.

I made it up quite a bit, they were smaller than ants from where i was and I
was feeling good. Later I didnt see them for awhile and sure enough they
pulled up in the back of a pick up truck from one of the construction
workers. Nick said i should listen to the tortoise and the hare story more.
Sure enough we climbed in ending an awesome day on the water. Only to return
to California the next day!

The next day we decided we would be taking longer boats, time for a fun
creek run. We ended up doing Giant Gap which was a BLAST. I had so much fun,
its more like a big water creek. Its not super technical or anything and a
TON of boogie water. I cant wait to get back there again! We paddled it with
Marty Cronin, Tanya Faux, Stephen and Jessica, and Becky Bristol. It was
alot of fun paddling with Becky because I had grown up knowing about all the
cool stuff she did but when I came into the scene she really wasnt into it
as much. Shes coming back though!!

Lastly but definetly not least for California boating, my all time favorite
play boat run, the American! We paddled the Chili Bar section as well as the
section after it. The water was at 4,000 and the play boating was epic. We
had super fun waves, holes, wave holes everything!

I had paddled this river a ton so i knew it was going to be awesome. We went
down the river with CCK and there whole gang. There was over 20 people in
our group which was fun to help everyone witht their playboating or even
their big water river running. We saw people who had never been on the
river, to people that had been on it for the last 30 years. It was a super
fun mix.

Now I am back in Reno getting ready for the Reno River Festival. Wish me
luck and I hope to see you on the river!

Emily