Stephen & Nick's (and Dane) Cali Creek Week #3: Upper Middle Cosumnes!

By Stephen Wright

After taking Wednesday off back in Reno, we picked-up Dane for 2
more days of creeking fun! Dane has been dreaming (and talking non-
stop) about creeking in California for the past several months. He
wasn’t happy to have heard that we ditched him earlier in the week to
run the goods. So we packed-up the van with gear and boats for 3,
and headed-out to run another Cali day run classic: the Upper Middle
Cosumnes. While not as steep and intense as Kimshew or the South
Branch, the Cosumnes continues to deliver with tons of granite
slides, lots of class IV and 5 or 6 rapids to get your heart
pumping. Darin, Chris K, Nick, Dane and I joined Cody Howard and
Cory Beaux to enjoy the perfect weather on a perfect creek. I ran
the "V Slide" rapid for my first time, which thankfully didn’t work
me until I swam–actually we all ran it and escaped unscathed.
Anyway, this was the perfect class V "warm-up" run for Dane, and a
great day for all of us!

Now it’s time to pack-up and start driving to Colorado early
tomorrow morning for a month of events and fun out there. It’s been
an AWESOME spring in Reno/Cali—3 runs on Giant Gap, 2 on Cosumnes,
3 on the South Branch, 1 on Kimshew, 1 on Summit, 1 on Tobin, 3 on S
Yuba 49-Bridgeport (including one run in the Duo with Jason!), 3 or 4
days squirt boating, and many other day runs intermixed with near-
daily mountain biking and countless days in the Reno Whitewater
park. It’s a little sad to go, but I’m excited for what the rest of
the year will bring. Jessica’s last day working is in 2 weeks, then
she can join me with the big red sprinter van on tour until mid fall–
SWEET!!!!!

Live from Reno (for the last time until fall),
Stephen Wright

PS I’m now on Twitter and update daily. If you’d like to follow me,
my user name is "HobbitKing" 🙂