Friend of Paddling Life and Colorado-to-California transplant Jared Johnson reports in that, ahead of another Pineapple Express/Atmospheric River targeting California this week, the Sierra’s beloved South Yuba River, a popular run for local kayakers, recently crested its banks, topping 8,000 cfs on the gauge at Cisco.
“The South Yuba at Cisco peaked just below 8K cfs yesterday,” he posted on Dec. 17. “I was wondering how high that was compared to past flooding and it’s really not that high. In ‘63 it got up close to 18K according to USGS and was around 15K in both the ‘65 and ‘97 floods. It’s amazing the buildings held up fine to double this flow, with no flood plain restrictions in back when these were built…”
Watch Video of Flood Here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1QTRV24XVg/
The South Yuba has serval boatable sections, including 7-mile, Class V 49 to Bridgeport, and Class V Purdon’s to 49. One of the most popular is Edwards to Purdons, outlined below.
River Description: Edwards to Purdons
General: Edwards to Purdons is a fun Class IV pool-drop run through a small, roadless river canyon. It is 4 miles long and usually has water in the winter and spring. The run is probably a little more difficult than Chamberlain Falls and a little easier than Giant Gap (both local Class IV runs on the North Fork American). Edwards to Purdons is along a pretty stretch of river with some great granite ledges for sun bathing.
Flows: The run is best around 1000 to 1500 cfs (6.5 to 7.5 feet). At this flow, there are lots of small waves and holes with good opportunities for boofing. Minimal flow is around 500 cfs. At this low a flow, the run gets pretty bony. Be sure to stay upright. At higher flows, things start moving faster and some large holes develop. Most people don’t run it above 2500 cfs as the shuttle takes longer than the run and a lot of the fun rapids wash out.
Rapids: There is a pretty good surf wave just downstream from the bridge. Close after that is a short series of rapids with a sneaky hole on river left that sometimes convinces boaters to walk back to the put in (there is a short trail from the put in to the Spring Creek confluence on river right). Halfway down the run is a river wide boulder sieve that may be run on the right. The ‘old broken dam’ referred to by Holbek and Stanley washed away in the 97 flood. There is no longer any trace of the dam or its nasty rebar. All that is left is a clean fun rapid.
Shuttle: The shuttle is fairly long (45 minute each way) and requires a high clearance vehicle or good skills dodging rocks in the road. It may be done on the south side of the river or on the north side of the river. The north side shuttle is longer, has longer dirt sections, but avoids the worst section of Purdon Road. People sometimes drive to the takeout from the south (coming from Nevada City) and then drive the shuttle on the north side of the river.
More info here: https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Search/view
