My first weekend back in southern California and nothing to do. I was without a home and my office was not really set up yet. It was the perfect excuse to get out of town for a trip and fortunately I found a group of canyoners that were headed to a canyon I have wanted to visit for years: the North Fork of the Kings River, just north of Kings Canyon National Park. It has a reputation as one of the wetter and wilder classics in the Sierra Nevada, complete with waterfall rappels to 150ft, countless jumps up to and in excess of 80ft, slides, and bottomless potholes, all in a relatively inescapable gorge. An early start Friday afternoon got Dan (my carpool buddy) and I through the worst of Friday LA traffic and we made good time out to the campground. We past the very sad, very low Pine Creek Reservoir, an obvious victim of California's prevailing drought to arrive at camp just before dusk. I readied my gear for the next day while meeting people trickling into camp. A friendly bunch.The exact number of people on the trip seemed to fluctuate but eventually the intelligent decision was made to split the group in two, with a smaller group running the shorter, upper canyon and a larger group running the lower canyon, then switching for Sunday if interest was maintained. Since the lower canyon can take more than 12 hours to run, the smaller the group and the earlier the start, the better. I slept well in the surprisingly warm night.
Everyone was relatively quick leaving camp early next morning but by the time we completed the car shuttle the morning was advancing. At the last minute I decided to bring my lifejacket, which was the best decision I would make that day! We strolled down the old road and suited up by the river. While suiting up an enormous group appeared, over 30 young guns on a bachelor party! None of us were thrilled by this big group as it had all the right potential to make our day longer. We let them play on ahead, certain we had not seen the last of them. One of our team ran up to the parking lot to see if the other two missing members of our group were still there- they had got the meeting place wrong. The canyon begins with one spectacular free-flying 50ft jump, often called the Entrance Exam. The others opted for the less spine rattling rappelling option. This was followed by the first of many long swims which made me appreciate my life jacket immensely.
After scouting, two more jumps followed, about 22ft followed by 16ft. One of our group had a mental block and was unable to convince his body to make the jump. We waited for what seemed like forever (and in actuality was a considerable amount of time). He waited until !another group! appeared from upcanyon that could give him a belay. This trip was looking to turn into a disaster: at least three groups, someone in our group that is unwilling to jump in a canyon nicknamed Jump Canyon, a generally slow and non-cohesive group overall, several hours wasted, and we were only barely into the start of the canyon.
Some uninteresting scrambling led to the next section of waterfalls into great big enormous pools. Down one waterfall, then the next, found us at the top of an impressive 150ft falls that we would be going right through the meat of it. We arrived just as the last of the bachelor party descended and so avoided any delay. Being the most experienced I tried to give everyone a crash course in canyon signalling before heading down. The force of the water was stronger than anticipated in a couple places. It was easily the nicest rappel in the canyon. Everyone managed the falls without incident and all seemed to really enjoy it. We were not that far into the canyon but people snacked since it was already lunchtime somehow. We saw two more groups stacked up at the top of the 150ft waterfall which was our cue to make some serious tracks. None of us were interested in completing this canyon in the dark!
Several slides, jumps and downclimbs followed until a dramatic horizonline signaled a lovely 80ft rappel alongside twin waterfalls. Beautiful potholes along this stretch, some of the best I have seen anywhere. Also some of the cleanest large jumps I have seen anywhere in a canyon. Best of all the water was exceptionally warm, the absolute perfect temperature as we swam across enormous pools, in some cases over 1000ft long. A notable 30ft jump was followed by an interesting rappel behind a rooster-tailing waterfall. To head downcanyon it was necessary to swim through a misty corridor known as the Rainbow Room. It was a very cool feature. Unfortunately the rope was jammed so I jumared up and reset it for a cleaner pull. One more drop and it was time for second lunch. The canyon very obviously opened up at this point and it was clear the best of the canyon must now be behind us. A quick look at the topo map revealed we still had a lot of canyon left to traverse.
This middle section had much less drop and was overall milder. The waterfalls were shorter and broken up by incredibly long swims including three to 1000ft. Once again I was thrilled to have my lifejacket! The rest of the group seemed less adept at scrambling over the slippery boulders so I frequently had to find a shady spot in the water to beat the heat while I waited five to ten minutes. There was a lot of scrambling! Also some excellent potholes. One pothole in particular was off the main river and thus had still and clear waters. I could see down over 20ft as the edge of the pothole faded into a bottomless blue. One of my favorites ever.
At the end of this stretch the canyon picked up a bit more steam with some larger waterfalls, eventually culminating in an impressive 400ft waterfall which was bypassed in the interest of time. The canyon was still not done with us yet. Even after seeing the piping strapped to the cliff downstream (marking the powerhouse at our exit) the challenges continued. One of the greatest challenges was a surprisingly impenetrable rockpile. I awkwardly abseiled between rocks, only to find an easy rabbit hole for the others to pass through. One final waterfall and we were at the powerhouse. I gorged myself on food and drink in the parking lot as we waited for the others to complete the car shuttle. We got to talking with the other two groups, which arrived just as it started to get dark. It ended up being a needlessly long day but the trip was great fun nonetheless and now I have a pretty good group of people for canyon trips in southern California. Although the Sierra season is more or less over in my opinion (I'd rather see the canyons when the flow provides some level of challenge), I can't wait for the next season to kick in.
Thanks to Freddy and the gang for having me
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