Trying to fight the covid indecision blues and find something to do that largely avoids the masses on a holiday weekend, Heather and I made the drive up to the Kern for a 1050 cfs Jungle Run. I had done this run once before with Keith and did not have too much memory of it other than having a pleasantly scenic gorge section. I locked my bike to a tree at the water's edge at Miracle Hot Springs for the shuttle and then we drove on to Slippery Rock just below the Lake Isabella dam. Unfortunately the launch area was completely closed off to regulate covid interactions and pullouts at the start of the road were also somewhat maliciously blocked off. After a little effort we managed to find what appeared to be legal roadside parking on the other side of the river, leaving us with a short walk to the river. We found a slickrock slab to get ready on only about 600ft downstream of Slippery Rock. We both were glad we chose this option as the run would have been too short and skipped the most scenic section if we started 2.5 miles downstream at Granite Stairs.
The water temperature was pleasant; I was pleased with my decision to wear a wetsuit instead of a drysuit. The first couple miles had a remote wilderness feel to them with granite cliffs plunging into the river on both sides. The narrowness of the gorge and turns often gave a sense of something big right around the corner, but of course every rapid was read-and-run once you approached it. As we cruised down I kept an eye out for pictographs that I knew were somewhere in this section but that we managed to miss last time through.
Eventually I found the pictographs high on canyon right. They were better than I thought they would be- abundant, well preserved and creative. We exited the gorge section and then had three highway bridges to weave under for the rest of the run. The rapids still continued. We saw plenty of people on the shore but only one commercial raft group joining on the river. For its "Jungle Run" name there really is only very minimal foliage overhanging the river anymore. It is a pleasant, cruisy, low stress run.
After a clean drama-free run Heather managed to swim on the very last drop on the very last rapid before our takeout in front of a large group of worried picnickers. I changed, grabbed my bike, and set off as soon as I could to close the shuttle. The 8 mile bike ride was actually a lot more pleasant than I thought and I made good time on the mostly untrafficked old highway despite the heat. The downhill into Bodfish was exceptionally satisfying. All in all a nice day out despite the driving to pull it all off.
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