The writing has been on the wall that weak Sierra snowpack, atypical weather patterns, and deep drought were going to mean a sparse boating season so after some deliberation I decided to tag on to Keith's friend's all inflatable trip down the Forks of the Kern. My only previous Forks trip was back in May 2018 at a flow of 1600 cfs- it was pushy, scary, and I felt off my game as I bumper car'd my way down multiple rapids and had lots of flips. Flows this time were a much more forgiving 650-700 cfs so I was looking for some redemption, a chance to enjoy the river scenery a bit more without being constantly on edge. We had some convoluted and somewhat frustrating logistics that eventually found us on the river just below Freeman Creek. One of the bigger rapids on the run, Lower Freeman was our warm-up, which I recognized as one of the rapids that swallowed me up last time around. Several opted to portage; I managed to have a clean line with a couple key paddle strokes keeping me out of the maw of the hole at bottom right.
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| Lower Freeman Rapid |
It was a really pleasant day and I quickly settled into the pace of the rapids. Geno was a huge help announcing beta to keep us moving. Needlerock Rapid (frontispiece) was particularly fun and scenic. A couple of the IK folks had frequent swims that slowed us down but being an overnight trip we didn't have that far to go and still made it to camp at Peppermint Creek with plenty of daylight left. I forgot how nice some of the views of the Needles were along this stretch of river.
After changing out of my dry suit and staging my canned margarita in the river to chill, I strolled over with a few others to check out Lower Peppermint Falls and shot a few drone videos and photos. I particularly liked the vantage upriver of Lower Peppermint Falls and the Needles. We had a pleasant evening hanging out in camp. I woke up in the middle of the night with weird shoulder pain and chills but I slept well after.
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| Lower Peppermint Falls & the Needles |
We had a relaxed 9:30am start on the river. We passed through many of the bigger rapids on the river without much incident (Big Bean, Vortex), until West Wall. Here one of the group had a swim requiring a rescue and chasing down a lost paddle and boat. I tried to run it but struggled pushing past the eddy line and got cornered out in a hydraulic for an instant swim (my only one of the trip). The swim was remarkably uneventful without any bashings or hydraulics holding me but very disappointingly I lost my paddle. Keith quickly pulled out a spare but I was nevertheless bummed out at this point.
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| The lead in to West Wall Rapid |
We were now well behind our schedule but I managed to stop for a few minutes at Dry Meadow Creek to fly over the Seven Teacups- it was really neat to see this oblique aerial vantage on this classic pothole chain. My GoPro was misbehaving the rest of the run and I was preoccupied looking everywhere for my lost paddle (no luck). Everybody opted to portage Carson Falls. We had another swimmer right above the falls; the swimmer managed to not go over the falls but we had further delays in tracking down a boat and paddle yet again.
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| Seven Teacups |
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| Below Carson Falls |
We took out at Brush Creek. Fortunately for Keith and I the others were going to close the shuttle, leaving us to head on home. The trip had some frustrating aspects (some of them self-inflicted), but it was still nice to get out.
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