This year's Kern River Festival had the best weather and water the event has seen for several years. Racers had a great flow for paddling the waterfalls, steep drops, and slides on Brush Creek; and boaters enjoyed paddling a challenging slalom course through the whitewater of Riverside Park in downtown Kernville.

A new event this year, the Hooligan Boat Race, was a spectator and participant favorite. Inspired by the event at the FIBArk River Festival, paddlers constructed their own boats out of "non-boat" materials and attempted to paddle their creations from upstream of the bridge in Kernville, down through the class II rapids in Riverside Park.

The photograph above is of "Al's Original Bucket Boat." Usually a bucket boat refers to a raft that isn't self-bailing, but in this case the boat is made of buckets, and the paddles from bucket lids.

As you might expect there were some outrageous designs, and not every boat made it to the finish line.

Next year the Hooligan Boat Race is expected to be even more popular. The Kern River Festival is held annually, the third weekend in April, in Kernville, California. In 2011 it is scheduled for April 16-17. (Easter is April 24, 2011.)

Paddled Limestone on the Upper Kern today. The flow on the Upper was about 1000 cfs, midday temps were around 70, and the water a balmy 40-something. Given the good Spring flow and weather, we were surprised no other paddlers were on this section of the river.

The drive between Kernville and the San Joaquin Valley was exceptionally scenic. Kern Canyon's steep slopes were as green as they get.

Good friends, good weather, and good paddling at the 2009 Miracle Whitewater Slalom at the Miracle Hot Springs Slalom Course on the Kern River!

Olympians Eric and Rebecca Giddens set an interesting course with several gate sequences that had not been done in previous Miracle races. Racers found the 4-5-6 offset and 8-9-10-11 cross current sequences to be particularly challenging. Here's a short HD video of Keith Kishiyama paddling gates 7 thru 11. (Same video on Facebook.)

Saturday, Eric and Junior National Team member Nick Wilkening gave a pre-race paddling clinic, giving paddlers the beta on how to paddle the course fast and clean.

Thanks to everyone that paddled and helped with the race! Results will be posted on the KVRC web site soon.

One of the more unusual watercraft at the 2009 Kern River Festival was Dan Gavere's ULI inflatable stand up paddleboard.

Dan finished second in the 2.5 mile Downriver race, and made all the gates in the Slalom event!

Bob and Joe Setting a Slalom Course at Riverside Park

Thanks to Bob, Joe, Tom and Smiley for another great GMC. As always, the paddling instruction was exceptional.

Training sessions were held on the Upper Kern River at Riverside Park in Kernville, and on the Lower Kern at the Miracle Hot Springs Slalom Course. Instruction ranged from fundamental skills to advanced techniques -- all of which can be applied to paddling whitewater rivers, freetyle boating, or slalom racing.

Here are a few pics:

Getting ready to start the morning paddling session at Riverside Park.

Former Olympic Team Coach Bob Campbell and the slalom group watch Olympic Gold Medalist Joe Jacobi demo a slalom course in Riverside Park.

Joe Jacobi explains the intricacies of paddling a series of gates on the slalom course at Riverside Park.

Smiley -- former National Slalom Team member Anne (Mitchell) Long -- keeping warm on day 2. It was windy and cool, but not bad in the water!

Drying wet gear at the host motel, the Kern Lodge.

If you're curious about slalom, or whitewater boating, the 2009 Kern River Festival is April 18-19 at Kernville's Riverside Park. The Festival will feature two days of non-stop action with a steep creek race on Saturday, and a downriver race and the T.J. Slalom Race Sunday. It looks like the weather and water should be great!

Related link and post: Gold Medal Connections, Whitewater Slalom Racing

Gary Gunder Paddling in Falls Gorge on Piru Creek

Today President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Act, extending federal protection to more than 2 million acres and 86 rivers in nine states. Included in the Act are provisions to create new wilderness areas and expand existing wilderness areas in California, and to extend Wild & Scenic protection to eight rivers in California, including 7.25 miles of Piru Creek downstream of Pyramid Lake. Piru Creek is the first stream in Los Angeles County to be protected by inclusion in the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System.

The following segments of Piru Creek have been added to the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System:

(A) The 3-mile segment of Piru Creek from 0.5 miles downstream of Pyramid Dam at the first bridge crossing to the boundary of the Sespe Wilderness, as a recreational river.

(B) The 4.25-mile segment from the boundary of the Sespe Wilderness to the boundary between Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, as a wild river.

The reach of Piru Creek downstream of the Ventura County line -- which includes spectacular "Falls Gorge" -- was not addressed in the 2009 legislation. This section is within the congressional district of Rep. Elton Gallegly, and hopefully will be extended Wild & Scenic status in future legislation. In the meantime, a large part of the reach is within the Sespe Wilderness, and is afforded the protection that the wilderness designation, and having a Wild & Scenic section upstream, provides.

The photograph of Gary Gunder paddling in "Falls Gorge" on Piru Creek is from March 2005. More photos of Piru Creek can be found on my Southern California Creeking page Piru Creek - Frenchmans Flat Campground to Lake Piru.

2002 World Champion and 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Rebecca Giddens S-turns through a red "up" gate while racing in the T.J. Slalom at the 2007 Kern River Kayak & Raft Festival.

A whitewater slalom course consists of a series of red gates and green gates that are paddled sequentially through a set of rapids. The paddler must pass through red gates moving in the upstream direction, and green gates moving downstream. Racers are timed, and a 2 second penalty is added for each gate that is touched, and a 50 second penalty added for each gate that is missed.

Typically, there are 18 to 25 gates, with 6 to 7 up gates, and the rest downs. The gates are placed to create challenges for the paddler, and the difficulty of a slalom course is usually about a grade higher than if the same rapids were paddled without gates.

In national and International races a specialized whitewater slalom boat is required, but at local citizen races paddlers also use plastic river-running kayaks and even playboats. Paddling slalom gates is a great way to improve your river-running skills!

At the elite level, higher performance boats and custom built whitewater venues have upped the adrenalin factor for competitors and spectators alike. The whitewater events were one of a few that sold out at the attendance plagued Athens Olympics. The Beijing Olympic Canoe/Kayak Slalom venue looks challenging, and should warrant good television coverage by NBC.

In the past decade, whitewater kayaking has grown in popularity, but the sport hasn't lost its "small sport" appeal. The sport's medal winning athletes, such as Rebecca Giddens, are not only superb paddlers, but are also very humble, hard working and hard playing people, willing to share their expertise and ideals. Rebecca and her husband Eric -- also an elite paddler -- now live in Kernville, California and operate the very popular brewpub, the Kern River Brewing Company. Eric will be setting the courses (gate sequences) for the whitewater events at the Beijing Olympics.

1992 Olympic Gold Medalist Joe Jacobi also works hard and plays hard. Joe, along with his partners at Gold Medal Connections offer paddling camps and clinics across the country. This year's Gold Medal Kayaking Camp was the 11th on the Kern River. Joe will be part of the NBC broadcast team covering Canoe/Kayak events at the Beijing Olympics. For Joe's "thoughts, ideas, and life lessons from the outdoors" see his blog Gold Medal Living.

If you're curious about slalom, or whitewater boating, the 2008 Kern Festival is April 19-20 at Kernville's Riverside Park. The Festival will feature two days of non-stop action with a steep creek race and raft races on Saturday; and a downriver race and the T.J. Slalom Race Sunday. There's no charge to watch, and as a result of this year's good snowpack, river conditions should be nearly ideal!

Technorati Tags: whitewater slalom, olympics, Kern River, Rebecca Giddens, Joe Jacobi, brewpub

One of many excellent hikes/runs in the Southern Sierra, the River Trail starts at Johnsondale Bridge -- about 19 miles north of Kernville, California on highway Mountain 99 -- and follows the river north 4 miles to Four Mile rapid. Here the trail turns east and works up to the Rincon Trail.

This section of the Kern River is part of the beautiful and challenging Forks of the Kern class V whitewater run. Numerous class IV rapids and the class V rapids Carson Falls and Confusion are found on this reach. In the Spring and Summer expert kayakers and rafters may be seen maneuvering among the many boulders and drops. (A Forest Service permit is required to paddle the Forks.)

Runoff from the Upper Kern River is stored in Lake Isabella and then released to the Lower Kern River according to flood control and irrigation requirements. The releases for summertime irrigation normally produce good flows for rafting and kayaking.

Although only a 2.5-3.0 hour drive from Los Angeles, the class IV Miracle to Democrat run on the Lower Kern River is usually remarkably uncrowded. Sure, you'll probably see a few rafts, but nothing like the log jam of rafts on some other rivers. It's not unusual to paddle for a couple of hours and not see another group.

On the 11 mile reach between Miracle Hot Springs and the Democrat Day Use Area, there are eight rapids that are rated class III+ or class IV, many class II and class III rapids, and one class V rapid. The class V rapid, Royal Flush, is normally portaged. There are numerous places for kayakers to surf, spin and play along the way. Depending on how much time is spent playing, paddlers may choose to take out at Delonegha, at about the 7 mile point, or continue on the "Big Five" section to Democrat.

In this post's photo, the kayaker is paddling the rapid Deadman's Curve, aka Powerful Possum. This class IV rapid plunges down a big drop with surprising speed into steep waves and pushy diagonals.

Note: It is extremely important to wear a personal flotation device (PFD) when on a river. If you're not an experienced whitewater kayaker or rafter, contact an outfitter for more information about paddling trips and instruction.

A kayaker waits in an eddy, while two other paddlers work their way through the last third of Limestone rapid -- one of the classic class IV rapids on the upper Kern River.

Big and burly, Limestone is renowned for its large standing waves, and paddling it is a rite of passage for kayakers and rafters alike. In 2003 elite athletes from around the world raced specialized wildwater kayaks through Limestone rapid as part of a series of ICF World Cup races held on the Kern River.

Even in a light snowpack year, with less runoff, it is an exciting and challenging rapid to paddle.

Running down the Silver Moccasin Trail from Shortcut Saddle to West Fork a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to my running partner that a few years before, I had carried my whitewater kayak down the trail.

Around 1995, Gary Gunder and I started exploring the creeks and rivers of Southern California, looking for hidden gems that rarely - if ever - had been paddled. Kayaking these streams has been an incredible experience, and has enabled us to see some of the wildest and most beautiful places in the mountains of Southern California.

Creeking in Southern California is an "iffy" activity. Iffy in the sense that it usually takes a lot of rain for a stream to flow, and there is a very narrow window in which the flow will be ideal for paddling. In addition the canyons are steep and isolated, logistics are usually complicated, and more often than not it is necessary to carry your boat to the point on the stream where you put in. Paddling a stream can involve a hike of several miles, and a very long car shuttle. Several times we have gone to a creek, only to discover that it was too low to paddle.

Plastic kayaks may look light, but kayaks made for paddling creeks typically weigh around 45-50 lbs. Add to this the weight of paddling gear, rescue equipment, food and water and the total weight might be 65 lbs. or more. If food and overnight gear for a multi-day adventure are added to the mix, the total weight can top a beastly 90 lbs.

There is no good way to carry a heavily loaded kayak and you can be certain that obstacles such as downed trees, swollen creeks, and washed out trails will have to be negotiated. Picture yourself carrying a kayak (as a backpack) across a steep snow slope, slipping and falling, and then going for the sled ride of your life, flailing like an upside down turtle with a 90 lb. shell!

In 2003, when we paddled the West Fork San Gabriel River, it rained very heavily the night before. The storm set a new rainfall record for the date, and I was sure the river would be too high. But what a day, and what a river! Skies were partly cloudy and shafts of sunlight filtered through the firs, glistening off the water, and highlighting the saturated greens of mosses, ferns, grasses along the river. Ephemeral waterfalls cascaded and fell from cliffs at several points. It was a wilderness paddler's dream day.

It would be difficult to pick a favorite among the creeks and streams we've paddled. Each one has its unique character, scenery and challenge. The best multi-day runs would probably be a 47 mile reach of the Wild & Scenic Sisquoc River near Santa Maria, and a wilderness section of the Wild & Scenic Kern River from Grasshopper Flat, past Kern Falls, to the Forks of the Kern. The most technical would probably be the upper Santa Ana River downstream of Filaree Flats, Arroyo Seco below Switzers, and upper Matilija Creek above Old Man Creek. The most scenic might be Middle Piru Creek or Upper Piru Creek. The wildest might be Yucca Creek, a tributary of the N.F. Kaweah.

The best my legs have ever felt running trails is following a wet rain season with a lot of kayak hiking!

Note: The title photograph is from a March 5, 2005 descent of upper Matilija Creek, near Ventura, California.

Technorati Tags: creeking, Matilija Creek, Sisquoc River, San Gabriel River, Arroyo Seco, Piru Creek