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boof
Member
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Posted: Feb 24, 2009 Post Subject: House Creek run on Weatfield Fork of Gualala River
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| Weatfield Fork from 2 miles upstream of House Creek down to the Annapolis bridge (about 10 miles - mostly along the road) on Feb 22 2009. Old gauges are defunct, but this gauge on the Gualala downstream of the confluence with the South Fork Gualala was accurate:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ca/nwis/uv/?site_no=11467510&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060
The gauge shows 10,000 cfs on the Main Gualala. We looked at both runs, and estimate that the Weatfield Fork had about half the South Fork Gualala flow, i.e. 2,500 cfs on the WF, and 7,500 on the SFG. The heaviest rain was falling on the SFG, so the SFG was well out of its banks into the trees, and rising (debris floating down the river). The SFG was a no-go for our kayaking group (two experts teaching two class II beginners) at this level. The WF was steady with debris eddied out, so the routes on the WF were clear, with sufficient bank in places to crawl out on.
We put in about 1.5 miles above House Creek, lowering our boats down a steep grade, using a 50' nylon rope that we found tied onto a tree about 1/4 of the way down from the road. Take out was at the Annapolis bridge.
The run was pushy II+ with one III at this level. The III was a final wall just before the Annapolis bridge, marked by a redwood tree on river-right, pearched on top of a large bolder, covering about 3/4 of the right, sweeper chocked, side. The left side piles into a wall with funny water sufficient to flip a kayak (or two in our case).
Good fun.
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