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Jan Doelman
Member
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Posted: Apr 13, 2011 Post Subject: San Antonio River
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| Dear Paddlers, Could this have been a 1st run of this portion of the San Antonio River?
April 9, My buddies Dave and Bob Erlach and I did a kayak run along the San Antonio River from Fresno camp to Venturi Rd! Friday night we camped at the river pull-out location at the upstream DelVenturi Rd river crossing. My comrades seemed to have no anxiety about making it out by nightfall. On saturday we drove up to the top of Nacimiento-Ferguson road and cooked up some eggs and hot-chocolate. I wasn't too happy about the delaying of the departure but was over-ruled. There was a fresh coating of about 1 inch of snow.
After hiking the 5 miles to the San Antonio trailhead and the 1.5 miles down the San Antonio trail we reached the river at Fresno camp. At Fresno camp the snow only remained in the shady areas but we tried to get it into some photos. Unfortunately I don't think we could get any photos of creekin with snow along banks.
The river looked to be dryer than expected. I had been to Fresno camp on March 19, 2011 to reconnoiter the put-in spot. On that day it was storming heavily. I noted the water depth as being marginally high enough and I made a mental not that I would not attempt the trip unless the water was higher than what it was at 2:00pm on March 19. Prior to our departure day I looked at the real-time USGS river gauge online info and found that when I was there on March 19, the flow had been only about 150 cfs, and the day we were putting in the water was 300 so I thought... this will be ok. In retrospect, it seems that the water flow during the immediate storm on March 19 may have resulted in a disproportionately high water at Fresno camp relative to what is measured at the gauge.
We got into the water at Fresno camp at 11 am, the flow did not make for easy kayaking along the river between fresno camp and Salsipuedes creek. We stopped by the Casey stone house near the Salsipuedes creek. This is an abandoned building/shack out there along the river. It has a nice picnic table. Below Salsipuedes creek the flow was more but the river was heavily boulder strewn. The section of river for the next 4 hours was difficult to kayak because of the boulders. Eventually the river gets to be easily kayakable 1 or two miles upstream of a ranch along the river.
At 8:00 pm, we ran out of daylight at about 1 mile upstream of the DelVenturi Rd. We dragged our kayaks to DelVenturi Rd, and walked the last 1.2 miles along the road to the car.
It was a fine adventure even if it was a difficult kayak trip!
Water - Class 3-4 with many, many portages(20-30?) .
Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/117142671956042478581/VentanaWildernessKayakTripSanAntonioRiver#
Regards, Jon Doelman
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Edited 3 times. Last edited by Jan Doelman Apr 13, 2011.
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