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madmiguel
Member
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Posted: May 15, 2008 Post Subject: cisco to spaulding is harder than it's rated
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| | I just wanted to critique the rating on dreamflows of the cisco to spaulding run on the so yuba. Although one could only run the class IV or V- drops ont this run, they would be portaging half of the rapids on the run. I think the rating is especially misleading when you see that Burnt Ranch on the trinity, for instance, is rated IV to V+. In my recent experience the smaller drops were similar in difficulty to the largest drops on the ranch, where as the larger drops were full on V+ waterfalls. I'm not saying that it's anybodys responsibility to give a perfect description of any run, but I think the ratings could be more consistant. Also I wanted to remind people that the flows on this run have extreme daily fluctuations. Be carefull and plan on portaging a lot if your not a hair boater. Oh yeah and have fun too.
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chris
Site Admin
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| Posted: May 16, 2008 |
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| The Dreamflows cross-listing page is quoting Lars Holbek when it gives IV+ to V- for this run, but perhaps that's a misprint (supposed to be V+ instead of V-)? I certainly don't think East Meets West is a V- ... we all stared fascinated for the longest time, then took it as a hint from the river gods to walk out.
The Dreamflows online guidebook says this run is IV+ to V with at least one V+ or portage. Sounds reasonable to me. Anyone else care to weight in? What rating do you think is fair?
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amtuscano
Member
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| Posted: May 22, 2008 |
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| The issue with this run is the many highly questionable drops. If you assume that they're all portages, you might call what's left over Class IV-V with Class VI portages. However, if you're gonna fire up the waterfall-into-a-hellacious-crack drop or the bigger waterfall downstream of Eagle Lakes (has that ever been run?) you're talking at least Class V+. For the vast majority of boaters who might potentially paddle this stretch, what they need to know is that there are lots of portages and some really good class IV-V drops.
As a separate issue, I think it's important for the section descriptions to emphasize how different the Rainbow section is from the Spaulding one. It's not just difficulty--I think that the character of the river is different, and it certainly responds differently to high flows. As many people have been posting recently, Three Blind Mice and beyond can sometimes be dangerously high when the Rainbow section is very manageable. Since river beds tend to widen as they move downstream, I think first time paddlers on the Spaulding stretch might be prone to putting on it at high flows based on a faulty assumption that the upstream stretch was good to go.
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nathan h
Member
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| Posted: May 22, 2008 |
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| I agree with most of the sentiment described above. The run is certainly V-V+ depending on what you run. Interestingly, a lot of the questionable drops open up with higher water. The rapid under the overpass is a perfect example, as is a very sievy drop 2/3 of the way through the run. I find that East Meets West and the Crack Slide are much cleaner with extra juice. Both are superb falls. Consider them carefully, however.
Even if you fire up most of the big ones, you're still going to be walking 4-5 times. Flows come way up in the afternoon, so make sure to have steady progress on the river. Great run.
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Edited once. Last edited by nathan h May 22, 2008.
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chris
Site Admin
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| | Thanks for all your input ... I've updated the cross-listing page to show difficulty for the Spaulding run as being "IV to V or V+".
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