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chris
Site Admin
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Posted: Jun 13, 2008 Post Subject: Paddle out information requested
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| | The Folsom Lake reservoir elevation information is intended to help determine the expected paddle out at the end of the Gorge run on the South Fork American. Also paddle out for the Confluence run on the North Fork American (i.e. the run between the NF/MF confluence, and Rattlesnake Bar). If you have information about which reservoir elevations correspond to what length of paddle out (either in distance or in time, for either of the above two runs), please share. Thanks!
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valentinescott
Member
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| Posted: Mar 30, 2010Post Subject: Folsom Lake Elevation
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| | It seems as though an elevation of 421ft at the dam will allow you to float all the way to the Skunk Hollow (private boater) take-out. Any higher and you'll have to do some paddeling.
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chris
Site Admin
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| Posted: Apr 4, 2010 |
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| | Good info, thanks for posting. As the lake/reservoir rises, anyone who cares to report on the paddle out will also earn much karma.
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valentinescott
Member
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| Posted: May 2, 2010Post Subject: Folsom Lake Elevation
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| | There is a little bit of current moving over the top of Surprise rapid on the South Fork at 451ft, making for a long paddle out.
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jansportw
Member
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| Posted: Sep 20, 2010Post Subject: South Fork American into Folsom
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| I had my staff gathering information this summer on what Folsom Lake elevations translate into what rapids being affected on the South Fork American River, also giving you an idea of the distance out. Please post any corrections or additions.
Jansen - Rock-N-Water
Ranges: the low end has little affect, while on the top end it is mostly gone or just rocks bearly showing with current.
? - Recovery Room is gone.
460-46? - Recovery Room affected
448-452 - Surprise affected
? - Larger River Left Rock between Surprise & Atlantis is showing
434-440 - Atlantis* is affected
? - Flow to the corner where you first can see the bridge
425 - Flow to just before the bridge
421 - Flow a little past the bridge
? - Flow to Salmon Falls take out
*Atlantis: The rapid where there is a slight left turn in the river with a single main left shoot/wave train or a narrow (for a raft) shoot around a large rock on the right.
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chris
Site Admin
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| Posted: Oct 29, 2015 |
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| Huh, I've finally done something with this information, after barely five years! 
Dreamflows is now color-coding the Folsom Elevation flow site green, yellow or red depending on how low the reservoir is, and consequently how long the paddle out is. Currently it's green (no paddle out), naturally. I'm still pondering how best to present this information on the reports, and for that matter which numbers to use for the none/some and some/long cut-offs. Consider also that the numbers are quite different for the NFA Confluence and SFA Gorge runs. Share your thoughts, please ...
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chris
Site Admin
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| Posted: Nov 1, 2015 |
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| Turns out Jansen at Rock-N-Water provided some great information and detail on the paddle out, enabling me to build up what looks like a good relationship between reservoir elevation and paddle out to Skunk Hollow (Salmon Falls Road bridge).
Since Folsom Reservoir currently has about a bucket of water in it, paddle out is zero. But hopefully we'll get good rains this winter; if so the reports will start to show the estimated paddle out, complete with basic color coding.
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jansportw
Member
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| Posted: Nov 16, 2015 |
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| Nice 
I like the quick and simple 3 color key.
Seeing as you've got text added afterwards "Paddle out: none" would it be possible to have greater granularity in the text, while still keeping just 3 colors? Something where green might be for anything up to half a mile of paddling for a quick glance, but the text would display 0.25 miles, 0.4, 0.5... for greater details.
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chris
Site Admin
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| Posted: Nov 16, 2015Post Subject: Re:
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| | jansportw wrote: | Nice
I like the quick and simple 3 color key.
Seeing as you've got text added afterwards "Paddle out: none" would it be possible to have greater granularity in the text, while still keeping just 3 colors? Something where green might be for anything up to half a mile of paddling for a quick glance, but the text would display 0.25 miles, 0.4, 0.5... for greater details. |
Thanks for responding. The current strategy is outlined in the fourth bullet here. Yes, when the reservoir comes up above Salmon Falls Bridge (about 70 vertical feet to go), it will display the current paddle out to the nearest computed 1/10 of a mile (0.4, 0.5 etc), with the colors changing as described in the note.
But those values were just to get the ball rolling and verify the system worked. I'm quite happy to change the transition values from the current 1/10 of the mile for green/yellow, and one mile for yellow/red. For simplicity I'd like to settle on standard values, applicable to all paddle outs on all rivers (rather than tailor the values to a given river). Assuming so, it then becomes a question of what we think of as a "short" (green) paddle-out, a "moderate" (yellow) paddle out, and a "long" (red) paddle out. Remembering that "short" (green) includes no paddle out.
Everyone interested: please chime in with what you think the transition values should be.
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chris
Site Admin
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| Hiked up the North Fork from Rattlesnake Bar yesterday. Based on what I saw and also talking with Jeff W. (who happened to be at take out), have changed the transition values to: 1/4 of a mile for green/yellow, and 1.5 miles for yellow/red.
Based on that, also put together what seems like a reasonable formula for computing paddle out on the Confluence run on the North Fork, and started reporting it. It's a formula in progress, though, so feedback based on actual experience welcome, especially information on where the river met the reservoir when you paddled it (plus a date/time of course).
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