South Fork American River Whitewater

Ever since we took our first whitewater rafting trip with the Munselles down the Trinity when Max and Cam were in preschool I’d been waiting for the littles to hit the age when the whitewater outfitters running trips down the American River would allow them on a boat. With both of them now nine years old it, Lance and I decided to kick off the kids’ summer break with a trip down the South Fork to enjoy some of the incredible flows resulting from all snow this winter. Typical flows during mid-June for the South Fork are around 2,000 cubic feet per second; it was close to 5,000 on Tuesday when we made our way to Coloma with the four kids. Lilia and Mayse were pretty nervous in the bus on the way to the launch spot (partly due to the fact that I’d been showing Lilia videos of class five rapids the week prior to our trip!) but our guide Jeremy did a fantastic job of calming everyone down and getting everyone in the mood with some forced dunking of the kids as soon as we hit the water.

It was an incredible day, I hope to make it an annual trip to kick off summer when the snowmelt is favorable (although next time we might have the mums along with us!). It was 21 miles and six hours of unadulterated fun, with icy cold water face shots over and over, and so much squealing from Max and Cam I’m surprised they didn’t lose their voices. Lilia was the only one to take an unintentional swim: she was over the side, swept under the boat, plucked out of the water by Lance, and back in her seat before she knew what was happening. Lots of laughs from the rest of us as she got her bearings back in her seat. I don’t want to wait another year for our next run!