Finally, The T

The Tuolumne – A Whitewater Trip

Guest writer:  Brian McPherson

Rapids are rated on a difficulty scale of I-V.  I is nothing much; II is still nothing much.  III’s are a little more “intermediate” in nature -- people can get into trouble, just generally not too much trouble.  The jump to IV’s is a big one.  IV’s involve fast moving water, “must make” maneuvers, and bad choices usually mean consequences.  We ran a V, once, on a commercial trip.  Jonathan and I were walking back to the boat after scouting the rapid.  Our professional river guide had dropped out of sight. We doubled back to find him stopped, behind a tree, eyes closed, brow furrowed, nervously drawing the moves he needed to make in the air with his finger.  “Just trying to remember it all” he smiled sheepishly.  That’s what looking at a V does to you.

The Tuolumne, or the “T”, to those who know it well, is a class IV river.  It’s scenic, remote, and found just outside of Yosemite, it's in our backyard.  

Sun starts to drop as we approach put-in on Sunday evening

  

But difficulty-wise, to date, it’s been a touch out of Jonathan’s and my reach.  At the end of last season, we decided its time had come.  So Sunday night, we set off with butterflies for a quick two-day trip.  On the car ride up we decided to count the number of lifetime, small-volume IV’s we’ve rowed to build our confidence a bit.  Eight.  Yeah, we got this.  

The T has eighteen IV’s in a 15-mile stretch.  And it has a V.  Why it’s called a “class IV” river, when you actually have to be able to competently row a V, is beyond me.  But it is.  So in the span of four hours we’d surpass the total number of IV’s we’d done in the last five years.  And tackle our first V.

The probably 3000 foot drop into the canyon on a long single lane dirt road to put-in took about half an hour.  We unloaded, rigged boats, ate dinner, had a great campfire, and didn’t sleep as soundly as we’d like.

Day one.  Morning.  We ran into some commercial boaters, veterans of the river, putting in as well.  This was great because it’s always safe to have others on the river in case of trouble.  But it also means there’s an audience for any mishaps.  Rock Garden was the first rapid, literally about 50 yards downstream from put in.   Not much of a warm up.  Getting hung up on rapid 1 of 15 seemed like a less than confidence building way to start the day.  We desperately wanted to avoid it.  It’s also kind of like shanking a ball into the clubhouse on the first tee.  Our AM goal was just to not look like assholes right off the bat.

  

Thirty minutes climbing through fields of poison oak to scout the ¼ mile field of tightly planted rocks paid off.  We made it off the first tee, confidently.  We also had pretty great lines on the other IV’s that AM, including Nemesis, Sunderlands, and The Squeeze.  The Squeeze is aptly named, requiring Jmatt to swim across the river and double check our boats would fit through a pretty narrow chute.

Finally on The T & it's technical

Fun morning water on The Tuolumne

The Squeeze was just that – do you think a boat will fit through there?

The Squeeze was not the only squeeze we found – technical Class IV rapids were found around every bend

B-Mac taking a hit in one of the many rapids we saw on day 1

B-Mac lining up, trying to keep it in the fat water

Beautiful little spot for lunch

Floating the river, you could see the damage from the rim fire last year clearly visible up the banks, but the Tuolumne canyon remains deep, scenic, and beautiful.

Coming around a bend later that afternoon, I looked back at Jmatt to ask, “Where did the river go?”  We had hit the class V rapid, called Clavey.  But it’s full name is actually Clavey FALLS.

True to its name, the river bends around to the left and then drops completely from sight.  It’s a slightly terrifying horizon line.  “Slightly” turns to “completely” with the realization that we were going to row down it.   

There’s a great quote in our California whitewater book that goes something like, “You can stare as long as you like at Clavey, but it doesn’t get any better the longer you look.”  Time to get behind a tree and start drawing routes in the air.

Gulp – it's time for the main event

Hope to stay upright through the top, I definitely didn't want to swim here

B-Mac scouting from the bottom of the upper section

One last, final look at the entrance and it's time to go

B-Mac drew the short straw and guns it first

B-Mac safe through the big drop and I'm lined up to follow

Right where I think I want to be

First hit and still looking good

Things get a little crazy in the middle but I manage to keep it upright

Vid & pictures does it no justice, but click and come along for the ride

Wahoo, we made it!  Victory screams filled the canyon at the bottom.  After both running it cleanly, everything else seemed slightly more doable.

It ended up being a long but great day. Eight hours of rowing and scouting led to a great campsite that night at the North Fork.  And with 15 successful rapids behind us, we had a delicious hot dog dinner, a fire, a couple bourbons, and this time, slept like the logs around us.

With the big stuff behind us we enjoy evening light all the way to camp

B-Mac enjoying some splashy late afternoon fun

Though we made it through the biggest rapid on the river, The T took our full attention until we made it to camp at 7

The man enjoying camp

Classic B-Mac hobo meal

Camping is a dirty business

Significant water drop over night  – B-mac's boat was floating when we went to bed

We took our time in the morning, admiring the canyon, and even squeezing in a little hike up a side creek.  We creeked out on very low water, a short two hour run to Ward’s Ferry Bridge.

Skinny water side-hike up the North Fork

Beautiful scenery for our little side-hike

Super skinny water on the way out

18 miles down river from put in, Wards Ferry Bridge comes into sight

That's a long haul out for the gear, but we are psyched with the accomplishment 

Standard summer flows for our first day and under 500 for our float out

See you next time, T, you sexy beast.