Kings, N. Fork

Posted to rec.boats.paddle, 8/23/1998, by Richard Smith:

'Alas, another wild plum of the Sierra Nevada mountains has been

picked. Tom Hagberg and myself managed to bag the North Fork of the Kings

River above Wishon Reservoir. All in all I think we hiked about 6 miles with

our boats including one long portage around an unrunnable (boat width)

gorge. The paddling was very straight forward and enjoyable. We packed along

a video camera and shot just about everything we ran. For future reference

however and for those who would like to check out one of the most beautiful

places to paddle on earth, I recommend paddling across Wishon Reservoir and

then hiking up the North Fork from there. There are several fantastic (all

runnable) drops as well a small scale gorge with runnable water falls and

ledge drops. Great stuff and considerable easier access for the quality

drops than what we did.'

Gradient, mile-by-mile: 180 (0.6 mi), 220, 300, 260, 160, 200, 140.

Wishon reservoir is at 6540 feet elevation.

Getting there:  Take highway 168 out of Fresno, towards Shaver Lake.   In the outskirts of Shaver Lake, turn right on Dinkey Creek Road.   Go past Dinkey Creek to Wishon reservoir.

Take out: There is a road that goes a ways around the west side of the reservoir.   Drive as far as you can to a locked gate.   google map.

Put in options:

1)  Tom and Rick parked at Courtright reservoir ( google map) to start their 6 mile hike around past Post Corral C

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