Yuba, Middle
3) Our House Dam to Route 49(Our House)
| Difficulty | III-V |
| Length | 7.9 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 68 fpm |
| Reach Info Last Updated | April 19, 2023 |
River Description
This is a busy river with many class III and IV rapids through out the distance and one class IV+/V- rapid near the end. Flows are from spill when inflows to Our House Reservoir exceed the capacity of the Lohman Ridge Tunnel diversion. Typically this will be at peak spring snowmelt flows. Some years spill has lasted for a considerable period, but more often it will be very short or will not happen at all. American Whitewater has been working since 2008 to secure flows for this reach as part of the FERC relicnesing process for Yuba County Water Agnecies (YCWA) Yuba River Development Project (Bullards Bar). We have reached agreement with YCWA that will significantly improve boating opportunities in this reach.
This section has been run from as low as 500 cfs up to 3500 cfs.
Take-out: The Oregon Creek Day Use Area is on the north side of the river on the upstream side of the Highway 49 bridge. A scenic covered bridge crosses Oregon Creek. The gates are closed seasonally to vehicles, but the area is always open to foot traffic. There is also quite a bit of parking along Highway 49 on either side of the bridge. This area is about 25 minutes north of Nevada City on Highway 49 and about 1 hour from Highway 99 in Yuba City.
Put-in: Our House Dam. Park near the top of the dam and hike down to the river just upstream of a gauging weir. There is a trail and stairway leading to the gauge. From the take-out, drive north on hwy 49 for 1.7 miles then turn right onto Ridge Road. After 4.5 miles turn right onto Our House Dam Road and follow that to the reservoir and dam.
Other Information:
A GUIDE TO THE BEST WHITEWATER IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, HOLBEK & STANLEY, 1988
Cornbread wrote on Boof.com: '... about 3 years (2006) ago we did the run at 3500 cfs along with some rafts from Trib and most of our group
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