Merced

This is a common put in for people who wish to boat the many class 4 rapids between here and Redbud.    Put in at the small parking spots on the down-canyon end of the bridge, better on the upstream (east/upcanyon lane) side of the bridge. There is room for 3 cars if all think/plan accordingly when parking on this side.

At high flows the section from here to Redbud is continuous Class 5.

This is a heavily used launching area during the whitewater season.  A launching area across the bridge on the north side of the river tends to get used the most.  There is parking on either side of the river and it is possible to launch on the south side as well.

The river splits around the island, with the left channel as a sneak route, and the right channel with two Class IV drops.  The two drops are formed by jagged rocks that can have some pin/carnage potenial at lower flows.   At higher flows both channels have large holes that are difficult to avoid.

Chipped Tooth comes very quickly after Nightmare Island, with only a short distance of fast water between them. The river starts off wide then drops through a steep boulder field towards a narrow exit.  The middle is congested but right and left sides are more open.

The right side of Chipped Tooth seems moderately easier than the left [highly subjective, I admit]; at low-moderate flows, it can be eddy-hopped down small right bank eddys up to the steep boulder pour-throughs; at moderate-higher flows, this route still works to paddle through if you can't or don't hit the narrow bank eddys. The left side goes as well at most flows, but the sudden large left-right 'reversals' - waves, not holes - towards the bottom can be hard to manage.

BEWARE - the largest drop and the 'Chipped Tooth' is formed by a group of large boulders going across the river bed, with very real sieve/trap potential if one were out of the boat or in a bad position at most flows.

In 1999(?) a local paddler and friend in a relatively small boat missed the boof over the middle; he penciled, and found himself pinned flat, still in his boat, at the bottom of the river. He escaped barely, and spent the next day and a half retrieving his boat via high line and hook-and-pole.

An alternate access point that can be used particularly when flows are low.

The Ferguson Rock Slide came down in spring 2006 blocking the highway.

Briceburg is where highway 140 comes down to the river from Mariposa.  There is a river access area with a toilet.  An old stone building is now a museum run by the BLM. A gravel road follows the river downstream for several miles to a number of campgrounds along the river.

Split Rock can sneak up on the unwary. At low/moderate flows, this shouldn't be a problem as the route is pretty much straight down the middle in the tongue. At moderate/higher flows, some scary holes can form, and this rapid becomes essentially one with the next rapid, a somewhat harder (at most flows) rapid called 'Corner Pocket' for very good reason.

Corner Pocket can be scouted and portaged at the campground on river right, McCabe Flat. It is a rocky angular pore-over several feet tall, at the bottom of a rocky lead-in. If one enters or gets pushed too far to the left, you end up in the Corner Pocket at the bottom, river left. The first time I saw this feature, I watched six kayaks follow into this like lemmings. All six ended up swimming out, with the boats tumbling in the pocket for later retrieval. The current below the pore-over splits, and the left flow goes up against a flat wall that forms a very strong recirculating eddy. Bank access on this side is not as easy as it could be, and like everything else along this reach, infested with poison oak.

It is common to take out at the campground immediately below Corner Pocket.

Quarter Mile Rapid has a tighter channel with continuous pool and drop features that can be boat scouted along the way, eddy hopped and dropped with continuous amusement at low to moderate flows. At higher flows, the drops blend together and there is the great danger of being swept into North Fork Falls.

Immediately - 50 ft? - at the end of Quarter Mile is an impassible Class 6 called North Fork Falls, where the North Fork of the Merced joins the Main Merced. At the base of the falls, there are several very large flat and blocky boulders.  Much of the river flows UNDERNEATH these BOULDERS!  If there is even the slightest chance of missing this mandatory portage, don't boat the rapids above it!

At North Fork Falls, there is a pipe skid rig up the right side for rafter use.