Kaweah, East Fork

History:

Bill Pooley reports on the Kaweah River Page that the first descent of the EF Kaweah is thought to have been done in 1997 by a group of Team Perception paddlers. It has only become popular in the last 4 or 5 years as word of mouth has finally got out.

The Run:

Despite its apparent short length, a descent of the EF Kaweah below Oak Grove Bridge presents a formidable physical challenge to potential descenders. The difficulty is sustained, the objective hazards very real, and the gorge is, for the most part, inescapable with river level scouting and portaging often impossible. Small groups of star paddlers with the lines well worked out can make the run in 5 hours, larger groups of first timers are likely to be closer to 10 hours before catching the welcome sight of the MF Kaweah confluence. Numerous mandatory short portages around sieves are required and the 3 largest rapids, whilst they have all been paddled with mixed success, are commonly portaged via slow and grueling terrain. Given all this one might wonder why anyone would bother to paddle this stretch at all, and the answer is simple with 1250 feet of descent over 4.3 miles nearly all via clean but serious granite bedrock rapids.

The traditional putin is at the Oak Grove bridge, however, as of Winter 2006/2007 a large piece of a mid stream boulder that had previously formed a large runable or easily portagable drop ('The cave drop') broke away, falling into the water downstream and forming a river wide sieve that is extremely difficult and dangerous (impossible at higher flows) to portage. As of spring 2007 parties have taken to parking at the bridge but then walking downstr

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