Trip Outline:

Drive on Friday Night from San Diego to the Sequoia National Forest. Stay in a Kernville hotel for the night. Raft the Kern River all day Saturday with a local outfitter. Drive home Saturday night. Total trip time was 27 hours.

Participants:

Scott Holcombe, who drove the entire stretch both ways.

Kerry Ann Titan, substituting for her husband, Hari Titan, who was somewhat ill on the trip day (or maybe he was just nervous?).

Faith Nilsen, who used her patented techniques to assure we get the best guide, and other advantageous treatments.

Diane Jones, who was an all-around asset to the expedition and willing to take - without complaints - whichever seat in the van or raft others were looking for excuses to avoid.

And, myself, Dan Shoham, who organized the trip, recruited participants, researched the market, and made all reservations.

Due to a Work-related commitment of some participants, the plan called for the trip to begin around 8:00pm. This implied an estimated arrival time in Kernville at 1:00am if we make no stops and have no schedule slips. A rather aggressive schedule, given that a good night sleep is a pre-requisite for a good rafting trip.

We all met at my home between 7:40pm and 8:00pm, as arranged. We departed 8:15pm. Scott drove his van. We took I-15 North. With the legal speed limit at 70MPH, and the actual speed around 75, we made good time. Around 10:00pm, near Victorville, we turned to US Route 395 North. This long, two lanes, desert road is heavily used by tracks. The road was reasonably flowing, except when stuck behind one of those slow moving behemoths. Around 11:30pm, near Ridgecrest, we turned to CA Route 178 West toward Isabella Lake. Rt. 178 is a winding mountain road. It traverses the Walker Pass at an elevation of 5250 feet above sea level. The combination of high altitude and motion sickness sensitivity I sometimes suffer from necessitated we make two short fresh air stops before anything bad might have happened. While we stopped, we got a very spectacular view of the star-filled skies. Hundreds of miles from the nearest significant city, and above half the atmosphere, we could sharply see the mist of the Milky Way Galaxy, as well as many stars not visible from the city. We even got to see the atmospheric burn trail of a meteorite. Around 12:30am, we reached Isabella Lake. An artificial lake at an altitude of 2512 feet. The Upper Kern River, which we rafted on Saturday, drains into Isabella Lake. The lake itself drains into the Lower Kern River, which ultimately enters Lake Webb - by Bakersfield - and then the California Aqueduct; supplying fresh water to the population centers and agriculture of Southern California. Driving along the Eastern banks of the lake, on Sierra Way, we reached Kernville around 1:00am. We had no difficulties finding the Kern Lodge Motel, where our rooms were booked (although, shortly after entering Kernville, we feared we missed the hotel and back-tracked about 1 mile before convincing ourselves we didn't).

During the 5 hour drive we passed the time telling jokes, stories, playing movies/baseball/capitals/etc trivia and generally harassing each other.

Our hotel rooms were in order. For the price and location, they were reasonably nice. There was a refrigerator in each room - which significantly enhanced the lifetime of the various perishable munchies we brought along. Scott and myself slept in a 2 beds room, and the three ladies slept in a 2 rooms / 4 beds suite. Most of us were sound asleep by 1:30am

Before Rafting:

I got up around 7:00am. At 7:15am I went out to scout the area. Kernville is a small town which services the tourism industry of the Sequoia National Forest within which it is located. The business district is about the size of Cornerstone Court. It is located just north of Isabella Lake, on the east bank of the Upper Kern River. The view from town is spectacular: towering mountains on both sides of the clear blue river, and fresh water greenery in the midst of desert surrounds and climate. Spectacular scenery would follow us throughout our trip. I quickly located the store-front for Chuck Richard's Whitewater, the meeting place for the trip and the business place of the outfitter we were booked with. It was a 90 second walk from the hotel. The store was still closed. I also located several open coffee shops where we can have breakfast. One of those was across the street from Chuck's. I returned to the hotel around 7:30am. By then everyone was awake and ready to go. Although there was no need to check out of the hotel, I stopped by the office to pick up brochures for other White Water Rafting outfitters in the area - to help plan subsequent trips. We had breakfast at the across-the-street coffee shop. Service was poor, food was ok, and prices were surprisingly non-gauging for that type of town. While waiting for our food, I hopped across the street to the now open store to confirm that we are in the correct place and time, and to ask a few questions. We finished eating and walked over to the store around 8:45am. The official meeting time was 9:00am. By then many other rafters we were to go on the same trip were already there milling about. Our bookings were all in order, and we all registered and signed their various disclaimers - about how we know this is a hazardous activity and it's not their fault if we get hurt. The agent said that wet suits are not needed since the outside temperature is going to be 95 degrees. However, being as I hate cold water (the water was 45-55 degrees), I elected to rent a wet suit anyhow. Kerry Ann elected likewise. The rest of our group (as well as all members of all the other groups) choose not to use wet suits. As it turned, I was glad I took a wet suit, Kerry Ann was glad she took one, and the rest of our group were glad they didn't - so it all worked out best. Around 9:30am, we all boarded Chuck Richard's bus to our drop off point - about 20 miles upstream. The bus was to be with us all day long, picking us up and dropping us off at various points along the river. Behind the bus, in tow, was a trailer carrying our rafts: Four identical, brightly red, inflated self-bailing, 6-8 persons raft, stacked up higher than a person standing.

The bus drove north on Sierra Way along the river stretches we were soon to raft. The road was right along river and we got an excellent view most of the time. From the bus the river did not look impressive at all. For the most part, it looked like the kind of rocky creek one can hop-jump across without getting too wet. It certainly didn't look wide enough to allow our rafts through. We were to discover that the river looks quite differently from the inside.

While on the way the expedition guide, Brian, explained what we were going to do. He said that we are going to start our run farther upstream than any time this season - thanks to a drop in water level which made that section runnable.

When Sierra Way reaches it's northern-most point, it turns eastward, bridges over the Kern River, and then departs from it. This was our drop off point. We carried the rafts down from the trailer to the river bank - a 100 yard, steep downhill, dirt access path under the Kern River Bridge. It takes five or six person to carry a fully inflated raft.

Brian gave us a quick course in paddling and rafting safety. The safety lecture involved what to do if you are thrown overboard: Keep your paddle, float feet first, try to keep your feet above the water, avoid - at all costs - running into overgrown tree sections as it is very difficult to pull people out of there, and don't walk in water deeper than your knees - as your feet may get stuck in the rocks. The highly buoyant life jackets - which must be worn at all time - makes drowning very difficult.

paddling is done to help maneuver the raft through the rapids. The propulsion force is provided by the river. The guide uses his paddle, which is designed for that purpose, as a rudder. He also issues commands to the crew. A good guide will use his crew efficiently and they will be able to achieve the same maneuverability with less paddling than a poor guide would. The paddling instructions involved a vocabulary of 8 commands: All forward, All back, Right back (which also implies Left forward), Left back (which also implies Right forward), Stop, Stroke (measured, synchronized paddling), Dig in (paddle as hard as you can), and Top-side (everyone moves to the downstream side of the boat to avoid imminent flipping and/or to get off a rock).

We divided into groups for each raft. Our group took one raft. A group from a software company in Bakersfield - on a company-paid team building outing - took a second raft. A group of English speaking Orientals, who mostly kept to themselves, took the third raft. The fourth raft was occupied by individuals, a small group that had 3 no-shows, and (I think) overflows from the Orientals group. Each raft had one guide. Faith successfully campaigned to have Brian, the overall guide, be our raft's guide. Brian, a skinny, late 30'th native of that region, had been guiding rafting tours down the Kern River for about 20 years. His skills and experience definitely showed. As an extra bonus, we got Dan The-Man. Mr. The-Man was a big, muscular, shaved head, guide-in-training, under the wings of Brian. In a typical American city, a person of his look would strike fear into my heart, but on the river he was very friendly. Having so much more guides-power on our raft than normal, we were poised to have an excellent trip, and indeed we did.

Rafting:

We hit the water around 10:45. The-Man and Faith in front, myself and Scott next, Diane and Kerry Ann behind us, and Brian guiding in the back. About one minute later we were in our first rapids. The Lickety Split (I think). A class 2 to 3 rapid. By what we saw later, this wasn't particularly exciting, but it was certainly a good first run. We all got quite wet. No sooner did we enter the rapids than we hit a large boulder. We didn't hit it very hard - you can't in a class 2-3 rapid - but for the action-scared raft this was the last straw. One of it's 8 compartments - right in front of Faith - gave way, punctured, and deflated. According to Brian, this has never happened to him before in the 20 years he has been guiding rafts. While the other 7 compartments gave the raft enough buoyancy to complete the rapids we were already in, it would have been overly aggressive to attempt the next series - the class 4 Limestone Falls. Brian made a decision to change the entire agenda for the day. We took ashore immediately, having had about 10 minutes of rafting thus far.

The original plan had us go through the Limestone Falls - about 2 miles of class 4 action, have lunch, take the bus to skip some class 5 falls, do the Eight Canyons run, continue with the Pepsi/Tequila runs, take the bus back and redo the Pepsi/Tequila run a second time. The bus was waiting with our lunch at the bottom of the Sandstone Falls. Brian went on a 2 miles jog to get the bus to come to where we took to shore (now that I think about it, wouldn't it have been a lot quicker and less exhausting if Brian took one of the good rafts by himself [or maybe with 1-2 other guides] down those 2 miles instead of jogging?). We loaded the busted raft on the bus, and unloaded lunch. While the bus went to Kernville to get a replacement raft, we would eat an extra-early, extra-long lunch. I also took the munchies I brought along down from the bus, giving our group extra goodies. While waiting for the bus to return, we made friends with some of the others.

The new plan had us do the Limestone, take the bus to skip the Eight Canyons run, and then do the Pepsi/Tequila runs 3 times instead of twice. We would finish about one and a half hour later than originally planned, and cover as many miles and as challenging a route as the original plan. The decision to avoid the Eight Canyons run was made because that run sometimes causes hour+ delays when rafters get stuck, and we couldn't afford additional delays (lest it starts getting dark before we are done).

Our replacement raft was of a brand called Mohawk. This was to be it's maiden voyage. While the raft is about 10 years old, it has been in a box since purchased. The Mohawk is somewhat sturdier, heavier, and more hydrodynamic than the previous raft (and the rafts used by the rest). As a consequence, for the rest of the trip we would always move faster than the other rafts and at the bottom of every rapids sequence had to stop and wait for the others.

We got back in the water around 12:30pm. In the first run, I had a little problem with sitting right behind The-Man. He is quite heavy and it so happened that my ankle was positioned under an air compartment that was directly below his center of gravity. Every time he bounced - and there were certainly many such instances - my ankle got a good squeeze. When we got in again, I asked Scott to change places with me (with his longer feet, he didn't have this problem). Otherwise, sitting positions were unchanged. We entered the Limestone Falls. These class 4 falls were more aggressive and splashier (literally) than before. However, with the noon sun baking overhead, cold splashing was quite enjoyable. No sooner did we enter the Falls, than Brian noted a significant problem with our raft. It appears that one of the compartments, the one next to Faith (naturally), was slowly leaking. The valve wasn't properly sealed after it was inflated. The guide concluded that this problem is manageable, but he would prefer the leaky compartment be in the back. He thus ordered that we all reverse positions. The order was executed with dispatch, but as a consequence I soon found myself once again behind The-Man. We completed the Limestone run without difficulties.

Next we boarded the bus for a 10 miles ride skipping some class 5 falls as well as the Eight Canyons run. We arrived at a location called (by a Forest Department sign) "Camp 3". We were about to begin the first of 3 runs from this point. Brian inspected our raft again and thought he had the leaking problem under control. However, since it wasn't totally fixed, Brian requested we all keep our sitting position - as he already had the raft "well figured out" for the particular sitting we had. Looking at my aching ankle, I had to deny that request and insist on not sitting behind The-Man once again. We got in the water again around 2:00pm.

The first rapids of this section are called "The Wall". When we reached it, the reason for the name became obvious. At it's center it consists of a drop the height of a person. In our first run we maneuvered energetically to avoid the hole in the center of that drop. The value of experience showed when in our second run we could avoid it with only light maneuvers. In our third run we maneuvered energetically to enter the hole.

When we hit The Wall, in our first run, Faith - who wasn't well anchored in the raft - found herself swimming the Kern River. This mishap, in a Domino-like effect, rapidly escalated. Everyone on the right side of the boat immediately tried to pull her back in. On the left side, The-Man - whom faith grabbed in a failed effort to avoid falling overboard - fell back on top of Scott. With most rafters not paddling, and the raft still in some of the most turbulent waters of the day, Brian was unable to maintain control. We slammed sideways against a large boulder and were beginning to tip. Brian called for "Top-Side". Most of us were already on the downstream side of the raft. Only Diane and I were not. Diane, sitting right in front of the Brian, heard him and moved over - ending up on top of Kerry Ann. With the loud water in the background, I didn't hear Brian. It hardly mattered, since he didn't wait long before pulling me - from behind - and threw me to the correct side of the raft. I landed on top of Diane (who was on top of Kerry Ann). Diane, squeezed, let out a scream and dropped her paddle in the water. With the Raft pinned against a boulder, and now stable, we had an opportunity to get up from each other and assess the situation. Faith was by now long gone - out of sight - down the river. Likewise was Diane's paddle. Kerry Ann and Diane were holding on, almost leaning, on the boulder in such a way that a departure from the boulder would likely drop them overboard as well. Scott and The-Man manage to straighten out. Brian was walking across the raft to assess the situation. Kerry Ann asked to get off, but that was certainly not an option. Brian managed to get everyone back into a safe position and get us on our way again, completing the series of rapids that constituted The Wall. A few hundreds yards downstream we joined with the other rafts who have been waiting for us. One of them had fished Faith out, still holding - as instructed - her paddle. Another raft had a spare paddle which they agreed to let us have - but not before Brian would tell them a joke in exchange. We were back in full formation. Faith said that after the initial shock of finding herself in the water passed, she had a great time. Other than her cheap sun glasses (she wouldn't buy a $5 leash to protect a $5 sunglasses), nothing was missing. Later, Brian would lament that although most rafters stayed in the raft he considers the events at The Wall as a "wreck", and that this is his first wreck of the year. He partly blamed himself for it since he didn't tell us to not try and rescue overboard rafters, and that too many of us stopping to paddle in a vain effort to pull faith in almost did the raft in.

Going through a calm section, we passed the time telling jokes and splashing (and being splashed by) other rafts.

The next section was the Tequila run. The river splits in two, leaving a small island in the middle. The Tequila run, on the left, requires some maneuvering to get into due to some overgrown trees. Rafters need to duck the heavy branches as they pass under them. The Tequila run is rated at class 4, but it wasn't as challenging the Wall. Nothing exciting happened there. The two sections of the river merged back together and a class 3 rapid, Boulder Run (?) ensued. Hardly noticeable, given the experience we have had to that point. At the conclusion of that run, along a very calm section of water, is a hydroelectric power station. Water which is collected 1000 (vertical) feet up-river, is piped to this station where it is returned to the river in exchange for electricity. The power station was also our collection point where the bus would pick us up to "Camp 3" again.

Except that the bus wasn't there. While one of the guide went looking for the bus, Brian took a closer look at our leaky Mohawk. He figured out the problem and needed a screwdriver to fix it. When the bus arrived, with a tool kit, he got a screwdriver and fixed the problem. A quick re-inflation got everything on track, and we had no more raft-problems the rest of the day.

Kerry Ann decided that she have had enough. She had a lot of fun, but was not eager for more. She would do the rest of the rafting from the bus windows. On occasions she would greet us from near the bus as we rafted by her. Sometimes taking picture.

Around 3:30pm we got back to Camp 3 and hit the water again. Substituting for Kerry Ann was Walter. Walter was the organizer of the Bakersfield group. An energetic, if a bit irresponsible, rafter. This time I was in front with The-Man. Faith and Walter next, and Diane and Scott behind. We were ready to do The Wall again. Armed with experience, The Wall wasn't nearly as intimidating this time. Careful not to repeat Faith's fate at this section, sitting in her position, I anchored myself in the raft so tightly that my paddling suffered. Brian told me that in the front I had an extra duty to paddle hard, and so I did for the rest of this run. Effortlessly, we maneuvered well through The Wall's series of rapids. Next, instead of taking the Tequila Run, we went to the right side of the river island, to the Pepsi Challenge. The Pepsi Challenge certainly had better rapids than the Tequila Run, but still not quite The Wall. All in all, the second run was a lot less splashy than the first.

When we reached the Boulder Run (?), Brian offered that anyone who wants to swim along the raft through these class 3 rapids may do so. Scott, Walter, Faith, and Myself accepted and jumped in one by one. I made the mistake of jumping in front of the raft and soon found myself under the raft. When I re-emerged, I observed that my aqua-shoes, bought especially for this trip (they weren't that great, they didn't have a good grip against the slippery-wet bottom of the raft, and didn't give me much protection against rocks when walking on land), quickly filled with water and became loose. My wet suit and splash jackets were also filling with water and making me heavy (At least I wasn't cold). Turning around to have my feet face down-stream, and repeatedly putting my shoes back on, I was unprepared for the first significant rapid I hit. Class 3 rapids look a lot different from inside the raft than from the water. I drank about half the river, through the nose. I realized I was in over my head (literally), and motioned for Brian to pull me in. He did, but in the process I finally lost my right shoe. Faith also asked to be pulled in. Scott and Walter made it all the way down.

This time the bus was where it was supposed to be. We took the ride back up the Camp 3. While in the bus, Kerry Ann was kind enough to lend me her sneakers - which happen to be exactly my size. The old sneakers proved a lot better shoes for this trip than my aqua-shoe.

A bit wetter than I expected to be (this includes the inside of my nose passages), I choose to take the take back row for the final run. Fully experienced, now, in what the runs had to offer; we made every effort to hit the hardest, splashiest, fastest, and most energetic parts of the rapids. When we passed The Wall, we aimed for the center of the hole. When we hit the island, we voted to take the harder Pepsi Challenge. When we reached Boulder Run (?) most rafters (but not me) took the swim.

Rafting concluded at the power station terminus, around 5:00 pm.

After Rafting:

The bus ride back to Kernville was only a few minutes. We returned the life jackets and wet suits, and (most of us) changed into more comfortable clothing. A photographer affiliated with Chuck Richard's Whitewater was offering for sale pictures he took. The pictures were too expensive and too far away to be of interest to me, but I think some members of our group bought some. I did buy 2 T-shirts which were sold for $3 each. So did some others in our group.

Around 5:30pm we all assembled at The Hut, also called The North Fork, a bar next door to Chuck Richard's store. The expense-account-happy Walter was kind enough to buy us all drinks. When we found he is an experienced sysadmin, we all showered him with our business cards and resume requests. (If we hire him, that would probably be the last time his company will pay for such an outing... Also, if we do really hire him, we should probably use the referral fee - whomever amongst us collects it - to finance the next trip).

We left the Hut around 6:15pm, heading home.

Gasoline prices in Kernville, expectedly, are very high. I suggested that if we can make it to US 395 on the Gas we have, prices would be much lower. Scott thought we could. 25 miles later he wasn't so sure anymore, and the fear of being stuck way out in the goonies without fuel was heavy. Scott was on the verge of taking a 22 miles detour to go to a town - in the hope of finding a gas station when I convinced him that we had enough fuel for 40-50 more miles and that in that span we are very likely to find a gas station. About 5 miles later we did. We ended up paying 1 cent (per gallon) MORE in that station than we would have in Kernville. (Later, when we did reach US 395, fuel prices were 21 cents lower - a significant difference for a gas guzzling van like Scott's Ford Voyager).

Driving back along Isabella Lake, we got to see how beautiful the lake is. A sight we missed the night before. The desert we saw for much of the rest of the way was a lot less exciting.

Sitting in the front sit this time, I still felt a little nauseous when we drove through the high altitude of Walker Pass, but being less cramped I quickly recovered.

Around 9:30pm we stopped at a Carl's Junior burger place for a quick dinner.

We got home around 11:30pm. The round trip took about 27 hours.

An informal poll taken in the car confirmed that everyone - including Kerry Ann - had the time of their life. Everyone (except, maybe, Kerry Ann) was eager to begin planning the next trip. The most exciting moment, we all agreed, was when Faith fell overboard at The Wall.

When all expenses were summed up, we found that we spent $164.40 per person. Not bad for the amount of fun we had.

The End.