VAN DUZEN RACE

When: The first day that the Duzen peaks over 7,000 cfs. Meet up at 4 p.m. Race starts at 4:20.

*Due to the fact that almost everyone is out of town these days for the holiday season, we are postponing the race until after January 5. Hope this does not disappoint anyone, but with the late rain this season, the Duzen has not cooperated with our original intent of having the race at a time when all can attend. See you all there, same time, same place.

Where: Grizzly Creek parking area, the normal put-in for the lower Duzen run.

Bring your playboats and your great attitudes. The race will be a mass start form the put-in, so elbow pads might be nice as well.

Prizes will be awarded for top finishers in the men's and women's categories. Beers will be awarded to anyone with a pulse and a kayak.

Directions: From Arcata, take the Hwy. 101 south until you reach the junction with Hwy. 36. Turn on East on Hwy. 36 and drive 17 miles until you reach Grizzly Creek Redwood State Park. The parking lot is on the right. Drive time from Arcata to put-in is around 45 minutes.

Hope to see all you Humboldt paddlers out there!

South Fork Feather

The South Fork Feather is a great piece of water that winds its way through a beautiful canyon in the foothill country of central California. There are several distinct parts to the run which starts at the base of Little Grass Valley dam. The first gorge contains several fun drops in the 10-15 foot range, as well as a shallow 30 footer and numerous other rapids.

Looking into the first gorge

Ben York on the Put-in Drop

The shallow 30

Martin Belden on a nice sloping 10 footer

Ben boofing into another fun mini-gorge

There are numerous class 4 gorges and rapids along the length of the run, interspersed with many fun class 5 drops. Towards the end of the run, the nature of the drops turns to clean bedrock, with some fun ledges and slides. This section also contains a sick looking drop that we portaged at our low flows, but looks like it would be good to go with more flow.

This run keeps up a nice pace for eight miles, and feels much longer.

Looking up one of the cruisy boulder gardens

JR soaking up some sun on the S.F. Feather

South Fork Falls. Little more water, and it's goin down.

After the bedrock section, the run turns to cruisy class 3-4 boulder gardens, and then turns into a shallow class 2 paddle to the take-out.

The shuttle for this run is somewhat complicated, so be prepared with a map and directions. The best directions we found were on Jefferson State Creeking (http://www.jscreekin.blogspot.com/). Good luck and have fun. YEEHAW!!!