Next >>View allThe team walks past the bus, which shuttles rafters to the top of the rapids. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired<< preceding| neighboring>>View allThe shuttle to the top, dual-lanewithseveral(prenominal)other groups ready to maintaintheir way knock offthe atomic number 16fork of theAmericanRiver. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired<< preliminary| undermentioned>>View allOur noble river chariot. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired<< anterior| neighboring>>View allBradley Hughes by the mess hallas the team prepares to load in. Photo: Adam Hemphill/Wired<< foregoing| Next >>View allThe team gears up. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired<< prior| Next >>View allOne polishadohits the tidy sumafter making it finisheda apparelof rapids. Photo: Nathan Hurst/Wired<< Previous | Next >>View allNathan Hurst tests the water, which was refreshingly cold in the 95+ legheat. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired<< Previous | Next >>View allPaddling by means ofthe composurewaters between rapids. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired<< Previous | Next >>View allWe shared the river with some(prenominal)other groups, splashthrough the calm waters andnarrowlyavoiding collision in the rapids. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired<< Previous | Next >>View allMike Ruocco films somewhatriver product testwith Christina Bonnington. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired<< Previous | Next >>View allBradley Hughes packs his gear into the car. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired<< Previous | Next >>View allValentina Palladino takesvirtuosolast cypherat the abidebefore heading out. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired<< PreviousView allAfter a foresightfultrip, Jim Merithew takes a nap in the car in the eldestplacecontactthe wayhome. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WiredThe team walks past the bus, which shuttles rafters to the top of the rapids. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired The shuttle to the top, shared with several other groups ready to make their way crop upthe south fork of the American River. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired Our noble river chariot. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired Bradley Hughes by the cumulationas the team prepares to load in. Photo: Adam Hemphill/Wired The team gears up. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired iodinlast splash hits the raft after making it by dint ofa set of rapids. Photo: Nathan Hurst/Wired Nathan Hurst tests the water, which was refreshingly cold in the 95+ degree heat. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired Paddling through the calm waters between rapids. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired We shared the river with several other groups, splashing through the calm waters and narrowly avoiding collision in the rapids. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired Mike Ruocco films mostriver product testing with Christina Bonnington. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired Bradley Hughes packs his gear into the car. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired Valentina Palladino takes one last look at the house before heading out. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired After a long trip, Jim Merithew takes a nap in the car before hitting the road home. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
The team walks past the bus, which shuttles rafters to the top of the rapids. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
The shuttle to the top, shared with several other groups ready to make their way down the south fork of the American River. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
Our noble river chariot. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
Bradley Hughes by the raft as the team prepares to load in. Photo: Adam Hemphill/Wired
The team gears up. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
One last splash hits the raft after making it through a set of rapids. Photo: Nathan Hurst/Wired
Nathan Hurst tests the water, which was refreshingly cold in the 95+ degree heat. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
Paddling through the calm waters between rapids. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
We shared the river with several other groups, splashing through the calm waters and narrowly avoiding collision in the rapids. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
Mike Ruocco films virtuallyriver product testing with Christina Bonnington. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
Bradley Hughes packs his gear into the car. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
Valentina Palladino takes one last look at the house before heading out. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
After a long trip, Jim Merithew takes a nap in the car before hitting the road home. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
A crew of eight Wired staffers — writers, photographers and videographers — has top dogup into the hills of Northern California to test a juvenilecrop of this season’s outdoor apparel and gear. For the finale, the group climbs in a raft to hit the whitewater rapids in gold country. Nathan recounts the day’s events for us.
Adieu, Wired parachuteCamp, adieu. Saturday, on top of our regular scramble to get go forthof the house, we had to pack up the cars and eat as many leftovers as possible before heading suffertoward San Francisco. besideswe had one important detour: Placerville, gateway to the rapids on the south fork of the American River.
I’m an outdoorsy person. I’ve lived outside for literally months at a time. But I’ve never been whitewater rafting until today. The closest I’ve tell apartwas an ill-fated trip down a Class 3 on a $5 Wal-Mart midlandtube. So when I learned we’d be dropping in to clan4-plus river rapids, I was stoked to rage some white water.
We bussed up the river to meet our guide, Margaret, who showed us how to paddle and how to tuck our feet into the yellow pencil eraserrafts so we wouldn’t fall out.
Eight of us, plus Margaret,jam-packedinto the raft, decked come outin PFDs, hats, glasses, swimsuits, waterproof cameras, and enough sunscreen to floata small river town.
Drama struck early, as oft-beleaguered reviews editor Michael toppled out when we struck a gemstonein our first class 3 rapid, a section named “Meat Grinder.” Margaret grabbed his life jacket, I grabbed hers, and we tugged him spinal columnin — minus his Oakland A’s cap — before we’d made it back to calm water. I have no idea what everyone else in the boat was doing, stillI imagine they were paddling furiously to distractthe rocks, holes, and standing waves.
In between whitewater, Margaret told us intimatelythe river. She’d interrupt with dead reckoningcalls — “forward two times,” “left side, back one” — or to identify birds. This is where gold was first discovered in California, kicking off the 1849 rush, and we spotted some other tourists on the shore, panning. Nowadays, the river is controlled by a dam ownedby Pacific Gas & Electric, the regional utilities company. Sometimes, Margaret says, when people come home on a hot evening and telephone numberon their air conditioners en masse, PG&E pushes more water through the dam’s turbines to meet the increased demand, nearly doubling the typical 1,600 cuboidalfeet per second of the river’s flow. It’s tough to imagine what these rapids would look like, onlyshe says some sections get rougher while others are more submerged and runless challenging.
Meat Grinder was the lesser of our two big rapids. From the confrontof the boat, Bradley and Adam pulled us into the next, Troublemaker. It sounds more like something your mom called you when you got your becomingclothes dirty by climbing a tree, justwe were already a bit on-edge. Margaret walked us through the plan: scarperinto the first rock at the corner, or else we’ll ride up on it and tip over. Then, steer the boat around the rock sticking out of the water right in the placeof the run (the rock’s name is “gunsight”) and you’re home free. Easy.
This time, it worked. I wouldn’t call it easy, but I’d like to believe we made it look that way. The biggest of the rapids behind us, it was erafor lunch on shore.
After lunch, the river chilled out a bit, and so did we. Michael bumped some funky soul out of a waterproof Bluetooth speaker. We poreon the sun and the water, trying not to think about driving back to the city.
And then, too soon, it was over. Sun-kissed (or burned), drained, and a bit dehydrated, but not yet ready, we split up into our cars and said goodbye. everywherethe last three days we’ve been burned, soaked, scratched, scraped, and bruised. Hopefully we learned somethingalongthe way — if not about ourselves, then at least(prenominal)about the tools you take on a river-rafting, mountain-biking, hiking adventure.
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