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- Carson River (East Fork)
East Fork of the Carson River
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The Carson River splits above Minden/Gardnerville into two forks, the
east and the west. The west fork drains the east slope of the Sierra
near Carson Pass while the east fork drains the east slope surrounding
Ebbets Pass. The West Fork is not a good rafting river since it stays
very flat through the Faith and Hope Valleys and then drops sharply off
until it meets the East Fork. Occasionally, kayakers will run it but
very rarely. The Upper East Fork is where the fun is though. At
standard flows the river is a Level II but sometimes upgraded to III
based on the fact that there are no breaks for the 6.5 mile run. This
is not a pool-drop river like most of those on the west slope of the
Sierra. The upper section has a consistent gradient of about 40 feet
per mile which is generally enough to keep things interesting. The only
real named rapid is Snaggletooth. Typical runnable flows on this
portion run from about 1,100-3,000 cfs (lower for Kayaks, higher for
crazy folk). This is a free flowing river so as soon as the snow melts,
the season is over. That means April through early June is your best
bet although this year (2005) it's still going strong in mid July.
Below Hangman's Bridge the river settles down a bit (gradient of 25
feet/mile) but does provide a nice float to the Ruhenstroth Dam. The
one draw this section holds for experienced rafters is the opportunity
to camp overnight at the hot springs right on the river. The rapids are
mostly all I and II and this part of the river is able to be run easily
up to 4,000 cfs. While the upper section can easily be done in half a
day including driving time from Tahoe this lower section is both longer
(20.4 miles) and slower requiring at least a full day.
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