Over July 4th weekend, I drove my buddies Tom and Martin to Johnsondale
and met Simon, who had flown in from NYC to Bakersfield and rented a car
to do shuttle. He usually flies to more exotic paddling destinations,
but seemed satisfied with the Kern, a total whitewater classic.

The Kernville gage read 400 cfs, steady for our entire 2-day trip due to
thundershowers in the headwaters on Friday. However we thought the flow
at put-in was closer to 450, and slightly higher at take-out.

Below the Little Kern confluence, the North Fork Kern remains class IV-V
at this low flow. It channelizes well and turns into a fine creek run.
We never had to drag boats over gravel bars, never got stuck in boulders,
and thought pinning hazards were minimal. Probably it would be runnable
down to 300 in a creek boat and certainly in an IK. However 400-450 cfs
is way too low for rafts, and for kayakers who prefer big water.

The pack station was closed: burros/mules got moved to higher elevation
for other customers after the end of rafting season. So our plan was to
hike down with our kayaks, boat 8 miles, hike back up to camp along the
shuttle road, hike down the next morning, and boat the remaining 8 miles.
The trail down is 2-3 miles, never too steep, with good vistas.

River scenery is stupendous-- backpacking quality-- with camps everywhere.
It was intriguing seeing the rocks that formed rapids we remembered from
rafting at higher flows. Tom and Martin between them had rafted the Forks
dozens of times, but we still had difficulty recognizing rapids. A rapid
we thought was Needlerock, just upstream, we dubbed Needlerock False.

After Slalom and Downhill there is a straight-away, a class 3 rapid, and
around a bend the river snakes right to cross a huge boulder bar. Where
it reaches the right bank, there is a cairn up high marking the start of
a trail, not on any map. On topo maps, this looked like a short-cut, so
we stashed our boats there. The steep trail was clear at first, but after
going into a gully, we lost it (as we discovered the next morning, where
it turns sharp left out of the gully). We spent the next several hours
bushwhacking across the burnt-out mountainside, until Martin thoughtfully
traversed left and found the trail again.

Camping at the top was beautiful, with a view of the Needles, and lonely.
Few cars went by. We drove down to Kernville for a nice steak dinner.
The next morning we easily followed the trail, and continued downstream
a short distance to Durrwood creek. The toughest rapids were ahead, see
http://creekin.net/kern-fks.htm

Little Bean was perhaps the boniest rapid on the run. Big Bean was fun.
Vortex might be runnable at 400-450, but it had a nasty backwash on the
left, so we portaged. Gauntlet had some fun falls! The rest of the way
to Westwall was just totally fun class 3-4, one after another. Westwall
itself is full of entrapment points (thus the class 5 rating) but offers
a technically easy sneak route down the far right. This year, anyway.
After lunch at Dry Meadow Creek, Tom hurt his hip sliding over the falls.

Although we all had thrown a rescue line to rafts stuck in the bottom R
hole of Respect, we could not discern this spot at low water. When we
reached Carson Falls, some of us thought it was runnable, but a friend
died there, so we lined and portaged it on the right, to avoiding trauma.
Crowds started appearing; we were at Johnsondale bridge. Martin and I
drove shuttle while Tom and Simon enjoyed the Limestone run.

This is as good as it gets, like Deer Creek in the spring. How can you
have two things that are both as good as it gets?