The New School Guide To Northern California Whitewater
The New School Guidebook is a whitewater guidebook to the Six Rivers Region of Northern California. From majestic Redwood floats to tumultuous whitewater streams the New School Guide is designed to help people of all skill levels enjoy the fantastic streams of this beautiful area. This book covers the entire Klamath Mountains Geologic sub-province and includes 135 river descriptions for all skill levels of paddlers.
Rivers in the New School Guide
California is second only to Alaska in Wild & Scenic and Recreationally designated rivers, the New School Guide covers over half of California's 1,916 designated miles.Including runs on the Smith, Trinity, Klamath, Eel, Mad and Van Duzen rivers as well as numerous tributary streams that feed them. Featuring advertising from relevant local businesses, useful weather and river forecasting knowledge, history and whacky stories, this book will enrich any visitor's experience to the area.
The Klamath Mountains have an amazing amount of geologic and biologic diversity. Combined with its extremely wet winters this provides an amazing diversity of paddling experiences and runnable streams. Wildlife encounters ranging from Salmon to Eagles and Bears are frequent while more elusive Mountain Lions and Bigfoot inhabit this area too.
The proximity to the Ocean and flow releases on major rivers provides paddling opportunities 365 days a year.
Bringing the Book to Life
The Six Rivers Source to Sea Project, organized in 2012 with Paul Gamache, Dan Menten, Will Parham and Wes Schrecongost, added hundreds of miles of whitewater to the New School Guidebook. Much of this primarily occurred throughout the Eel, Mad and Van Duzen drainages, constantly surprising the crew with the quality of excellent class 1-3 rivers.
Making the book involved paddling lots of 1st, 2nd and 3rd descents on Rivers that either hadn't been successfully completed (Bloody Run, Grand Canyon of the Mad River) and other streams that had been written off by old school paddlers for being un-navigable (North Fork Eel, Middle Fork Eel). The New School Guide also includes many creeks that have been paddled fewer than a handful of times (Dillon Creek, Ukonom Creek, Salmon Creek, Shackleford Creek).
The Smith River is the only major river system in California that flows freely to the ocean with no dams. It is also home to the world's largest tree. The New School Guide contains 19 river sections within the drainage ranging from class 1 to 5.
This guide is a rare and valuable resource to safely guide river lovers down the pristine waters of Northern California.
