Recent Posts from Zachary Collier
The "Intrepid Eleven" Run the First Tuolumne Trip of 2006
The eleven brave boaters that signed up for our April 8th Tuolumne River trip had an epic one day journey. Most of the roads in Tuolumne county were closed that weekend and the river was raging so we put together a special trip for them after nobody wanted us to cancel it. We started our trip by hiking two miles downhill along the South Fork of the Tuolumne. At put-in, we found that the river was 5,000 cfs instead of the 3,800 cfs that was reported....
Impromptu Wedding on the Middle Fork
We had an on-river wedding on our last trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon. The lucky couple were talking about how they were considering getting married while we were at a lunch stop. Right then, the head guide mentioned that he had the legal authority to marry them. They immediately decided to get married and chose one of their friends on the trip to be the impromptu wedding planner. Everyone on the trip helped out with decorations, music, photography, a wedding cake, a "special"...
California's May Snowmelt Report
Cold temperatures in the high Sierra and spring snowstorms have prevented California's snowpack from decreasing this spring. As of May 1 2005, the snowpack for the Tuolumne River is 179% of normal and the snowpack for the Merced River is 187% of normal. We are looking forward to a week of cold weather and precipitation so these percentages may still increase. This means that we are expecting very high water at the end of May when the temperatures begin to rise and that the high water...
Rafters Looking Forward to High Water in California
California's enormous snowpack has rafters excited about high water trips this spring in the Sierra. This looks to be the best water year since 1998 when California had extremely high flows through July on most rivers. The best high water trips in California are the Tuolumne, Merced, and Kings Rivers. This is because they have wide canyons that can safely hold a large amount of water. The high water makes for big waves and strong hydraulics or "holes." "Spring trips on the Tuolumne River will be...
Happy Holidays from the ECHO Office
Season's greetings from ECHO world headquarters in Oakland. We'll be in and out of the office (mostly out) for the holidays until January 3rd and will be checking our email frequently. We've recently decided to do a whitewater school during the last week of March on the Rogue and Tuolumne Rivers that will coincide with UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and Stanford spring breaks. Dennis Eagan has also decided to do another Yoga trip September 9th, 2005 on the Rogue River. We'll add more specifics about these...
