August 30th, 2008: First Descent South Fork San Joaquin First Descent

In the 24 years that have passed since Royal Robbins, Doug Tompkins, Newsome Holms, and Reg lake's landmark first descent of the Middle San Joaquin, its sibling river the South Fork has been in the collective conscious of California's whitewater expedition elite. To further fuel the speculation over this run, it's upper reaches were included in the Holbek/ Stanley guide as a spectacular run that only gets "harder and more fun" the further you go down stream to a point where either a Heli flight out or a massive hike out is necessary. I believe that some one would have gone for it eventually in spite of Holbek's warning , but the flow information for this dammed and diverted river is closely guarded by the power giant California Edison.

This all changed two weeks ago when the proverbial leak at Cali Edison spilled the beans to AW rep Paul Martzen about a special 4 day release of 500 cfs down Mono Creek into the South Fork terminating at the same Mammoth Pool Reservoir that serves as a takeout for the crucible section of the Middle Fork.

So with 2 days notice our challenge was simple. Put in on the Unrun and unknown lower reaches of Mono Creek and boat nearly 40 miles to the boat ramp at Mammoth Pool. The only thing that could possibly stand in our way would be a 9 hour journey to the take-out from Mount Shasta, another 4 hours of shuttling to arrive at the put-in at the Mono Creek Diversion Dam, and fabled granite gorges of the Lower South Fork. Of course we had to abandon the idea that the power company might altar the flow mid-run leaving us flooded out or high and dry in one of the most remote corners of the Sierra. That part of the bargain was simply beyond our control.

Huge shout out to my partners in crime Darin McQuoid, Matt Thompson, and the estimable Kevin Smith out of Mammoth whose intimate knowledge of the San Joaquin drainage is second to none. I'll attempt to let the video and Darin's upcoming TR at jscreekin.blogspot.com tell the rest of the story!

P.S. I'll let you guess which 2 of these cataracts were tested only by Mr. McQuoid.

Beta
Put-In: Mono Creek Diversion Dam (8100 feet)
Take-Out: Mammoth Pool Reservoir (3100 feet (low lake level))
Run Length: 40 miles (6 miles on Mono Creek, 20 miles on the South Fork, 6 miles on the Middle Fork, and 8 miles across Mammoth Pool)
Avg Gradient: 156 fpm
Shuttle Length: 4 hours (one-way)
Put-in Flow: 500 cfs
Take-out Flow: 650 cfs
Portages: 20 (all that I remember is a big one near the confluence)
Special Notes:
-Darin McQuoid went off on a first descent of the hardest run in California, Matt Thomas was reborn in the warm hole, and Kevin Smith a no-role descent.
-As you may have already noticed this descent falls well outside the specified 39 days that embodied the heart of the 8th River Expedition, but it is included none the less because of its relevance to the greater body of classic California expedition kayaking.