Chattahoochee's Lucy: 1996-2011

In the Spring of 1996, Rebecca and I walked into a house in Atlanta looking for a dog. There were only two left in the litter, a very handsome boy and a goofy looking girl. We had intended to only get one dog, but I decided on the spot that we needed to take them both home. Rebecca was not too sure; our friend John Brennan was with us at the time and I remember asking him if he thought it was a good idea to get them both. John just laughed and said that he was keeping his mouth shut. If we were going to take one, we probably would have taken the boy, leaving the little runt behind, but she was so full of personality and love that I just couldn't leave her. We took them both home that day.

15 years later I can say that it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Copper and Lucy on the porch at our Atlanta Home

From that day on it was Eric, Rebecca, Copper and Lucy. It was rare that we ever left them behind and only once did we ever seperate them for any length of time. They were great companions to each other and the very best companions to Rebecca and me.

Copper and Lucy at a kayak race on the Nantahala

We kind of assumed that Basset Hounds would just lay around a lot, and they did; but as we started taking them on adventures we realized that they were happiest going wherever we went. So we took them on adventures over mountains...


Through the snow...

Down rivers...

Even through the desert...

And they loved every minute of it.

Even though Lucy was the runt, she was always the one right behind us. No matter what obstacles were in the way of her short little legs, her enormous heart kept her going.


The only thing she needed was a warm place to curl up at night...

And someone to love on her every now and then...

She loved creek crossings as long as they were not too deep for her short legs...
And she never complained about anything. Ever. Not even when we dressed her up in embarrassing outfits...


She was the toughest little girl I've ever seen.

She was very independent; happy to spend time off somewhere on here own. You never doubted her love and loyalty, though, and when she was with you it was special...



We used to play hide and seek with them; it was one of their favorite games. One of us would hold them while the other ran around in the woods and hid. They would stay right on your trail the entire time and find you. If there was ever a moment of confusion, Lucy was the smart one and she would usually figure it out first.


She loved grass and flowers. I can only imagine what it smelled like to her little Basset Hound nose.

She had a wonderful life, full of exploration, companionship and love.

She certainly made every single day better for us and we will remember her with love and smiles always.

Now she is on to her next great adventure. Adventure on little goose; you were the best little girl ever.

January Thaw

After the wettest December on record for most of the Southern Sierra, January followed up with it's normal precipitation let-down. We're talking goose eggs for precipitation, nada, donuts, the little boy who cried zilch. On the plus side we have had some beautiful weather; sunny and 65 has been the norm for about 3 weeks now. With all the snowpack built up in December, we were getting some spring like conditions on the rivers - time to hit the water!

January? Really?

Last year in March we had our Hospital Rock for Desperate Souls low water adventures. Here we were two months earlier in the season with slightly higher flows and super nice weather. Geno, Dave and myself were all able to sneak away from other obligations on a Wednesday and enjoy a spectacular day trip into Sequoia National Park.

Geno descending the stair rapid

It was Dave's first trip down this classic run and we had to keep an eye out for any changes that resulted from the December foods; still we made good time on the river. Luckily there were no new hazards left by the high water, if anything some of the drops had actually cleaned up.

Geno Hanging it out on Table Rock

The flows were relatively low, measured at 178 cfs at the zero-to-sixty guage, but everything other than 420 rapid was still good to go and fun. Dave nailed pretty much everything on his first time down and Geno got the photo of the day on Table Rock.

Dave drops off the Table

Dave checks out Super Boof

After getting to the diversion we found that there was no diversion, so Zero-to-Sixty was pretty prime to go. After not getting to run it at all last year due to water level, I was excited to get on it again.

The Author enters Zero to Sixty

All in all it was another great day on the Kaweah, hard to believe that we still have two more months to go until April...

Holiday Cheers

Winter weather has come early this year in Kernville. We are already measuring a little over 70% of the April 1 Snowpack in the Southern portion of the Sierra. In the middle of the month we were boating on high water; at the end of the month the snow levels dropped, so it was time to break out the skis. We got a couple of nice adventures in; one on Christmas Eve and another on New Year's Eve. We just wanted to share a couple of pictures celebrating the close of 2010 with good friends and an amazing place we are lucky enough to call home.

Rebecca and Rose getting ready for a Giant Adventure

Playing Reindeer Games with the General Sherman Tree in the background

The only way to travel

Lunch at Congressional Grove

Pass the Holiday Cheer Please!

Merry Christmas Rick!

Rebecca and Rick are both expecting?!

Unlike the trees themselves, seeing Giant sequoia's never gets old.

The End of Another Great Day in the Southern Sierra

Andrew and Mark Scouting the Ascent

20 Minutes into the 2+ hour Climb

Keji Finds a Better Route

The Definition of a Blue-Bird Day

Nearing the top of the Embry Bowl


Andrew Earning his Turns



Lindey Perfecting the Sitzmark





Some Icicles on a Limestone Formation



Self Portrait - I call this one "Happy"

This one goes to eleven

In case you missed it, the title of this blog entry is a famous line from "This is Spinal Tap" - referring to a new and improved amp that goes even higher than ten. The December Storm of 2010 certainly has that "eleven" feel to it...

What started out as blip on the fantasy weather charts matured into a full blown "hide the women, children and dogs" prediction - it did not disappoint. I suppose the appropriate joke would be "this is moisture tap" - you can see in the above Eastern Pacific Water Vapor chart; there was a conveyor belt of warm, wet air from the tropical Eastern Pacific. A low pressure spinning off the northwest coast has been pumping this air directly into the Sierra for an extended amount of time. An unusual western flow of air near the Canadian border blocked this low from progressing eastward; thus the extended weather pattern. I have heard various debates as to whether this was a true "Pineapple Express" event; but either way, it sure was sweet!

This storm was not a complete surprise, many of the weather models picked it up in advance. While we have occasionally seen storm total predictions in the 10+ inch range, rarely do they actually come through at those final tallies. For whatever reason, the models pretty much nailed this one though.

5 day HPC Storm Total Predictions for the Friday to Tuesday Period, Dec 17-22

The heavy precipitation was expected to be accompanied by high snow levels; in the 7000-8000 ft range, so we pulled the boating gear out of storage and waited for the skies to open up... And they did.

Here is plot of the weather station at Johnsondale, about 25 miles upstream of Kernville, at an elevation of a little over 4000 ft. As you can see in the third panel, the total precipitation measured for the 5 day period from December 16th to 21st was 14 inches. Surely the orographics at the crest would have increased that total, resulting in (at a modest 12:1 ratio assumption) 15+ feet of snow!

The Johnsondale Weather Station Data

Of course with the high snow levels, a lot of that precipitation came down into the Kern River, causing a peak flow on Sunday, December 19th, of a little over 21,000 cfs (last years spring snow-melt peak was around 9,000 cfs). Below is a chart of the river flow at the Park in Kernville. You can also see that the storm added some 50,000 acre feet to the lake storage.

Kern River Flow, Precip and Lake Storage Data

The rain started in earnest on Friday Night, so Saturday we went up for a couple of runs on Brush Creek. When we got there the level was 3 on the gauge; a fine level, but a little disappointing considering the magnitude of the storm predictions. After 1 run down it had risen to 4, on our second run down it reached 5 - now we're cookin'!


The next evening it continued to rain steadily, and by morning time you could tell things were different. As we headed up the canyon all sorts of creeks that we had never seen before were cascading out of the mountains and washing across the road. Not only that, but there were several rock and tree falls as well; despite the distinct possibility of getting stuck on the wrong side of one of these falls, we pushed on upstream anyway to check out Brush Creek.

Just Another Day Driving up Canyon

When we finally pulled into the Brush Creek Parking lot, I had a brief moment of excitement - the gauge was at 10! I had paddled this section as high as 7 a few years back at peak spring melt, and it was awesome. Ever since then I wondered if the creek ever got too high to run, or if it just got better and better. My enthusiasm was quickly squelched though as a quick look at the bottom section of the river revealed that 10 was, in fact, too high. The banks of the creek were entirely made up of strainers; not eddies. There were also various other wood hazards thrown in the middle of the current. While a kayak decent was not to be, a hike up the creek was definitely in order.

Um. The portage actually looks like a portage...

The Limbo Log is Long Gone

Triple Drop looking like a Single Drop
The Z-Drop below Speedway

Log-Chucker


The Gauge at Brush Creek - Level? Too many ABU's

After the hike we got back in the car and checked out South Creek Falls; normally a trickle, this was a torrent sending spray up above the road level - awesome.

Rebecca at South Creek Falls (1000 cfs?)

After trying to stay as dry as possible in the torrential rain, we ended up deciding to get wet on a more reasonable stretch of river - the class IV Cable Run. When we got back to town, the river had risen to 14,000 cfs from about 6,000 cfs earlier in the day. By the time we got on the water and did our run we ended up pretty much on the peak of the flood at 21,000 cfs. There were some huge waves on the run, lots of trees in the water and the eerie sound of large boulders rolling along the bottom of the river as we were paddling down. All in all a very spectacular day!

The Park in Kernville at about 14,000 cfs

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

The latest forecast for the Sierra has something I have never seen before. There is so much water in this group of storms that they had to start over with the colorscale - almost 15 inches of water equivalent in the 5 day HPC. Wow.

Adventures to be had for sure, we'll keep you posted.

Grand Canyon - more to come

Had a great trip in the Canyon this October; still catching up at work and wading through the thousands of pictures I shot, but something should be on the way soon. In the meantime, here are just a couple of shots I wanted to share.