Customer Reviews

California Whitewater: A Guide to the Rivers

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whatever your ability or source of flotation, this guide book will enhance your river running experience. Each river stretch is rated for difficulty, suitability to different kinds of boats, recommended water levels, permits required, managing agencies, scenery, solitude, camp sites, etc., and the mile-by-mile guide rates the difficulty of each major rapid including notes on how to run them and when to portage, river access, etc. The book is very well indexed, including a special index of easy whitewater to help newcomers find forgiving waterways on which to practice their boating skills.

I have found this book a valuable resource for anyone planning to run rivers in CA. Although I am focusing on the Upper/Lower Kern River...the book provides specifics of different water-craft running sections of rivers, logistics, and most importantly...details on the section run. It outlines most of the major rapids and what to look for (keepers, boulders, other fun objects). However, it does NOT subsititue for scouting the rapids!! Additionally, although I truly love the format, detailed information, and humerous descriptions of trips, some rapids are left out and are not even shown on the maps...so know the rivers in addition to reading this great resource!

Great book for those looking to break into the sport, and keep themselves safe by not taking on rivers they can't yet handle!

I was rather disappointed with the book. I had expected more details on each river's rapids. I first flipped to the section on Cache Creek, a river I had been on, and found only a couple of rapids mentioned. Nor were there any tips on how to run the couple that were mentioned. Same thing with the section on the Trinity River. I had hoped to find a book that would guide me through each rapid and this book didn't deliver. If I had bought this book in a book store I probably would have returned it but since I bought it online the initial postage coupled with the return postage wasn't worth it. When we buy on the internet there is always a chance that you won't get what you expected and this was a perfect example.

I will say that the info that was included in the book was very good and the book was arragned nicely. It does give a fairly good overall view of each river, just not enough detailed info.