It's official! 2023's plentiful winter storm systems have provided for one of the most exceptional seasons in the history of whitewater rafting on the Kern River.
The April 1st snowpack reflected close to 400% of a "normal" yearly accumulation of the white stuff. Exceptional, to say the least! This historic snowpack coupled with the Corps of Engineers' timely release of their 17-year moratorium on Lake Isabella's storage will soon produce lake levels unseen since 1983. The snowpack has already provided amazing river flows on both the Upper and Lower Kern Rivers. These flows will allow us to offer our favorite river trips though September on the Upper Kern and October on the Lower Kern this year. We could not be more THRILLED with this news!
This historic year will call for some early season adjustments. The water levels will be quite high during the spring and early summer runoff period. How high, you might ask? The lake is expected to flow over the old spillway sometime between late May to mid-June. This spillway has not been put into play since the storied year of 1983! For those of you fluent in "Cubic Feet Per Second" (CFS) lingo, we're expecting the Lower Kern to approach 10,000cfs for a time. We've advised everyone joining us on our overnight and "Bigwater" trips on the Lower Kern to take a breather and wait until July 15th to run these trips.
Although the season opener on the Lower Kern will likely be delayed by about six weeks, the wait will be well worth it! The "Sierra Escape", "Jungle Run and Camp Fun", "Bigwater", and "1/2 Day Jungle Runs" will be running through October with our last overnight trip expected to launch on Tuesday October 31st.
On the Upper Kern, the flows may exceed 10,000cfs during the height of the spring runoff period as well.
We will be running our 1/2 Day "Dazzler", 1/2 Day "Jungle Runs", One-Day "Snap, Crackle, and Pop", and Double Lickety Split trips almost exclusively in May, June, and likely into the first couple weeks in July. We're going to bump up our minimum ages to 9 for the Lickety Split trips and 12 for the 1/2 Day and One-Day Upper Kern trips for a short while during this time frame.
For those of you looking for Class V thrills, our first "Thunder Run" on the Upper Kern is scheduled for July 23rd, and our "Forks of the Kern" offerings will be in August through mid-September. Call our office at 1-800-400-7238 for more information or to reserve one of these trips.
Check out the informative piece below that we did with Fox Weather News last week!
As the 2023 season unfolds, we will send out frequent updates making sure you receive the most timely and accurate information on river conditions and specials throughout the year. Stay tuned!
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