Back in July 2019, Darin invited me down to run some stretches of the Kaweah, his old stomping ground before moving to Northern California. I was stoked to get the opportunity to run some of these runs, as just a few years prior I was running the Town run and Park Boundary in this same drainage (those videos can be found on my profile).
I arrived to Three Rivers and met Joseph, who I had heard lots about but hadn't yet had the opportunity to paddle with him. Darin, Joseph and I decided to drive up to "Double Drop" which can be seen from the road, to assess the level. Darin had run this section plenty of times, and determined it was good medium flow, and will pad out some of the slides, but still be pushy.
It was a great run overall. I made a mistake in the middle of Triple Drop AKA Dead Man's Alley and ended up swimming. I left the whole clip in the video as a learning experience for other boaters. Be patient in the boily eddy. Paddle out a few times and wait for a surge to kick you out of the room of doom at the bottom of the second drop. I was getting anxious/impatient and paddled too close to the second drop and it ended up pulling me back in and pulling my paddle out of my hands. Darin and Joe had throw bags and had great throws, but in the slight chaos and getting surged right as i went to grab the rope, I ended up not getting a hold of it. I flushed out and ended up having a great remaining section of the run to finish the day off.
I'd say East Fork Kaweah (as Darin mentioned in his write up - [ Ссылка ]) is definitely up there in the ranks of 1-day river trips in California. Packing this together with other sections in the area like Hospital Rock (video coming soon) makes for an awesome weekend-long trip down to Three Rivers.
This video is dedicated to Joseph Hatcher, who passed away last week in a paddling accident. He was a kind soul and had an enormous impact on the kayaking community. Everyone has nothing but excellent things to say about Joe and how he was a stand out guy, and I wish that I had the opportunity to get to know him better. Rest easy cowboy camper.
![](https://s2.save4k.ru/pic/ACssmXRGO-U/maxresdefault.jpg)