Middle Fork American River Wilderness 2 Day Trip

Once at the put in, our guide staff will help you with the river equipment necessary for the river rafting adventure.  Then we will have a river safety orientation, divide up into groups, assign the guides and get on the river.  The action starts right of the bat with “Good Morning Rapid”, if you are not awake you will be after this soaking rapid.  The river continues to build excitement until you get to the infamous “Tunnel Chute”, where gold miners back in the 1880’s blasted a diversion chute and tunnel into the rocks to divert the river around and into Horseshoe Bend.  They then were able to mine the river for many, many ounces of gold.

After completing the “Chute” we head down some more exhilarating rapids and finish the morning session with “Kanaka Falls”, a class 4 steep drop that requires expert steering from everyone in the raft.

We now head into the Middle Fork American river’s quiet side, a 7 mile scenic float through one of the most beautiful river canyons in California.  We will stop half way into the 7 mile section for lunch at a primitive sandy beach right on the river.  Your guides will then pull the lunch coolers out of the rafts and begin to prepare a wonderful assortment of lunch items.

We then find a secluded sandy beach, pull the rafts over, and begin the unloading process.  You are then free to find a great location to set up your tent and camp area for the night.  This is a surley wilderness camp area.  We set up portable toilets, and our field kitchen.  You have time to relax, go for a short hike, try your luck at fishing (you’ll need a valid fishing license), or give us a hand preparing dinner.  After dinner as you view a fantastic sunset and then await for the light show that you won’t soon forget.  With no city lights, you will see the stars like you have never seen.

The next morning, breakfast is about 8AM and then there is free time to relax, break down your camp and re-load the gear into your dry bag.  We then load the rafts and make our way downstream.  Stopping for lunch at Canyon Creek, you will have an opportunity to hike up this beautiful creek that takes you into a place like no other.  Waterfalls you can sit in, huge undergrowth, and cool temps await you for this pre lunch hike.  Back at the river,  your guides will have lunch all prepared to get you fueled up for the grand finale of rapids on the Middle Fork.

Once back in the rafts we slowly drift down and listen for the sound of “Ruck-A-Chucky Falls”, the beginning of our next set of challenging class 4 rapids.  The first one is called “Chunder”, an 8′ pour over that gets everyone’s heart pounding.  It’s then out of the rafts as the guides portage (line the rafts around) the 25′ falls (you might even witness some of them taking the rafts over the falls themselves!  We then load up the rafts and head down 3 miles of super fun class 4 rapids until we get to the heart pounding “Bambi Falls”, where you are welcome to cool off with a swim through a very easy slow class 2 rapid.

At the end of the day, our vans will be waiting for you with cold drinks and snacks for the 40 min ride back to the meeting area, where again your guides will be there to thank you for coming and give you photo coupons good for money off your rapid photo purchase (if you wish).