canoe west home | canoeing instructors | Klamath River guidebook
canoe west home | canoeing instructors | Klamath River guidebook |
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Sections of the The Klamath River |
| It's always good to
know as much as possible about any section of river before you decide to canoe it. Is it
the kind of water you want to canoe? Are your skills adequate? Can you walk rapids that
you don't want to run? Where are the access points? Some of this information you can get
from guide books, some from other experienced boaters, and maybe some from this page. My own area of expertise covers what we call the "Middle Klamath" -- from Iron Gate Dam to Somes Bar (Somes rhymes with homes). Most of my canoeing days are spent somewhere between the Highway 363 bridge and the Coon Creek river access. The Middle Klamath is mostly class 2 with a few class 3 rapids thrown in here and there. At certain water levels some of these 3's can become 4's, and just above Somes Bar is the big "no-no" - Ishi Pishi, a class 6 that's seldom boated. One of the beauties of the Klamath for beginners is that you can get an entire day's run on class 1-plus, easy 2 water. When you feel confident, there will always be a class 2 section close by. When I'm on the river with a group for several days, we usually base camp at one of the Forest Service Campgrounds and trailer the canoes to a different put-in each day. That way we can start easy and work up as skills improve. Neil Rucker, head instructor for Canoe West |
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