I drove down to Kernville for the Kern River Festival this weekend. The flow is very low (<500 cfs) but this weekend is more about seeing friends than paddling. I also sold my old BigEZ to a local. I was sad to see it go – I think the EZ series is one of the great designs. It was my all around river runner – it had enough volume I felt comfortable on easy Class V but was still fun to take down Class III. My new Jackson Fun should be arriving shortly to replace it (I’ve been paddling a demo in the meantime) and it is a better boat for me – more playful yet still fast. But it’s always hard letting go of an old friend. Though I ran into the guy who purchased it on the river the next day, so it looks like it’s in a good home.
The Festival itself was definitely hurt by the lack of water and cool/rainy weather. It seemed to keep the kayak companies and sponsors away, but the volunteers and participants were there and had a great time. Saturday had the Wildwater race and the Brush Creek race (even though it involved a fair bit of rock scraping). The TJ Slalom Classic was on Sunday – the park had enough water to make for a challenging course. I only managed to paddle one short Limestone run on Saturday, but it was worth the drive to see my friends and paddle the Kern at least once this year. The Kern has been my local river since I started kayaking but now that I’m in
Sacramento I don’t think I’ll get down there very often – too many rivers up here to explore.
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