American River—Upper Sunrise to River Bend
River Review
Cassie and I rafted down the American River from Upper Sunrise Area to River Bend Park. I floated down in my pack raft, while Cassie used the inflatable canoe.
The river was broad and was all class one except for one portion that was class two (San Juan Rapids). But if you turn left, you can avoid the class 2 portion altogether.
The river was quite popular and there were many others on inflatables enjoying their float down the river. However, some chose to play their music loudly, which was a bit annoying. There were two power boats we saw, one used by the rangers and another used by a fishing boat.
We saw a ton of wildlife, especially birds, on the river. I wished I had brought my zoom lens.
Cycling Review
After dropping off Cassie at Upper Sunrise, I drove the car to River Bend Park, then biked back to Upper Sunrise.
I had to pay $11 to enter Upper Sunrise, and was able to use the same parking pass at River Bend Park. The parking fee is usually cheaper, but it was more expensive on this day because it was a holiday weekend.
The route was nicely paved and was a joy to ride, even though it was a little warm.
There were plenty of bathrooms I saw, as well as water fountains.
While the cycling path crosses many roads, these roads are park roads, so there was almost no car traffic I had to contend with. There were only a few people walking on the trail too—most of the people on the trail were cyclists.
What I Learned
I’ve been wanting to try to bike between the put-in and take-out spots so that I could be fully self-sufficient (last time I went rafting at Sacramento River, I used Lyft to get back to the put-in location). I have now proved to myself that I can carry the bike on my packraft! I’m excited to do more rafting with a bike!
What Happened?
6.3 miles, 1 hr 53 mins
6.4 miles, 27 mins, 83 ft elevation gain
I had been eyeing the American River, especially the stretch from Upper Sunrise to River Bend as a great place to introduce Cassie to rafting on her own boat as well as a place to test out cycling between the put-in and take-out spots. First, this stretch of the river has parks on both sides of the river for almost the entire way, which means that if anything were to go wrong, it’d be easy to pull off and walk back to the car. Second, the river is so gentle that it’d be a great spot for Cassie to captain her own boat and gain confidence. Third, it’s a fun activity to do on a hot day!
We woke up a little later than planned, so we got to Upper Sunrise around 10:30 p.m., and we took about an hour to drop off all the water equipment, use the restroom, and change into our rafting clothes. I then drove down to River Bend Park, and started cycling back to Upper Sunrise around noon. It then took around half an hour to pack the packraft, secure everything down, and get the canoe into the water (Cassie had inflated everything while I was re-parking and cycling).
Finally, but around 1:15 p.m., we were in the water, and floating down the American River. Cassie did great in her canoe and really made only one mistake, which was staying too far left of the rapids at San Juan Rapids, causing her to catch an eddy and have her canoe circle around. Because the rapids weren’t very rapid, the canoe did not flip or anything, but it’s something she can learn from for next time. As for me, my packraft felt great. As usually, it wanted to spin me around and have me float backwards (because I’m the heaviest thing in the long packraft), but other than that, handled just fine. Cassie and I got a little bored on the float down, so we paddled through the flat parts of the river, which made us go much faster than everyone else on the water.
After almost two hours, we got to the take-out spot, packed up our gear, took a nice cool dunk in the river, and headed back to our car. We were pretty hungry and thirsty, so we headed off for Starbucks (for Cassie) and KFC (for me).
