Fantasy Falls V-V+ (P) [North Fork Mokelumne]




The three day epic wilderness adventure of Fantasy Falls is one of the major high sierra runs that I never thought I would get to run due to summers rafting season. The normal season for Fantasy Falls is sometime in June-July and dictated by the current year’s snowpack.

Flows for Fantasy Falls is generally estimated from the outflow of Salt Springs Reservoir. After an incredibly bleak 2006/2007 winter Salt Springs Reservoir didn’t have enough water to ever start the release going, making estimates impossible.

Taking off South Silver on Wednesday, the only information we could gather through our network was that one person had checked the Highway 4 crossing and thought flows were too high. We debated spending more time in the South American drainage, but low flows and the temptation of getting on this classic prompted us to sacrifice a day of paddling to check flows at the crossing.

The gauge at the Highway 4 crossing of the North Fork Mokelumne.


I literally jumped with joy when I saw the flows. In spring 2006 Ben Stookesberry, Devin Knight and Garret Brown put on to Fantasy Falls at the highest known levels. Their put-on flows is the high mark, and when taking off three days later the water was at the low mark. Having heard the gauge described I instantly knew that we would have optimal flows.

Not boney at all for our run either.


For years the rumor of Fantasy Falls was that you wanted boney flows at the put-in. Ben, Devin and Garret proved this wrong, had an incredible trip and were still able to run the majority of the rapids at flows that would have initially seemed absurdly high. We found flows about 1’ below their high mark and 3” below their low water mark.



Now that we knew we had the right water levels, we set off on a mission checking the weather for heat waves, restocking food supplies and setting the infamous shuttle.
Salt Springs Reservoir




Fantasy Falls is generally considered a three day trip through the Mokelumne Wilderness. However, if you want to get an early start on day one (you do) the shuttle needs to be set the day before. There are two shuttle options, a long paved route on river right, and labyrinth of dirt roads on the left. On our way to the take-out we choose the paved roads and got our gear together at the beautiful reservoir.

Calaveras Dome from the shuttle road.


There were people camping everywhere, so we decided to ask for directions on the left side shuttle, a reputedly faster route when it goes. A friendly group gave us some nice instructions and mentioned the road was a bit rocky, but they were able to work around the rocks in a small pickup truck. So we were off, loaded three deep with all our gear and kayaks in a Toyota Corolla, which was riding a bit low. Once we crossed to the left side of the river we started a routine of driving a little and then hopping out to throw rocks out of the way. The shuttle road was a lot steeper than we expected, and we needed some momentum to get the car up rock strewn road. The Corolla did us proud and we were relieved when we eventually hit pavement without getting a flat tire. With night setting in upon us we rallied down the paved road only to find it turned back into dirt and slowed our pace. It also forked in many places, and we were off the area covered by the Mokelumne Wilderness Area map. We simply stayed on the most traveled road until we hit a large snow drift that impeded our progress and looked to be about three feet deep and about fifty feet long. We figured that another road must go through, and proceeded down a few roads that got too rugged for the Corolla, and eventually found what seemed to be an alternate route that someone had gone so far as to cut out a few downed trees. Optimistically we figured we must be on the right track, but after another fifteen minutes of slightly rowdy dirt road we came to another large tree across the road that hadn’t been cut. Turning around we noted that where the logs had been cut was rather narrow, and laughing at ourselves realized that we had been squeezing the car through some gaps cut wide enough for four-wheelers. Turning around we hung our heads in defeat and headed all the way down to Angels Camp and a long shuttle. All told we arrived back at the Highway 4 crossing around midnight, after a six hour shuttle mission. I think we were about four miles away from Highway 4 when we hit the snow drift that turned us around.





Once again we had another day of beautiful California weather while packing our boats at the put-in for Fantasy Falls. We put on the cold water around ten-thirty in the morning expecting a bit of warm up into the run. No warm up was in sight as we rounded the first corner and faced a long, steep, continuous boulder garden. Chris Korbulic took the lead and with some great boat scouting we made quick time down through the steep and slightly manky boulder gardens. Rounding one early corner we scrambled for eddies above a large log jam that the whole river went under, really one of the sketchiest spots in the whole trip because the eddy above it was only large enough for one boat. Thankfully we had been hopping eddies all the way around the corner and were each able to take our turn getting into the small eddy above the portage.

Taylor running the cleanest drop in the early day one boulder section.



In the section immediately above the picture of Taylor, Kevin Smith got into a broach over a sketchy sieve and quickly exited his boat which promptly stopped water from flowing through the sieve. Chris and I ran up to Taylor and Kevin who were already working on getting the kayak out. We gave a few tugs and nothing happened, but with a little wiggling of the kayak we were able to pull it back out, glad to see no damage was done.

Kevin dropping into the first mini gorge.


Our first scout of the day was this gorgeous little mini gorge. This mini gorge shows the true character of Fantasy Falls, long multiple move rapids set in stunning scenery. The first day is know as the “bad” day of Fantasy Falls, but it’s better than most runs I know, and it contains so many rapids that they all blur together.

Chris probed the first big boy with a clean line.


Same drop at medium flows in 2008, Devin Knight.


Chris and Kevin scout another unofficial gorge.


I say unofficial gorge because people say there are three major gorges on Fantasy Falls, but there are really over five distinct gorges all containing large rapids. Shortly after this scout we were down in the “First Gorge” which does contain the largest rapids of day one. Chris and I gave it a scout high on the right and deemed it good to go, although we noted one rapid with a big hole + pocket combination that didn’t look like it would be fun to be in.

Back in our boats we gave verbal of the first two drops to Kevin and Taylor and headed downstream. We all eddied above the large hole rapid, and I probed while Kevin and Taylor scouted. In this rapid the water pushed up onto a large midstream boulder, then about twenty percent of the water went left into a chunky looking mess, and the rest charged right and into the pocket hole. Perhaps five percent of the water actually climbed over the rock, and the line was to drive hard at the rock and try to boof past the hole, without getting caught in the jet of water going straight into the hole. I started off in the center with a slight left angle, and once I got near the boulder the jet of water moving right caught me and I drove hard into the hole, punching through to the right wall and working my way out upright, glad I hadn’t gone upside down against the wall where it would have pulled me back into the pocket. Chris followed next, driving hard to the left and getting an epic boof off the corner of the rock. Kevin decided to portage while Taylor lined up for the drop. Taylor entered where I had, but turned too far to the left above the hole and to our horror went in sideways. From our downstream eddy all we could see was the occasional end of Taylor’s boat while he got worked in the pocket. After a little bit we saw Taylor’s head pop up downstream of the hole with his boat taking another lap.

Thankfully his boat headed to the eddy we were in, and when we pulled it on shore we noticed a large 10” crack in the hull beneath the seat. We were already pretty deep into the run, but after studying the map it looked like Taylor could get to a road after five to ten miles of cross country travel. We wished him luck and focusing on making downstream progress, worried about being stuck in the gorge for the night due to the delays.

At medium flows we portaged the drop on a 2008 trip.


Downstream we pushed on through several large ledge drops, scouted one exceptionally large and long rapid that Chris and I quickly ran while Kevin made quick work of a portage down the right.

Devin Knight running the same drop at medium flows in 2008. Word of mouth has it that there is a bad sieve on river right at low flows.


Below the long rapid we breathed a sigh of relief. Light was already fading from the canyon, but the drop below we recognized from Seven Rivers, and from the beta we had our campsite was supposed to lie just below. With the light gone from the canyon I ignored the shot and opted to probe the fun looking rapid. All our lines had varying degrees of success, but the rapid was more forgiving than it looked like.

Ryan and Devin Knight in the notch at medium flows, 2008.


Ben Stookesberry runs it in epic but difficult lighting.


A late in the afternoon slow shutter shot of said rapid.


Looking back at the same in 2008 with some cold weather.


As promised a gorgeous campsite was just downstream with fresh water coming in on the right and a big gorge directly downstream. We settled in for the night glad to be at camp, nervous about the following day and hoping the best for Taylor on his hike out.

The same camp in 2008, and one cold night.




Day Two