Bright, hot sunlight got us up early from the slab campsite on Dinkey Creek, and we gave the downstream drop one more scout while letting our breakfast digest. The good morning slide is one of the most unique features I’ve seen on a river. From the top it looks like a typical slide, but further investigation reveals that the right side of the slide is completely missing. The slide also slopes to the right, demanding the paddler to drive left and stay as left as possible to avoid falling off the slide, which has happened to indolent kayakers in the past.
Little Dave on the other hand, is a proficient and motivated kayaker enjoying the good morning slide.
With grins on our faces from the good morning slide we shouldered our boats for the next two more dubious drops, the double pot hole and another carnage inducing pothole drop. Both get run on fairly frequent occasion, but have high consequences because of said potholes.
Day two on Dinkey Creek has a lot more “full bade paddling” rapids with multiple moves and big hard strokes needed, my favorite style of kayaking. Post portaging several boat scoutable slides and boulder gardens lead into one of my favorite rapids on the run, a ten foot boof into a fast moving hole or rock dodging run out depending on flows.
Ben Stookesberry boofing in with flows around 250cfs, this rapid was grand at 400cfs on my first trip.
Even more awesome read and run rapids lead into the next scout, a ten foot sliding boof into a big s-turn with a nice pillow hole at the bottom, this one too is a wild ride at 400cfs.
Taylor Robertson boofing into another of my favorites.
and into the pillow hole…
A small eddy at the lip of a big horizon grants access to either the second longer portage, or one big rapid depending on just how tough you are feeling. The first time down we portaged down to the bottom boof, a considerably longer portage than our second run, where with friendlier flows we seal launched in to run the bottom two boofs.
The top slide lands in a big hole just above a boulder with the majority of the river sieving out under it, and this is enough to make most boaters portage, but Ben was in firing mode and cleaned up the big time move with ease.
Ben Stookesberry on move one of four major moves that make up one of the most challenging drops on Dinkey Creek.
Ben Stookesberry getting right and away from the big sieve for move two.
We seal launched into an eddy below move two so we could run an outstanding boof down the right, Corey Boux boofing away on the third move.
Boofs away, the fourth and final move is another boof over a large hole, Ben Stookesberry finishes off the gorge rapid.
Ben Coleman and Little Dave revel in the quality of the gorge rapid.
Grins plastered to our faces, we paddled across the pool to the lip of another large rapid. This one sluice boxes down the left through several holes and undercuts, and most portage down the right side, except of course Ben who was just firing away and cleaned the drop with no problems while we finished the portage.
Several boulder gardens below the sluice box we got out above yet another slide, not terribly large, but with a terrible hole. Known as both “Prison Love” or “Penalty Box” the hole at the bottom loves to dish out beatdowns, and as Taylor said, “It’s a good place to practice underwater paddling” because it’s nearly impossible to roll in the narrow slot with funkey currents. The portage is also incredibly easy, but Ben and Corey fired it up anyways with mixed results.
Corey Boux testing out the Prison Love.
For early starters on day one, Prison Love is also a popular camping site that makes day two quick work, or a great lunch spot on day two. Moving downstream we boat scouted many more rapids and slides, portaging left for the second mandatory sieved out mess on Dinkey Creek.
Fun low angle slides continued to keep us smiling as we headed into a remarkably good mini gorge that contains a clean fifteen footer, long perfectly flat pool and twenty foot falls to finish it off as the run opens up.
Taylor Robertson on the near perfect twenty.
Dinkey contains an almost unbelievable amount of read and run slides and rapids, with the occasional scout and stout hole mixed in, all the way down to the final slide. Known as Nikki Kelly’s drop, the final slide is a sight to behold and at high water, an uncommonly padded out big time slide.
Devin Knight getting a good look at the final slide.
Devin was the only one fired up on the final slide, and after a good look he came down the right, crossed into the left channel and launched a boof off the pillow and screamed through the bottom hole in a gigantic squirt.
Ryan Knight on the same.
http://www.kayakphoto.com/DK/DK21.jpg
The line looked way too fun, and the consequence way too low, not to run a drop this beautiful and fun, so I headed up to my boat, gave it one more quick look and slid into the water. I too entered on the far right, crossed into the left channel and started stroking hard as I came down the ramp, and launched a similar boof off the pillow and squirted out the bottom with a preposterous grin on my face. I love how the group dynamic works sometimes, Ryan was so stoked by our lines he hiked his boat back up to the top and ran it with similar results, what a great slide!
Dinkey Creek is full of fun boulder gardens after the final slides, although they get tedious at low flows, they are all great fun above four hundred cfs, and only too soon were we at the take out, elated by getting on an absolute classic and calculating the days until we could return.
The elevation really is this low, the Balch Camp Bridge.
Logistics: We put on with flows peaking at 350 on day one, and peaking at 420 on day two. Use the North Fork Kings below Dinkey Creek gauge. Check the North Fork Above Dinkey gauge first and subtract that from below, and what’s left is coming in from Dinkey Creek.
The shuttle is long and complicated, the California Gazateer won’t help much, but what will help is the AAA map for Sierra Nevada-Yosemite Area. It has the forest service roads numbered on it, and shows Ross Crossing too. I highly recommend backtracking to Big Creek and taking it up, the road from Balch camp up is reported to be a terrible 4WD road.
Ben Stookesberry's TR and video from Dinkey.
Dinkey Creek Put-In
Dinkey Campsite
Dinkey Take-Out
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