**Looking for our 2021 season outlook? Click here.**
We’re finally there. We’re going to open on June 20, 2020. Below is our snowpack summary, trip schedule, and river flow projections.
Snowpack summary
At the beginning of the winter season, storms hammered California creating an excellent base for ski resorts and hints of back to back Big Water rafting seasons. Active weather then remained relatively calm until early March when the storms turned on again. This brought the official April 1 Southern Sierra reading to 45%. Of note, storms continued well past this April first marker, so this measurement is skewed low.
Fortunately for the Kern River, our 2019 Big Water season carried over a full lake. With our 45% snowpack and healthy lake capacity, we are expecting decent flows on the Lower Kern.
45%
Southern Sierra April 1, 2020 Snowpack
Does not account for post 4/1/20 storms
1,857 CFS
Upper Kern, daily average peak.
Occurred on 5/1/2020
1,356 CFS
Lower Kern, daily average peak
Occurred on 7/9/2020
Trip schedule
We’ll be on the Lower Kern in entirety this season as the Upper and Forks seasons have concluded. We have also decided to not offer our Two Day Lower Kern this season due to our delayed start.
June and most of July
- Class III and IV full day on the Big Five.
- Class III and IV half day on the Big Five.
- Class II and III half day on the Jungle Run section.
End of July through August
- Class II and III full day on the Jungle Run.
- Class II and III half day on the Jungle Run.
River flow projections
We are projecting flows north of 800 CFS on the Lower Kern from June through the latter part of July. From there flows will begin tapering off and eventually leveling around 450 CFS sometime in August. Once we hit the lower flows we’ll focus on our Class II and III trips.
