West Cherry

Wrapping up almost a week down at the Kaweah's lapping up the Hospital Rock section I drove to Groveland to meet Rok Sribar to go put on West Cherry which runs into Upper Cherry Creek about three quaters of the way down. We drove to Cherry Lake in the middle of the night and met up with Don and Darcy from Colorado and got a couple hours of sleep. When we arrived at the put in we saw a good number of other cars including Jakob and some of the team teva boys. I was told the hike should take only about 1.5 hours and that its pretty much downhill anyways, so after packing the boats with only one night worth of gear I opted for no backpack and that I would just carry the boat on my shoulder to the put in, so far so good. The tail went along a ridge for a bit and was pretty unclear, but just in the time that I would think I was lost I would get back to some sign of trail. So after 1.5 hours I thought to myself, ive never seen a river that flows on the top of a mountain so at some point I should start heading down. By 2.5 hours I was 100% bushwacking and was starting to feel the effects of shouldering a kayak for that long of time. At 3.5 hours I started to think that I might be spending the night in the Cherry Creek Wilderness due to the fact that the ground I had been bushwacking would be very hard to find my way back to the car. So I decided I would put the kayak down and walk to the top of the mountain and I would be able to look out and see where I needed to go. Doing so I saw cherry lake in one direction which I knew was the take out, and a tiny orange kayak as far as the eye could see in the other direction, which ment that I had hiked way off course and was about parallell with the camp(halfway point). So finally making it to the river after 4-5 hours of bushwacking I came across some Czech guys who were able to tell be where my group was. As far as the river is concerned it has some of the most beautifull scenery and if long granite slides and waterfalls are your thing then this is the place for you. My favorite part about this run is after the confluence with Upper Cherry the water level picks up and you get to run the last couple miles of Upper Cherry at very high flow which makes for some different lines and enormous holes

Camped Out Below Charlie Beavers

The Take Out Where Americans Are a Minority.