New River near Burnt Ranch

Reader input can help CAcreeks improve! Sam Raskin at Hotmail provided this description of the upper section of the New:

On Saturday I ran the New above Denny with some Arcata Paddlers. We had 500 cfs, plenty of water for hardshells after the first couple hundred bony yards. The first mile or so is class III warm up. At about mile 1 is a technical class IV. A boulder divides the flow with clean but narrow 4' drops on either side. Below this rapid is a pool, followed by the portage. On the portage, most of the current flowed into a sieve on river right. Supposedly at higher flows it can be run. It is easy to walk on the right. The next two miles are great pool drop class IV. At about mile 3 is a virtually unportageable rapid that verges on class V. There is a big drop on the left, followed by a hole that stretches across most of the river. After that boulders divide the river into three different drops-- left, middle and center-- that are all clean. A little down from this rapid is “The Hand of God” also virtually unportageable. It is another big drop followed by a right hand turn into a river wide seam. There is a trail down from the road to this rapid, good to scout in advance because the vertical gorge prohibits a simple portage. After The Hand of God the river mellows out and you take out at the Denny dump. Everybody thought it was an excellent and challenging run.

Here are pictures of the upper run. For more photos like this, see Trinity Alps Photo.

	Class II-II warm up rapids in the first mile
Devils Creek drops in across from put-in
The canyon walls close in	Number 1 and Number 2, class IV+
Easier to scout this canyon from the road
	Long class V rapid named Hand of God
You can scout the crux by descending a trail	The last big rapid follows almost immediately

John Q. Adams suggested a write-up of an easier section of the New River. This stretch makes a great advanced run, because its take-out avoids the final class V+ 1.5 mile into the Trinity, an impediment to all considering the “gorge” run as described by Holbek/Stanley.

I see that you have no notes on the New River that falls into the Trinity just below Burnt Ranch Gorge. We ran it about 19 years ago [1982] and as far as we knew no one had run it for the previous 10 years. The Holbek writeup was first published in 1984.

At 400-1000 cfs, the level we had, it's class II to IV+, with the proviso that it's a 12 mile 400-500 foot deep unclimbable gorge that is at least as beautiful as any other place I've ever been. It's a granite canyon and we found no recent rockfalls. I would suggest a low water run and careful scouting for maximum protection from the random rockfall.

It's a long drive from the SF bay area. We ran the New, a stretch on Hayfork Creek, and Lower Battle Creek (all new to us) on a 3-day weekend in March, in nice weather!

From a AAA map of Northwestern California dated May 1981 I see that the first bridge across the Trinity below Burnt Ranch is at Hawkins Bar. Take the road across the river to the small town of Denny and put in just upstream of the town. Much farther upstream of that is a class V run.

Very picturesque views of the canyon available here and there on the way to Denny.

The only takeout above the falls into the Trinity we found was where the river came out of the gorge at the end of Byeoff Road, a branch road off the Denny Road. The farmer there was happy for us to leave one cars. He said they had owned the farm for 10 years and had never seen anyone take out on their farm. The current ownership status of this land is unknown (2001).

A small offering to the river gods at the put-in may insure no rockfalls between now and our earlier run. No crowds on this river.

The river finder in our group was Steve Rock, Class V kayaker and C2 partner of Diane Colby, surely one of the most reckless and admirable ladies I have ever met. Steve identified the Byoff Road take-out and led us down the New.

Holbek describes the section from the East Fork to Denny as being class III-IV from 300-800 cfs with 1 portage, scratchy at first, with multiple gorges (one overhanging) that require scouting. The most difficult portion is the middle 2 miles, but Holbek gives no information on the portage.

Holbek describes the section from Denny to Panther Creek (formerly a campground, now private land) as being mostly class II with some class III in a scenic canyon, with a bunch of IIIs at the end that stack up to a class IV rating.

Holbek describes the section from Panther Creek to Byoff Road as being relatively easy, in comparison to the box canyon in the final 1.5 mile where the New drops steeply (166 fpm) into the Trinity. That section Holbek calls class V with one portage, although rafters who have run it call it class VI in their usual overblown fashion. The video California Whitewater contains footage of rafters negotiating this box canyon. If you undertake this gorge run, you will have to negotiate Gray's Falls on the Trinity at relatively high water.

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