Mill Creek is an infrequently run creek that feeds into the King’s River. We didn’t have much information about the run, only the barest of descriptions from American Whitewater. It said there were some junky miles, some good bedrock drops, and a few significant rapids. I searched, and couldn’t find a single photo of a rapid online, a rarity in often photoed California paddling.
We got to the put-in, did a hasty put in due to testy locals, and paddling a mile or so of brushy, low volume, bumpy rapids. Hmmm. Then it got good. there were a couple miles of pretty fun paddling, with some good long slides, some medium sized waterfalls, and one we decide to portage half of. It looked like it would go, but with a virtually assured hard wall hit. None of us wanted it.
the last few miles, felt like a ton, were choked with brush, low volume,and rocky. Made for a fair bit of work. The amount of work I was doing was particularly high as I had broken my boat on the run, and my boat was sinking steadily. I alternated between paddling (with frequent stops to empty my boat) and walking, depending on what the terrain was. Neither was particularly fun, so it made of a long trip out.
All in all, it was a cool adventure, but the work:fun ratio on the rapids was a little askew towards work. Geno is more enthusiastic about the run than me, and my vision might be clouded by the hassle of a broken boat. I probably won’t be rushing back to do it again, but I would think you were a fool if you went in to paddle it. We had about 90 CFS and it was definitely a minimal flow in my opinion. I think 125-175 CFS would have been better.
Video Here, pictures below. I’m in the blue boat.
Mill Creek, Kings Drainage, California from Gene Hacker on Vimeo.
