Once a mecca for California paddling trips, the Kern has languished due to drought and the discovery of steep, granite-strewn overnight runs further north in the High Sierras. This year, water returned to the Kern River Basin in a big way, the mother of all winters replenishing the drought-stricken Sierra Nevada mountain range. With historic amounts of precipitation, the Kern River is seeing flows on the Cataracts of the Kern that have happened only three times in the past forty years, returning paddlers to this California classic. Twenty-one-year old Kernville local Evan Moore has grown up looking at the Cataracts, wondering what they would be like with the fabled flows of the Kern’s early days. This spring, he had his chance to find out.
Words: Evan Moore - Photography: John Webster
“I HAVE SEEN BIG WATER YEARS, I HAVE SEEN THE WORST RECORDED DROUGHT IN HISTORY, BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN A YEAR LIKE THIS. THIS IS A ONCE IN A LIFETIME YEAR.”
My earliest childhood memories all involve the Kern River. Growing up the son of local paddling legend and Sierra South Paddle Sports owner Tom Moore, I was thrown into the world of whitewater practically from birth. My first strokes in a kayak were on this river. The local community has seen me grow as a person and a paddler. I am now twenty-one years old and have been paddling all around the globe, but the Kern River will always be my home. I have seen big water years, I have seen the worst recorded drought in history, but I…
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Kayak Session (Digital) - 1 Issue, summer 2017
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