Noel rides up the first standing wave.

Paddling the Grande Ronde River

Patrick Welch

“I think we’ll lose a few here.  These standing waves can easily dump one of the white water canoes,” I explained to Todd, our head guide on the Grande Ronde River (pronounced, Grand Ron).  We were staring at The Narrows, a Class III rapid on the otherwise Class II river.  To place The Narrows in perspective, consider what happens when you take 200 foot wide river and force it into a 30 foot sluice way, cut into volcanic basalt.  The group of 11 focused on their scouting and wondered what lay before them.

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Juniper Lake is a beautiful mountain lake tucked away in the southeast corner of Lassen National Park. The clarity of the water is spectacular, with shimmering hues of blue and green reminding me of Lake Tahoe, but on a smaller more intimate scale. On the long side the lake is 1.5 miles long, with 5 miles of shoreline all the way around. Lassen Peak can be seen off in the distance over the western shore, with Mount Harkness to the south. All around the lake a forest of Lodgepole Pine, Western White Pine, and Red Fir trees extends to near the shoreline. A few private cabins are still present, tucked away discreetly on the far western shore, holdovers from before this was designated part of Lassen National Park.
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The weather has been hit and miss lately, but the Sunday of Memorial Weekend turned out to be a fantastic day on the water. I went out with my wife Jennifer, her brother, and his girlfriend for a paddle on Lake Natoma starting at Negro Bar and working our way up towards the Folsom prison.
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Hidden down a nondescript dirt road leading out the back of the small town of McArthur in Northern California’s Shasta County is a wonderful treasure that few people seem to know about. This place is called Ahjumawi, which means “where the waters come together”. Those waters that come together are Big Lake, Tule River, Ja-She Creek, Lava Creek, and Fall River. Combined, these waters form one of the largest spring-fed waterways in the world. It is a very unique California State Park, as the only way to get there is by boat, as there are no public roads into the park (There is a back road that park rangers use to maintain the park and service the camp sites, but it is rare to see them out there).

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