Rowers Stories

Rowing Lake Oroville California

Stanley Gardiner Chico, California
Scull Turbo II Wing

....Having received the other hardware, I took the opportunity to reduce the
"L" length of the oars by 1/2 inch. That worked well. I was more
comfortable and I got more speed.

A few days later, on April 8 I launched at Dark Canyon then rowed up the
North Fork of the Feather River to French Creek. I made it all the way from
Dark Canyon to French Creek in 1 hour and 45 minutes. I was rewarded for my
efforts. You enter French Creek from the North Fork into a beautiful
secluded cove with little mountain streams flowing into the lake. Around
the corner you see a nice-sized sand bar, a nice place to beach the boat.
Just beyond the sand bar are the rapids where French Creek empties into Lake
Oroville. I rowed the boat up into the rapids for a little white water
action.

It took me 2 1/2 hours to get back. The last 1 1/2 hours were hell. Two
days later I explored the South Fork, a much less ambitious journey. On the
way back I found myself doing sprints. I felt like I could snap the oars.
The two day recovery did me some good. Rowing is very good for strength
training.

Looking forward to better weather,

S.

PS: you can download a pdf file of the map by clicking on the image above but be warned - it's 1.2 Mb.

 

---