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Owens River

Photos of the Owens River and potential put-ins and take-outs around Lone Pine and Bishop.  This section is under development as we research the "kayak-ability" of the Owens.

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Lower Owens Paddle Update - 29 June 2008

Several of us paddled the lower Owens in an area between Hwy 136 and the pump out station.  In reference to the photos and maps further below on this page, we would advise heading north from the put-in shown on the map.  The floating Tule "dams" are not as bad as our May 11 paddle, and we were able to get far further heading upstream than we were just a few weeks ago.  The area we did need to break through only took 3 "rams" with our bow to open up.  About 5 minutes south of the put-in, part of the channel narrowed and the current picked up - looks passable but we decided to take the easier paddle north. Although we ran out of time on this particular day, I suspect you can now reach the Hwy 136 bridge paddling upstream from the put-in.  Should be able to update this in about a week and let you know for sure :) 

Rana at the put-in. Boat is a Perception Swifty rotomold.

The put-in, take out site. With water, note additional growth in the parking area compared with prior photos.

Rana playing around the dead growth. Sort of a poor man's rock garden :)

Photo looking downstream, north of the put-in.

Rana arriving at the put-in, take-out site.

Photo courtesy Rana of Lone Pine.

Photo courtesy Rana of Lone Pine.

Photo courtesy Rana of Lone Pine.

Photo courtesy Rana of Lone Pine.

Photo courtesy Rana of Lone Pine.

Photo courtesy Rana of Lone Pine.

Photo courtesy Rana of Lone Pine.

Photo courtesy Rana of Lone Pine.

Photo courtesy Rana of Lone Pine.

Photo courtesy Rana of Lone Pine.

 

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Yes, you can paddle the lower Owens!

Photos of paddle from May 11, 2008, showing some of the areas appearing in the second photo gallery in this section.  We put in about 1/2 way between the Hwy 136 bridge and the pump station.  This is the lower part of the lower Owens, south of Lone Pine.  Most of river is passable, with a few areas requiring a few moments of clearing dead tules that have floated and stuck to log snags - we were able to do this without getting out of the kayaks.  One spot downstream from the put-in was blocked, but we could have gotten out and walked around if we wanted to get wet - I suspect with a bit more flow (or a bit of river rise and fall), the blockage would break.

Put-in location, very roughly half way between the Hwy 136 and the pump station. Looking west towards Sierra and Horseshoe Meadow Rd in distance.

Heading upstream from put-in.

A few areas are blocked, but most are passable by either paddling over a short distance, or moving reeds by hand.

Enjoying the lower Owens.

Looking downstream.

Depth of river is fine for kayaking. This shows an area where you can kayak over the tules. Cliff in water for unknown reason :)

Boat in photo is a 2008 model Dragonfly single made by Advanced Elements.

Looking downstream. Boat is a Hurricane Santee 116 Sport.

Heading upstream. Current is slight in the area, so you can paddle either up or down river from your put-in.

Heading south from the put-in site.

Another view, heading south (downstream).

The drawback. Downstream a ways from the put-in, we found this pile of dead, floating tules blocking the channel. It may or may not be gone shortly.

 

Rough map below shows area of Lower Owens for the 2 photo galleries directly above and below the map.  Downtown Lone Pine is just off the top left of the map.

Lower Owens - photos for the gallery below taken May 10, 2008 and show what is truly the lower Owens as it heads south from the Hwy 136 bridge (i.e. the Lone Pine to Death Valley Road), to the pump station that represents the end of the river before it is diverted back to the LA Aqueduct.  While we did not kayak this portion of the river on this trip, it appears passable, at least for smaller craft.

To reach the northern area of this run, head east from Lone Pine on Hwy 136.  Go past the bridge over to Owens, and start looking for Dolomite Loop Road on the left (roughly 2.5 miles from the turn at Hwy 395).  Opposite Dolomite Loop Road, on south side of highway, there is a dirt road - that road will take you to the put-in shown below.  Note there is very little current along this stretch of the river, so you can paddle both upstream and downstream from the put-in, you do not need a shuttle.

The dirt road continues towards the pump station.  You can access Hwy 395 through a wide dirt road just to the south of the pump station - it leads you to the Boulder Creek RV Park.  There are cattle guards on the roads, but no gates to open and close.

 

Looking downstream, with Sierra on right.

Looking upstream, northwesterly, with Sierra on left.

Sierra in background looking upstream.

Looking downstream

A suitable put in location. Road access up to water.

Another look at potential put in location.

Dirt road runs alongside the river a fair ways.

End of the Owens River, looking north.

End of the Owens River, looking south at the pump-out station. For lack of a better word, one might call this a "forebay" of Owens Lake.

 

 

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Below - Photo gallery showing the Owens just north of Collins Road.  Collins Road is one road south of Warm Springs, so this take out would give one a longer run coming down from Hwy 6 north of Bishop.  Note small class 1 1/2 to 2 "rapid" - photos show about the entire extent of that rapid.  Photos from May 3, 2008.

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Below, May 1 2008.  Owens River at Mazourka Canyon Road.  This is east of Independence, south end of town.  While river is flowing, note Tules growing up again and rather green.  Tules appear to be blocking access north of the road/bridge.

 

 

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Kayaking the Owens - 4 August 2007

US Hwy 6 Bridge to Warm Springs Road Bridge

Putting in at Hwy 6, just north of Bishop was no problem.  Lots of parking and places to find a spot to launch your kayak.  Warm Springs, at the end of this day's run, was also fine for a take-out or put-in location.  Very roughly halfway between is the Line Street Bridge.  Line St would have been ok as a take out on this day IF the river level had been up about another foot or so - as it was, it required a slippery climb up short river banks, not easy.  There were several locations along our paddle where you could rest for a bit, these gravelbars were very roughly spaced at about 20 minute intervals, so there are stretches of the river where stopping ashore would be a pain.

Arguably more scenic is the stretch of the Owens from Line St Bridge to Warm Springs Road Bridge.

 

Hwy 6 put-in, one of several suitable areas.

At the Hwy 6 put-in.

Put-in area just south of the Hwy 6 bridge. Several areas, worth looking another hundred yards downstream from Bridge.

Kayaks ahead of us AND behind us :)

John heading downstream, shortly after putting-in at Hwy 6.

Current on day we paddled was roughly 3-3/12 knots

Nice sandbar/gravelbar provided resting stop, between Hwy 6 and Line St. Bridge.

Dan taking off from the sandbank/breakstop area.

Dan about to head down river

Parking just north of Warm Springs Road Bridge - photo from take-out location.

At the take-out, Warm Springs Road

 

 

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Map and photos in this section show a potential take out area BELOW Aberdeen Station Road. 

IMPORTANT!!!!!  There is a map on the http://www.inyowater.org/LORP/map_page.htm website, showing that launching at Aberdeen for a trip south might be a bad idea.  Map mentioned shows the LA Aquaduct intake below Aberdeen Station Road, with the "Release Point" (presumable where water is allowed back into the lower Owens) right below that.  We have not yet looked, but appears to be prudent to find a launch point just below the release point!

If you use Google, go to maps, then the Satellite photo, it appears that Goodale Road, just below Aberdeen Station Road, would provide access to the lower Owens - that said, we have not looked at that location as of 23 July 2007, so can not advise if Goodale Road south is actually a usable part of the river.

UPDATE July 28, 2007  We were able to paddle roughly 1 hour downstream from a put-in just south of Goodale Road BUT once just over an hour paddling time downstream, reeds/tules were too thick to attempt passage any further.  SO....if you want to try this area, might be better to put-in at Black Rock Springs area, and paddle "uphill" to see how far you can get - we will have updates shortly.

Photos from July 28th 2007 paddle:

Until the river chokes up with reeds/tules, this was the average width on the lower Owens south of Goodale Rd.

Below Goodale Road, putting-in. Accessed via the dirt road following the "eastern-most" power lines going north from Black Rock Springs Road area.

Starting to choke up. Portions of the lower Owens were great, other portions became un-navigable.

Ron along one of the wider portions of the lower Owens.

Portions from Goodale south had decent flows and width. But boy, there are a LOT of exceptions!

There are a few "false" channels. Fortunately, this one was only a few feet divided from the main flow of the river.

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We have not kayaked this portion yet to check it out, (i.e. Aberdeen Station Road and south to the take out shown on map below), but if it is doable (see warning above!), would add something in the order of an additional 8 miles or so below the take out at Aberdeen Station Road.  Dirt road off of Black Rock Springs Road.  Dashed line shows what we believe to be the alternate route - translation, map shows a road to the north of the "lake" (a marsh), although our GPS mapping software showed us on the dirt road not shown to the south (i.e. the line with the dashes).  Distance along HWY 395 from Aberdeen Station Road, south to the turnoff at Black Rock Springs Road is roughly 5.5 miles.  South of the take out area marked, it appears that for practical purposes, the river is not kayakable at the moment.

Photos below in this section were taken on 20 July 2007.

Parking area and potential take-out, looking north/upstream.

Looking upstream from the parking area

Looking downstream

Looking east

Looking downstream - river at this point narrows and has multitude of snags, etc

Photos taken at the map location above marked "Parking Area" and Take Out". Note river is new, old dirt road 4wd tracks still on both river sides.