I'm planning on rafting the East Carson on Memorial Day weekend, and given that most descriptions I've looked at have given an upper-level of runnability of something like 3-4,000 CFS I'm getting nervous. The level has been steadily rising, and is now above 3,000. Does anyone know what it's like at 3-4,000? I have an Avon Pro and used to raft commercially on Class III-IV rivers, but I'm not as strong as I used to be and I'll have a loaded boat (oar).

i only kayaked the river a few years ago at about 1500 cfs, so not sure what it is at 3K but it was a really simple class II all the way and I'd be suprised if anything got hard at higher flows, just faster.

The lower carson is a piece of cake at 3000. You'll float it at about 4-5 miles per hour...it goes by quick. I kayaked it last Friday at 2,600 an there wasn't any thing to watch out for except for a couple of trees before and after the hotsprings. Everything is easily avoidable. At 3000+ rapids get a little flushed, but the waves get more fun. The river in general is easy but there is really no time to relax. It turns alot and pillows off the right and left hand banks. Its a good river to practice your ferry angles and setting up early if you know what I mean. If you plan to do the upper section above hangmans, my only advice would be to scout as much as possible from the road. The higher the flow the better with this run, but the channels need to chosen wisely. What may appear to be a clean channel could be really shallow. All in all, the upper is pretty continuous and did I mention COLD. Have fun.

Tom Joe,
Thanks a lot, this is really helpful. I figured the difficulty might be staying off the walls, since at lower levels I recalled a lot of skimming past walls in 90 degree turns. Must be lots of fun at 4 grand, which is what it's at now. Although with the cloudy weather it might drop a bit. Sounds like we'll have more shore time than we thought given the speed. Thanks again for the reply.