Tunnel Chute Rapid

Middle Fork of the American River, Sierra foothills, California, USA. Third-party photo--I'm in the boat under the spray somewhere, along with my wife, son, and nephew. We're all holding our paddles up so as not to bang them (and maybe lose them) into the sides of the chute. This is a man-made rapid--during Gold Rush days, some of the 49ers decided to bore a tunnel thru a ridge, cutting off an incised meander in the river. The idea was that the gravels in the now-dry meander bend would be easier to work. Unfortunately for them, after all that work they found the Chinese had already extracted most of the values! But to this day the Middle Fork drops thru this chute and into the tunnel.