Re: San Joaquin bridge washout?
Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2023 4:01 pm
That’s great news! I’ll hopefully cross the S Fork this Friday afternoon. If things look a bit too swift, we’ll set up camp and check it out the following morning.
It's a little late in the season for this update to be applicable to many, but I figured I would share my firsthand experience.
I crossed the S Fork of the San Joaquin a few hundred feet downstream of the broken (and now destroyed) bridge. My friend and I are both about 6'1 and we crossed in the early afternoon. The water was slow to moderate pace and up to about our knees. We spoke to several other hikers, male and female, ranging from probably 5'4 and up, and none of them considered the crossing dangerous or worthy of detouring around.
Towards the end of our hike after coming down from Mosquito Pass, we crossed the S Fork a few miles downstream of Piute Creek, which adds quite a bit to the flow. We found a spot that was moderate in its flow, and probably 4-5" above our knees. We crossed around 1 pm - wouldn't have wanted to cross if the water was moving much faster or deeper, and we specifically looked for a spot that didn't have a big rapid downstream of it.