A man reported missing this morning after becoming separated from friends during Sunday’s “Rafting Gone Wild” event on the American River has been located at his home.
Sacramento County law enforcement officials are still totaling up the numbers of arrests and citations as a result of the social media-spawned event, and parks officials launched but later called off a search today after receiving a missing person report.
John Havicon, ranger supervisor for Sacramento County Regional Parks, said rangers received a call this morning regarding a 28-year-old Roseville man who became separated from friends Sunday on Gilligan’s Island near Hagan Community Park in Rancho Cordova and had not been heard from since. Havicon said he reached the man today at his home. The man said he became separated and made his way home on his own.
The event, which officials estimate drew 3,000 to 6,000 people to the stretch of the American River between Sunrise Boulevard and River Bend Park, was organized largely via Facebook and other social media. It was through monitoring social media that parks officials and law enforcement officials became aware of it and were able to beef up staffing in anticipation of the crowds.
Eppie’s Great Race, billed as “the world’s oldest ‘no swim’ triathlon,” is desperately seeking volunteers to work at the event this weekend.
Volunteers will receive T-shirts, lunch and free parking, said race spokeswoman Anita Fitzhugh. Hundreds of people are needed for a variety of tasks from setup on Friday to watercraft takeout on Saturday, she said.
The 38th annual event, in which participants run 5.82 miles, cycle 12.5 miles and paddle canoes or kayaks for 6.35 miles along the American River Parkway, will benefit Sacramento County Therapeutic Recreation Services, which offers recreational activities and other opportunities for disabled people.
It was a calm start but things got a bit rowdy for “Rafting Gone Wild.” Toward the end of the day, firefighters treated one woman hurt from mud-wrestling. Firefighters say one man was rescued from the water who’d apparently consumed too much alcohol and may have been suffering from severe hypothermia.
By the end of the day, a Sacramento County Sheriff’s helicopter helped clear people out of Riverbend Park as deputies and Rancho Cordova Police managed crowd control and broke up several fights.
Katie Kennedy of Concord heard about the event on Facebook and said it became a “must do” event for many young people from as far away as San Jose. “Mud Island always calls for a little bit of mud wrestling. It’s just the way it is. Lotta girls wanna get in on it. Kind of the place to be at the time,” she said, referring to so-called Gilligan’s Island along the river where hundreds of kids gathered to party and even mud wrestle.
A stolen car apparently was recently driven into the American River near Ancil Hoffman Park earlier this month, officials reported.
Once it was in the water, park rangers think it was swept downstream about a mile by abnormally high summer river flows.
Sacramento County Park Ranger John Havicon said the car was stolen from an owner in Gold River. The vehicle was then apparently driven into the river at the Rossmoor Bar boat ramp.
It floated downstream when the river was roaring to a point where Rancho Cordova is on one side of the river and Ancil Hoffman Park on the other. Havicon said the car was spotted in the river around July 1.
Despite the most dangerous water conditions in recent years, Sacramento-area public safety officials reported no major injuries or deaths on local waterways over the July Fourth weekend.
“We had a real good weekend,” said Scott Cockrum, assistant chief with the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.
He attributed the relative lack of problems to several factors, including the holiday alcohol ban for people enjoying themselves in and along the river, and requirements that children younger than 13 years old wear life vests in or near the water.
A series of dramatic river rescues about 10 days ago may have set the tone for the 4th of July holiday weekend. Some avoided rivers like the American because of the dangers. But an alcohol ban approved by the State Legislature is getting most of the credit for taking the sizzle out of the 4th..
The loud sounds of a helicopter could be heard moving up and down the American River on Monday. But it’s what you couldn’t see or hear that made the most striking difference: there was less alcohol on the river. 25-year-old Elizabeth Depelteau was struck by the change. ”They would get really wasted and everybody would fight and mud wrestle and do all those kinds of things. It was really scary.”
But there are tradeoffs. Patrol boats from the Sacramento Metro Fire Department gave FOX40’s John Lobertini a front row seat to the cold, fast moving water. Dam releases from Folsom Lake have slowed, but the river is still moving at double its normal speed. It’s cold too, a dangerous 52 degrees says Assistant Fire Chief Scott Cockrum. ”Again, it’s a 50 degree temperature difference between the outside ambient temperature and the water. It just shocks your body and takes your breath away from you.”
It’s the law in Sacramento County: no alcohol permitted on the American River. And this holiday, police are checking rafters headed out for a float to be certain they aren’t carrying any liquor with them.
Getting caught with on the river with, say, a hefty-bag full of booze is one sure way to end your long weekend early. That’s what happened in one arrest Sunday. Police confiscated cans of Coors Light, Jagermeister, vodka… and Lord knows what was in the Oceanspray bottle.
Double trouble on Northern California waterways. The water is fast, it’s extremely cold and there aren’t enough cops to police all the potential problems. And, the dangers may be far worse than most people realize.
According to the California Department of Boating and Waterways more people have been killed in swift water river accidents in the first 6 months of 2011 than any other period on record.
Park rangers began on Saturday a three-day stretch of checking boats and coolers for alcohol as people arrive at the Sunrise Bridge access point to the American River in Rancho Cordova.
They discovered bottles of beer with at least one man who claimed on Saturday afternoon not to be carrying alcohol as he made his way to the water. He had to dispose of the beer before he could continue. In some instances, rangers have cited people who appear to be hiding alcohol on their way onto the water.
On the American River, the alcohol ban is in place between Hazel Avenue and Watt Avenue.
People trying to stay cool in the American River this weekend will enjoy a less treacherous flow of water, after weeks of extremely rapid flow created by fast-melting Sierra snow that accumulated during an unusually long winter.
On Saturday, the Bureau of Reclamation reduced water releases from the Nimbus Dam from 11,000 cubic feet per second to 6,000 for the holiday weekend. The amount will be increased on Monday evening, said Randy Lewis, a park ranger in Rancho Cordova who was talking to boaters at the Sunrise Bridge access point to the river.
