While California has soaked up the much-needed rainfall for months, one region has been slowest to feel the soggy effects: the Santa Ynez Valley, which has become the poster child for the state’s enduring drought. That’s thanks largely to Cachuma Lake, as the man-made reservoir was still only at 11 percent capacity by mid-February. And then, on February 17, the entire Santa Barbara County region endured a deluge not seen since 2005, or maybe as far back as the El Niño of 1997-98.
The Santa Ynez River feeds Cachuma Lake, and, as an avid paddler, I’ve always heard that it needs a minimum of 3,000 cubic feet of water per second (cfs) to be passable by kayak. That Friday morning of February 17, I received a text from Garrett Kababik, co-owner of the Paddle Sports Center in the Santa Barbara Harbor.
“It’s looking good right now,” said Kababik, who’d been keeping track of the river’s flow on the American Whitewater Gauge. “It’s at 3,400 cfs!!!”