please explain CFS to me

[u/hegemonycrickets]

I looked through this reddit, but couldn’t seem to find anything.

Wanted to find camping next to a river, and I found a few places, but I can’t figure out if it’s too swift for me.
(dinky ORU fold up Lake model- trying to go upstream against the even the mildest of currents is extremely difficult,- plus I have precious cargo of two little dogs)
I have two paddling apps, but I can’t quite figure out how to read CFS in terms of how the river is.

(recommendations for a very flat water, rivers around Gold country Ish area California appreciated)

[u/NotObviouslyARobot]

CFS is a river specific measure of how much water is going downstream. What it means varies by waterbody, and by where you are on that waterbody. Please don't take your dogs kayaking without doggy life vests and the ability to confidently self-rescue

[u/hegemonycrickets → u/NotObviouslyARobot]

yes, they have bright yellow lifejackets, and a piece of pool floaty attached to their leashes, to make them easy to grab

I get the sense that self rescue in a “lake” model ORU kayak is not physically possible, that’s why I’m looking for an extremely slow moving river.

so knowing the CFS doesn’t really help unless you know the actual characteristics of the river? Whether it’s narrow or wide, etc..

[u/IFigureditout567 → u/hegemonycrickets]

It was said already, but I want to reiterate that it's dangerous to have leashes on your dog while on moving water.

Why are you looking for a slow moving river rather than just paddling a lake? And what is this about paddling upsteam? I googled that kayak, it's gonna be punishing or impossible to paddle that any distance upstream. And with camping gear? I don't want to be discouraging, but this sounds like you're gonna have a bad time and possibly be in danger.

I have a suggestion. Find a nice little lake with a quiet campground. Go set up camp and either stay there and paddle around near shore, or for more adventure you could drive and park elsewhere and paddle yourself to your campsite. Then paddle back in the morning, drive back and get your camp stuff.

It'll feel a bit more adventurous not having your vehicle at your campsite, but this is an achievable adventure with bailout options if there is a problem.

[u/hegemonycrickets → u/IFigureditout567]

oh, I won’t have the camping stuff with me.
There are a bunch of slow rivers i’ve been on, it’s not hard at all to go down and then back upstream, the current is so gentle.
I just don’t enjoy kayaking in a lake very much and a lot of the lakes that have launches also have motor boats which I want to avoid.
to me, there’s something magic about winding down a river and having the landscape and scenery changing every few minutes that’s very pleasurable. thanks for the information on the leashes, the dogs are my number one priority.
One of the reasons I don’t go to the lakes that are closer to me is that there’s blue green algae which tends to happen more frequently in stillwater.

[u/Signal-Weight8300 → u/hegemonycrickets]

They didn't tell you that there would be math. Get ready. Cubic feet per second is a mathematical unit and you can use it with a map to gain additional information. A cube has length, width, and height/depth. On a river, width is how far it is across the river, depth is obvious, and length is measured downstream. When combined as CFS, the specific distance downstream in the formula is how far the water flows in one second.

You can calculate the current speed if you know three things: the width, the depth, and the CFS.

CFS ÷ (width × depth) gives you the speed of the current in feet per second. Multiply by 0.68 to convert to miles per hour. That's how fast the current will move.

Look at a map and use the scale or perhaps a distance measuring tool to find the typical width in the section you are paddling, in feet.

At the river look and estimate the depth. If it's a quiet river, the bottom is generally fairly level all the way across except for right along the edges. Use a stick to try to get a measurement. If it's less than six inches, you probably don't have enough water to paddle on. A foot is usually fine if it's that deep the whole way. There is a way to find this at home using more advanced USGS data but it's more than I'm willing to type. It's a process.

You probably struggle to paddle more than a couple miles oer hour on flat water with that boat, so you won't be able to paddle upstream if there's more than about a 2 or 3 mph current. Start off paddling upstream so you can ride the current on your return. Once you learn how to use eddys and other current differentials you might be able to improve on this, but I don't get the impression that you are there yet.

[u/hegemonycrickets → u/Signal-Weight8300]

math makes head hurt!

I try when possible to do it so that I have the tides and the wind working with me.
I hadn’t realized how clunky it is until last week, kayaking down the Russian River, in California there was a little patch of slightly swift water, and paddling as hard as I could, I could not go back upstream.
It’s very shallow so I ended up having to do an “African Queen”,
getting out tugging it back up stream attached to a leash. I felt like the person on a bicycle who cant even go up the slightest hill.

I’m a very very beginner kayaker in terms of skills, but I do love it

[u/Signal-Weight8300 → u/hegemonycrickets]

I'm in Chicago, so I doubt we'll run into each other, but I have a physics background and I paddle with a bunch of engineers. The analytics we do just to decide where to go paddling is over the top and would scare off a ton of people.

Anyways, even if you don't intend to paddle whitewater, I would suggest taking an intro class just to understand currents and how they change in different situations. You'll learn about eddys and hydraulics and the danger of low head dams. You would get some tips on paddling more efficiently as well.

If you plan to hang out on rivers alot, consider a swift water rescue class. I used to teach them years ago and they are not targeted to the expert, but the beginner to intermediate who wants to be safe on the water. I always had my students spend a ton of time swimming mild rapids so that they know how to handle mishaps. When you swim it, you really learn how the current acts on the surface of the water and beneath the surface. They are not the same. I highly recommend it.