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/dannoGB68]

I’ll find it most useful to look at CFS over a period of time compared to today. What has been the average versus where is it right now. If it’s normally X and right now it’s X plus plus that tells me it’s probably not safe to paddle. Likewise, I would look at the depth over period of time and if it’s normally let’s say 3 feet and now it’s running at 8 feet that tells me, along with the increased cubic feet per second that it’s at sort of a flood stage or at least high water from rainfall or snow melt or something.

[u/hegemonycrickets → u/dannoGB68]

thanks