The Sacramento Fire Department responded to a five-acre fire along the American River Parkway around 2 a.m. Thursday.
Public information officer firefighter Roberto Padilla said the fire, along mile marker five of the parkway near Cal Expo and Bushy Lake, spread quickly due to relatively high wind speeds and thick vegetation. Though fast-moving, the two-alarm fire threatened no structures.
After a two-day extension, Sunday evening was the official deadline to pull boats from their slips on Folsom Lake.
The drought has resulted in low water levels, but slip renters got more time than some expected this season.
Marina operators said the water is approaching the 412-foot elevation level.
“When the lake gets to 412, we only have 6 feet under those docks and some of these boats draw 5 feet of 6 feet of water,” said Julie Christensen, assistant marina manager. “We like to get them all out at the same time and leave a bit of cushion.”
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Boat slips at the marina at Brown’s Ravine were scheduled to be emptied by June 27.
However, marina operators said the end date for boat slips has now been extended until Sunday night.
Operators thought they might not see an extension through May earlier this year.
“It’s turned out to be a good season,” Julie Christenson, assistant marina manager, told KCRA last week.
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Mountain lions, perhaps California’s most efficient and stealthy four-legged predators, have long been rumored to move quietly through Sacramento’s open spaces. Sightings pop up regularly, particularly along the American River Parkway, but are often unreliable.
Now there can be no doubt.
On Saturday, a young male mountain lion was tranquilized and captured in a residential backyard in the capital city’s Oak Park neighborhood, one of the least likely places one would expect to encounter a cougar. Oak Park is busy, densely developed and gridded by major freeways and boulevards.
Yet there it was: a 70-pound superpredator resting in the landscaped backyard at 32nd and X streets. Walk two blocks east and stroll through the front door at Sacramento Charter High School. Or go two blocks south to the Bonfare Market on Broadway to fill up your gas tank and buy a frozen burrito.
“The urban blights of drug dealing and prostitution are kind of a daily thing around here. Or at least within a few blocks, you can see it all going on,” said David Sketchley, who lives next door to the home where the mountain lion was captured. “But this is a first.”
This cougar’s visit was a tale of remarkable sightings that occurred at various hours on Saturday. It began, so far as anyone knows, at 1:35 a.m. Saturday near 58th and M streets, when the first call came into the Sacramento Police Department: A mountain lion was roaming the streets of east Sacramento. That location is a full three miles from Sketchley’s neighborhood, but less than a half-mile from the American River and the Sacramento State campus. Police officers checked the area but were unable to locate anything.
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Boat slips at Brown’s Ravine marina will be closing June 27 because of the lowering lake level.
There are more than 600 slips at Brown’s Ravine on Folsom Lake, and more than half still have boats in them.
Marina managers told KCRA 3 there is currently only about 12 feet of water under the boats. In about a week, some of the boats could be touching the ground.
“It was frustrating,” said Thom Scalzi, who after waiting eight years to get a slip at Brown’s Marina finally got one this year. “When my pass came up for the slip, they said you might have to pull out in two weeks. That was in April. But the water came up.”
The hundreds of people who rent boat slips at Brown’s marina aren’t the only boaters being affected by the lower lake level this year.
“Last year I came out 17 times,” said C.J. Lauria, a boater who lives near Folsom Lake. “This is my fourth time this year and perhaps my last. Last year we bought a season pass and this year we chose not to. It didn’t make a lot of sense. The levels were just too low.”
While the boats at Brown’s marina will have to be pulled from the rental slips at the docs by June 27, the ramps will be open a little longer.
And despite the short boating season, some said it was longer than expected.
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The search for a hiker who went missing in a remote area of El Dorado County last week is expanding.
Vernon “Cody” Mathews, 23, was last heard from on June 6 just before he went on a hike. According to a statement from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department, Mathews started out on Spring Valley Road, east of Pollock Pines.
The next day, Mathews’ family called authorities concerned for his safety.
Search and rescue crews from a variety of different agencies have been helping in the effort to find Mathews, including personnel from El Dorado, Solano Placer and Contra Costa Counties.
Since the search effort began, no new information about where Mathews could be has been discovered.
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The calendar says it’s still spring, but Sacramento’s summer furnace flipped on this week.
Monday’s high temperature of 106 in downtown Sacramento broke the previous record of 103 degrees for June 9, which was set in 1883. Sunday’s 104-degree heat was followed by a stifling night in which the region’s famed Delta breeze failed to arrive, leaving the nighttime low at a relatively high 69 degrees.
The heat is expected to ease starting today. “Certainly this is the hottest period we’ve had this year, but we are going to be trending downwards,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Kurth. “We’re going to be closer to that normal level by Thursday, and then by the weekend we’ll be back above normal.”
People who were not ensconced in offices and classrooms Monday were looking to cool off. The American River, Sacramento’s aquatic playground, was as usual a favored spot. They found a river with a surprising amount of cool water despite the lack of rain and skimpy snowpack.
That’s because the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is letting water flow out of Folsom Dam this month about twice as fast as it is flowing in from the American River watershed upstream. The agency isn’t doing this to benefit swimmers or boaters, or the communities that depend on the river for their water supply. The higher flows are designed to satisfy state rules about how salty the water can be downstream in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The water level in Folsom Lake is dropping about four inches a day as a result. Reclamation spokeswoman Janet Sierzputowski said she expects the higher water releases to continue until the end of June. About that same time, the water in Folsom Lake will become too shallow to launch boats, a month earlier than it did last year.
So enjoy it while you can, Sacramento.
‘Turn that sun down’
A sparse crowd spread along the American River at Discovery Park Monday around noon. Some people were taking advantage of a day off. Nicole Corona of Sacramento brought her whole family, including her father’s Chihuahua, Harley. “We don’t have a pool, so this was our last attempt to escape the heat,” she said.
Her father, Fred Williams, and Harley were looking to cool off after driving from their home in Arizona to visit the family. “After driving 1,000 miles, I want to see some water,” Williams said.
Even with the extra releases from Folsom Dam, Evan Caldwell, 17, complained that the low water level was making it harder for him to catch fish. “I honestly haven’t seen a single striper,” said Caldwell, who arrived in the early morning. “You usually see large schools of them around here.”
Still, Caldwell, who just graduated from Sacramento’s School of Engineering & Sciences, plans to return three to four times a week. “It’s nice that there’s a beach,” Caldwell said. “It makes it a great place to swim and fish.”
Discovery Park is also a destination for families with antsy children now that school’s out. Joseph Bettencourt of West Sacramento brought his two children Monday for the first time. “They don’t want to leave now,” he said.
Bettencourt likes that the water at Discovery Park is shallow and open. Boat riders also seem to have respect for swimmers, he said.
Some people just came to sit. Steve Larsen, who works downtown, eats his lunch in the shade three to four times a week.
“I like the scenery,” he said Monday. “I like the quiet and the fresh air. It’s a great place to get away from work.”
Across the American River in West Sacramento, Al Goodman had a request. “Do me favor,” said Goodman, who was docked on his friend’s boat at the Broderick launching ramp. “Reach up and turn that sun down.”
Secluded beach
Pushed to the water by the heat, persistent families wound their way to Paradise Beach on the American River through a maze of sandy pathways and shrubbery.
The beach is about a 10-minute walk from Glenn Hall Park in the River Park neighborhood, but the winding sand pathways obscure it from people who don’t know it’s there.
Kandice Davis, who moved to Sacramento in January, had never been to Paradise Beach but read about it on a website and decided to bring her niece and nephew-in-law, who were visiting from Georgia. “The site didn’t mention how far the walk was, we were like ‘Oh God, it doesn’t exist,’ ” Davis said. “We’re still afraid we’re never going to find the car again.”
On Monday afternoon, the group had the secluded beach almost to themselves. Canada geese were the sole inhabitants when they arrived, and only one other family came to share the gravelly strip along the water.
Jesse Beltran, 45, of Elk Grove took his family to spend the afternoon cooling off. “It’s a traditional spot, back from high school and my childhood days,” Beltran said.
His daughter, Kira, 13, said the chance to swim in the river was worth the trek across the sandy hills.
“I thought we were there after the first hill, and then the second one,” Kira said. She and her siblings complained about the walk as they carried chairs and towels to the water, but Kira said she hopes to come back often now that it is summer break.
A 30-year-old man drowned in Folsom Lake on Friday.
Park personnel responded to a man struggling in the water near Beals Point this afternoon, the ranger said.
Lifeguards entered the water and searched for him for about 50 minutes.
Officials found the man under water about 4 p.m., brought him to shore and pronounced him dead.
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A 28-year-old Elk Grove man has been identified as the victim of a drowning in the American River near Discovery Park Friday night.
The Sacramento County coroner’s website lists the death of Ernest Perez Surita as an accident.
Sacramento police logs indicate officers were called to the area near the park Friday just before 7 p.m. and that the Sacramento Fire Department also responded and found the victim underwater.
He was taken to an area hospital and pronounced dead, police said. No foul play was suspected.
We hear it every year about this time: be careful around local waterways. This year firefighters are urging extra caution. That’s because low river levels present new challenges for firefighters when it comes to rescues.
Narrow choke points along the American River are good examples of how maneuverability becomes limited as river levels drop, and firefighters say the problem will only get worse as the summer continues.
The water may look calm now, but just a few weeks ago parts of the American River were half as deep. The drought continues to shift water levels. That can also mean shifting debris – known as strainers – that threaten to snag rafters. Firefighters use boats to get to people in danger, but when river depths can drop to six inches or less, there are some places that fire boats can’t reach, so they’ll have to use different access points that can slow a rescue attempt. That’s why firefighters warn rivergoers against thinking that shallow water is safer water this summer.
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