There probably aren’t many people who spend more time on the Lower American River than Karl Bly, or who know it as well as he does.
Karl runs American River Lost & Found, a Facebook page where he reunites people with things they’ve lost while swimming and boating the river. He has been diving for and returning valuables all his life. But the social media aspect began in 2017, when friends contacted him on Facebook about a lost kayak. He was able to find it within a half hour, and then posted about it on his own page.
“The moment I started, it just kinda took off,” said Karl, 57. “It’s just a unique niche I was able to fill.”
Seven years and thousands of items later, he now has 26,000 followers and a well-deserved reputation as the go-to guy for lost items on the Lower American River.
Bly has recovered all manner of boating gear, from innertubes to whole kayaks, as well as personal items such as hats, jewelry and “thousands” of sunglasses. He has reconnected hundreds of cell phone owners with their lost devices, often still in working condition. He and his dive buddy Matt Spruitenburg have even reunited three lost prosthetic legs with their people.
It’s a completely volunteer effort that also helps eliminate trash and prevent pollution on the scenic corridor.
His top advice for the river traveler?
“If it’s really valuable to you, don’t bring it on the river. And if you have to bring it on the river, make sure it floats.”
Karl grew up near the river in Carmichael, and he’s lived just a short walk from it all his life. He is an avid kayaker and snorkeler who spends time on or in the river nearly every day, which is why he has become so skilled at finding lost objects.
As someone who spends so much time in and around the river, Karl has observed the effects of changes in the riverbed. The Water Forum has overseen a number of projects to add gravel to the bed of the Lower American River to enhance spawning habitat for salmon and steelhead. This is necessary because upstream dams block the natural movement of gravel downstream.
Karl sees this effect in action: On his snorkeling expeditions, he has noticed the riverbed digs itself deeper and deeper because, below Nimbus Dam, water moves gravel downstream but no new gravel arrives naturally from upstream to fill the void.
“Ultimately, adding more gravel into the riverbed does help,” he said.
He credits his father for connecting him with the river from a young age. Bly’s four siblings still live nearby, and one of their traditions is to float the river together every Thanksgiving.
“I was five years old when I first started paying attention to the river,” said Karl, who works in property management. “If you spend a lot of time on this river, you just grow to love it.”
He is grateful for the foresight that local leaders showed in banning development along the Lower American River. In 1981 they also succeeded in getting it designated as a federal Wild & Scenic River from Nimbus Dam to the confluence with the Sacramento River.
In his younger days, Karl worked as a rafting guide on the South Fork of the American River and has enjoyed whitewater kayaking there as well as in Oregon and Idaho. But his home river always exerted a strong pull.
“I’ve watched this river morph and change. I’ve seen it all,” he said. “It has remained a quality floating experience all that time. It’s a beautiful parkway that you can just drift through and really enjoy.”
Learn more about the incredible lost items recovered and how you can reconnect with your own by visiting American River Lost & Found on Facebook at facebook.com/ARKayaker.