2012 Boating: South Platte River: Bailey
5/30/2012
325cfs
I ran Bailey with Ian. This is the level where you really notice the extra 50 cfs missing, but it was still a good time. We had a beautiful evening and nobody else was out. I recalculated my line at Supermax after hitting the first hole pretty solidly. I could have still made the race line, but instead I decided to just catch the left eddy to reset and ferry out from there. It worked fine and was probably a good play change, but I should have been able to hit my plan on a drop I know so well. I think I'd been running it a little bit higher so the difference in level caught me off guard. Mainly I didn't keep my nose up enough on the first drop and let the river dictate the line too much.
Ian had a great line in the hourglass, but then screwed up the bottom part and swam out of the foam pile in the bottom pool. Standard Ian swim: he collected his gear in the eddy, drained his boat, and we were back on our way.
I caught the river left eddy after the first slide in Deer Creek. I then ferried over back to the river right eddy and ran the corner of the boof flake. It was a good move to work on.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
2012 Boating: Vallecito Creek and Animas Playpark
2012 Boating: Vallecito Creek and Animas Playpark
5/27/2012
1.9 ft
5/27/2012
1.9 ft
Friday, May 25, 2012
2012 Boating: Clear Creek: Black Rock
Clear Creek: Black Rock
5/25/2012
275 cfs
I ran Black Rock with Steve. There were a couple other groups out there including Crazy John, Cambell, Dave M., and another guy. It was low, but sadly the highest of the year. Steve was feeling pretty conservative (for good reason I suppose) and walked the upper part of Black Rock, the Narrows, and Rigo. He had a good time doing something other than the play park though and I had fun as well. The bottom Black Rock really wants to dump you into that undercut and there's not a lot of water to paddle through the hole, but fortunately it's slow enough that you can claw your way away from the undercut even if you get shot over there. I did a couple laps on Rigo. It was in the upper 60s or so but there was a cool wind in the canyon and it was fairly chilly.
5/25/2012
275 cfs
I ran Black Rock with Steve. There were a couple other groups out there including Crazy John, Cambell, Dave M., and another guy. It was low, but sadly the highest of the year. Steve was feeling pretty conservative (for good reason I suppose) and walked the upper part of Black Rock, the Narrows, and Rigo. He had a good time doing something other than the play park though and I had fun as well. The bottom Black Rock really wants to dump you into that undercut and there's not a lot of water to paddle through the hole, but fortunately it's slow enough that you can claw your way away from the undercut even if you get shot over there. I did a couple laps on Rigo. It was in the upper 60s or so but there was a cool wind in the canyon and it was fairly chilly.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
2012 Boating: Clear Creek: Golden
Clear Creek: Golden
5/22/2012
250 cfs
With a thread of motivation I left around 7:20p to go to Golden, figuring I'd boat into the dark and miss the absurd after work crowds. When I got there I saw Susan going up for another lap. The Grandstand hole was actually pretty fun with easy spins clockwise and a challenge to throw ends without hitting rocks and spinning counterclockwise. Pop was possible, but enough for me to loop with my poor form. Susan hung out there late and was tearing it up. 2-3 other people took off earlier. The water was fairly warm and I had a good time playing around until dark. I smacked my head pretty firmly on the rock that forms the drop on one of my many surfs - have to be careful still.
5/22/2012
250 cfs
With a thread of motivation I left around 7:20p to go to Golden, figuring I'd boat into the dark and miss the absurd after work crowds. When I got there I saw Susan going up for another lap. The Grandstand hole was actually pretty fun with easy spins clockwise and a challenge to throw ends without hitting rocks and spinning counterclockwise. Pop was possible, but enough for me to loop with my poor form. Susan hung out there late and was tearing it up. 2-3 other people took off earlier. The water was fairly warm and I had a good time playing around until dark. I smacked my head pretty firmly on the rock that forms the drop on one of my many surfs - have to be careful still.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
2012 Boating: Cache La Poudre: Narrows
Cache La Poudre: Narrows
5/20/2012
2.5 feet
I ran the Narrows of the Cache La Poudre with a large group: Ian F., Roy, Lucas, Scott A., Pete B., and Sammer. We saw Jeremy S. and a guy named Paul we had just finished a first lap and did their second with us. I walked the Upper Narrows the first round, but Ian, Jeremy, and Paul ran it. Paul swam out of White Line after getting flipped at the crux. The Middle and Lower were great and the Lower seemed to be an ideal level - fun and pushy but low stress. We did a couple laps on the Lower and then drove back up for another full lap. Ian, Lucas and myself ran the Upper on the second lap. We all did well at Supercollider, but I swam at White Line. I thought I was on line, pushed back toward the center at the crux, but got flipped and stuffed upside down into the recirculating pocket on the river right. I tried several times to roll, but each time I came up I got immediately dumped back under water before I could do anything else. After doing a few rounds like this (Roy counted my boat circled the pocket 5 times), I swam, unfortunately. I grabbed onto my boat that was floating around in the pocket with me and used it to catch my breath. Eventually the boat circled upstream and myself downstream, so I pushed hard off the boat, freed myself from the pocket and dropped into the next hole. I resurface and swam for the river left eddy. Sammer threw a rope at me, so I stopped swimming and grabbed the rope. I think I was going to make the eddy swimming, but was happy to get the rope and get pulled in. My boat and paddle were recovered shortly. The boat stopped a bit downstream on river left and the paddle pinned, sticking above the water on the right, which Lucas was able to kick free and then grab down below. The rest of second lap was much less eventful. All and all it was good day, though I failed to make it through this season without a swim.
5/20/2012
2.5 feet
I ran the Narrows of the Cache La Poudre with a large group: Ian F., Roy, Lucas, Scott A., Pete B., and Sammer. We saw Jeremy S. and a guy named Paul we had just finished a first lap and did their second with us. I walked the Upper Narrows the first round, but Ian, Jeremy, and Paul ran it. Paul swam out of White Line after getting flipped at the crux. The Middle and Lower were great and the Lower seemed to be an ideal level - fun and pushy but low stress. We did a couple laps on the Lower and then drove back up for another full lap. Ian, Lucas and myself ran the Upper on the second lap. We all did well at Supercollider, but I swam at White Line. I thought I was on line, pushed back toward the center at the crux, but got flipped and stuffed upside down into the recirculating pocket on the river right. I tried several times to roll, but each time I came up I got immediately dumped back under water before I could do anything else. After doing a few rounds like this (Roy counted my boat circled the pocket 5 times), I swam, unfortunately. I grabbed onto my boat that was floating around in the pocket with me and used it to catch my breath. Eventually the boat circled upstream and myself downstream, so I pushed hard off the boat, freed myself from the pocket and dropped into the next hole. I resurface and swam for the river left eddy. Sammer threw a rope at me, so I stopped swimming and grabbed the rope. I think I was going to make the eddy swimming, but was happy to get the rope and get pulled in. My boat and paddle were recovered shortly. The boat stopped a bit downstream on river left and the paddle pinned, sticking above the water on the right, which Lucas was able to kick free and then grab down below. The rest of second lap was much less eventful. All and all it was good day, though I failed to make it through this season without a swim.
2012 Boating: South Boulder Creek: USB
South Boulder Creek: USB
5/19/2012
270 cfs
I ran Upper South Boulder creek with Forrest, Sean L., and Andy B. It was my first time down and it was cold (37) and snowy at the put-in. I put on tons of clothes and my thick gloves to mask my fear and went for it. These guys did a great job of showing me down for my first run. Sean would get out to scout the lines with me, while Forrest and Andy routed through once they got thumbs up on no wood, and then I followed Sean through the drops.
None of the drops by themselves were abnormally enormous, but they were stacked. Trainspotting was the entrance rapid, which definitely seemed to have a name only because it was the first rapid (and apparently has a lot of debris in the the riverbed).
After finding the eddy on river right, we all walked the Gash (which has a ton of water pouring under a flat rock with a non-trivial entrance). Forrest looked somewhat disappointed that nobody was stopping to consider running it, while I was merely relieved not to watch anybody run it.
Next we came to Lumberyard, which really wasn't too bad (I kept looking for an unforeseen hazard to see why it scored its own name). It had a strange turn at the end which was required to stay off the right wall, but the consequence of getting flipped on the wall didn't look too bad either. I gather it has a bad rep for catching wood.
After going over a 5 foot ledge hole, adjacent to a giant boulder on river right, we eddied out to scout S-turn. S-turn was one of the larger rapids and the mandatory portage around BZ falls that came immediately after it added significantly to intimidation factor. Two weeks ago Sean had been pinned and swam on a rock in S-turn. Forrest ran first, got shoved against a cliff wall toward the bottom and flipped. At least at this flow, the flow right after sliding past the pin rock was pushing hard into the river right undercut. Forrest ran catcher for the rest of us in the river right eddy below S-turn.
BZ Falls was the most difficult portage, but not terrible. Below BZ falls came a long section of class V whitewater that we ran without a scout. I was given a description of what was coming up, but it was so stacked that following the head in front of you was the best move. I believe this section is known collectively as Grand Piton National Park. Part of Forrest's description in the upper half of the run was move right and run through several holes that start in a slot on river right. The left side goes, but you'll go underneath some boulders - it goes though. Sean looked at me, shook his head, and said, "don't go left".
Things settled down a bit after that until RIMBY. Some wood in the entrance combined with a horrendous cave underneath a massive boulder in the entrance of drop required us to wheelchair the right bank around the log and then Andy pulled us up and over the river right rock for a seal launch on the right side past he cave boulder. Apparently the entrance used to run fairly frequently until Gordon went in at ultra low water and discovered there was a deep underwater cave that went back a good 30 feet under the entrance boulder.
We eddied out again immediately on river right to scout. RIMBY has the best boof on the run and probably the entire Front Range. It was around 10 feet high at our flow and had a nice upslope that allowed for some great separation. The boof was fairly clean and danger free, but the runnout was more difficult. We ran the center channel with slow entrance speed, punched 2 holes and then dodged mank for another quarter mile. We eddied out on river right to discover a massive (~2 foot long) dead trout along the shoreline. He didn't survive USB, we did. At this point the run basically turns class III until it ends in Gross Reservoir.
I didn't clean all the lines, but I did good enough. The second drop in Trainspotting spun me around counter-clockwise, but I think I'll be more prepared for it next time. I had a small pin in the runout of RIMBY after losing the group and taking a bad channel, but was able to push off and extract myself by lifting myself up and turning my boat slightly. After the RIMBY boof I almost blew into the next part of the drop without catching the river right eddy, but it was more because I was too busy celebrating the boof and not focusing enough on making the eddy.
USB was a great run, that was near the minimum flows, but still well worth the adventure and a bit of a stepping stone for me.
5/19/2012
270 cfs
I ran Upper South Boulder creek with Forrest, Sean L., and Andy B. It was my first time down and it was cold (37) and snowy at the put-in. I put on tons of clothes and my thick gloves to mask my fear and went for it. These guys did a great job of showing me down for my first run. Sean would get out to scout the lines with me, while Forrest and Andy routed through once they got thumbs up on no wood, and then I followed Sean through the drops.
None of the drops by themselves were abnormally enormous, but they were stacked. Trainspotting was the entrance rapid, which definitely seemed to have a name only because it was the first rapid (and apparently has a lot of debris in the the riverbed).
After finding the eddy on river right, we all walked the Gash (which has a ton of water pouring under a flat rock with a non-trivial entrance). Forrest looked somewhat disappointed that nobody was stopping to consider running it, while I was merely relieved not to watch anybody run it.
Next we came to Lumberyard, which really wasn't too bad (I kept looking for an unforeseen hazard to see why it scored its own name). It had a strange turn at the end which was required to stay off the right wall, but the consequence of getting flipped on the wall didn't look too bad either. I gather it has a bad rep for catching wood.
After going over a 5 foot ledge hole, adjacent to a giant boulder on river right, we eddied out to scout S-turn. S-turn was one of the larger rapids and the mandatory portage around BZ falls that came immediately after it added significantly to intimidation factor. Two weeks ago Sean had been pinned and swam on a rock in S-turn. Forrest ran first, got shoved against a cliff wall toward the bottom and flipped. At least at this flow, the flow right after sliding past the pin rock was pushing hard into the river right undercut. Forrest ran catcher for the rest of us in the river right eddy below S-turn.
BZ Falls was the most difficult portage, but not terrible. Below BZ falls came a long section of class V whitewater that we ran without a scout. I was given a description of what was coming up, but it was so stacked that following the head in front of you was the best move. I believe this section is known collectively as Grand Piton National Park. Part of Forrest's description in the upper half of the run was move right and run through several holes that start in a slot on river right. The left side goes, but you'll go underneath some boulders - it goes though. Sean looked at me, shook his head, and said, "don't go left".
Things settled down a bit after that until RIMBY. Some wood in the entrance combined with a horrendous cave underneath a massive boulder in the entrance of drop required us to wheelchair the right bank around the log and then Andy pulled us up and over the river right rock for a seal launch on the right side past he cave boulder. Apparently the entrance used to run fairly frequently until Gordon went in at ultra low water and discovered there was a deep underwater cave that went back a good 30 feet under the entrance boulder.
We eddied out again immediately on river right to scout. RIMBY has the best boof on the run and probably the entire Front Range. It was around 10 feet high at our flow and had a nice upslope that allowed for some great separation. The boof was fairly clean and danger free, but the runnout was more difficult. We ran the center channel with slow entrance speed, punched 2 holes and then dodged mank for another quarter mile. We eddied out on river right to discover a massive (~2 foot long) dead trout along the shoreline. He didn't survive USB, we did. At this point the run basically turns class III until it ends in Gross Reservoir.
I didn't clean all the lines, but I did good enough. The second drop in Trainspotting spun me around counter-clockwise, but I think I'll be more prepared for it next time. I had a small pin in the runout of RIMBY after losing the group and taking a bad channel, but was able to push off and extract myself by lifting myself up and turning my boat slightly. After the RIMBY boof I almost blew into the next part of the drop without catching the river right eddy, but it was more because I was too busy celebrating the boof and not focusing enough on making the eddy.
USB was a great run, that was near the minimum flows, but still well worth the adventure and a bit of a stepping stone for me.
Friday, May 18, 2012
2012 Boating: South Platte River: Bailey
South Platte River: Bailey
5/16/2012
360 cfs (350 from Tunnel)
I ran Bailey with the B Team: Goldcamp, Gavin, and Bridger. We had a slower run, but still kept a decent pace. I think we put on a little after 6. Bridger and I ran Supermax and the others walked. Everybody did fine on the run. I tried to catch the eddy after the slide on Deer Creek and blew it and went down the left side backwards. I can't seem to get that one - a new project. At the put-in we saw some CC guys - Will & Ben. One my way back from Bailey on the shuttle I got a message from him saying he'd left his drysuit hanging at the takeout. As much as I didn't want to, I took a detour and drove back down to look for it but it wasn't there. I think another kayaking groups grabbed it.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
2012 Boating: South Platte River: Bailey
South Platte River: Bailey
5/16/2012
360 cfs (350 from Tunnel)
I ran Bailey with Ian, Steve R., and Lucas. We put on at 6:40 and finished at 8:25. We all ran Supermax. We saw a crew at the takeout of Gavin, Dan O., Mike, Crazy John, Campbell. Fun was had by all.
5/16/2012
360 cfs (350 from Tunnel)
I ran Bailey with Ian, Steve R., and Lucas. We put on at 6:40 and finished at 8:25. We all ran Supermax. We saw a crew at the takeout of Gavin, Dan O., Mike, Crazy John, Campbell. Fun was had by all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)