CO Day Six

Wednesday, June 24

Another hot, sunny day on tap. I decided to take the morning off from yakking, and offered to give M&J rides to run numbers. But J thinks the level is too high for a fun and/or successful run. So they decided to run Fractions instead. I loaded up the dogs and gear for a hike and we set off around 9:30. We stopped to look at the take-out first, mostly so I could get it into Karen as a point of interest to get back to. There was a fully developed park (3 or 4 playholes in the river) and a bridge across the river to many hiking trails in the mountain. So I decided that I would just come back there to hike after dropping off M&J. We drove to the put-in. There was a guy with a kayak hanging about, looking to get in on a shuttle. Unfortunate for him that I was being the shuttle bunny, because that meant we wouldn’t be coming back to the put-in. But as it turns out, he had a dirt bike with him. So he asked if I’d take the dirt bike back in the truck with me and then he would just bike back for his car after the run. I agreed, and so it was that M&J had a paddling partner. I didn’t get his name, so we’ll call him X (Kurt was his name ed.Missy). I left the put-in around 10:45 and headed back to the take-out.

I loaded up my backpack with water for me and the dogs (have a collapsible water dish) hooked up the double dog leash to the belt and took off around 11. It was mostly sunny, and it must have been at if not over 80. So hot! We hiked up the mountain on a dirt bike trail. It was so narrow and windy, I was kinda worried that someone would come careening down the hill and hit us before we could move. But luckily we saw no bikers. The dogs were clearly not used to hiking in the mountains in the heat. We went for about 20 minutes and then took a water break. They could not wait for me to get their bowl out and filled with water. A couple of families passed us, and all had a comment about how cute the pooches were. I went up for another 10 minutes, before heading back down. I wasn’t too sure how long the run would take, so I thought I’d assume for an hour. At one point the dogs were about 50 yards ahead of me, so I stopped to climb up a huge set of boulders. The dogs couldn’t see me, so I guess they assumed I somehow got ahead of them down the path? They sprinted ahead to another group and then looked mighty concerned when it wasn’t me. So then I whistled and they whipped around. Their concern was not to such a degree that they were willing to climb up to where I was. (Side note: Buddy is doing awesome off-leash at camp. There’s an RV right next to us that has a German Sheppard and a Black Lab. He didn’t even growl or initiate a fight at the first meeting, and now he’s totally fine with those 2 dogs wandering around our camp. On leash…he’s still a Cujo, but at least his making noted improvements).

We made our way back to the put-in. Both dogs raced down the boat ramp and into the water. It was so hot, they spent a few minutes in the cold water. I went down to the edge, planning on sitting on a rock with my feet in the water. I couldn’t even last 1 minute in that cold water. After they cooled off, we walked up river on a path that was built for fisherman. We sat in some shade and waited for M&J. All of a sudden, Cassie perked up and made a hunter’s motion to cross the river. Buddy was ready and willing to follow her. It turns out there was a prairie dog colony right across the river, and the dogs could clearly see the critters running about. I barely got Cassie into a sit-stay so I could get her leashed. That stupid dog would have certainly tried to cross the river and been swept downstream. The critters tortured the dogs for the entire 30 minutes that we were waiting for M&J. Or, maybe it was just good Dog TV?

M&J&X pulled into the take-out at around 12:30. M said the first bit was really hard: lots of hard paddling to punch through holes. She said it wasn’t very fun and more like work. She was relieved that the holey section let up and it was normal Colorado rapids after that. Anything else about the run, you’d have to ask M or J.

Went back to camp for lunch and naps. In the afternoon, J&I got ready to run the river from our campsite down to the Rincon takeout. I am giving up on the Jackson boats. I just can’t seem to get the outfitting right, and never felt “right” paddling either. So I got out my trusty Juice. It was strange paddling it again at first. I was certainly used to the boat, but not in the fast moving water. I was tense and nervous. We got to the big eddy, and after practicing a few rolls, I felt up to snuff. We headed back out and had fun on the run. Plenty of waves (although not as big and as constant as Browns). J was surprised at how much fun it was at this level (2650 cfs),. When he ran it on his last trip, I think he said the level was around 1100, and so the run was just boring moving water. I tried using J’s modified low brace and I can see how it could be useful in the big water. It feels very stabilizing. But, like with the learning the sliding draw, there is a learning curve. I was trying the brace out through a big wave and the fast water caught the blade and wrestled it from my control. Over I went. But I rolled quickly and now have a little more experience chalked up.

M met us at the takeout and we headed back to camp for dinner. We had just started to eat when J got a call. He didn’t recognize the number…it was some guy who said he had J’s paddle!!! J said there must have been some mistake, he wasn’t missing a paddle. But, that was not the case. We ran out to the truck, and sure enough, his paddle AND my paddle were gone! Crap! J asked the guy if he’d seen my paddle on the road, and the guy said he saw some other car stop and get it. So J got the guys’s address and had to drive out to Buena Vista. I got out my cell phone and turned it on, hoping I’d get a call about my paddle. We waited about 45 minutes, and then my phone rang! It was Lamar, calling to tell me he had my paddle. I got his address (in Howard), thanked him profusely, and said we’d be able to get it in an hour or so after J got back from Buena Vista. I called J, and he graciously offered to go get my paddle. So after a couple of hours of driving, J was back with both our paddles by 9:30. Lesson learned? You’d hope so, but sadly these sort of CFs and boondoggles seem to be our lot in life. At least this one had a happy ending!

-Tina

CO Day Five

Tuesday June 23rd

Woke early again. 6ish. Took dogs on a long walk along the river. Got geared up and ready to go run the Royal Gorge, fastest exit ever. Left camp at 8:15. Returned to camp at 8:30 so I could get the gloves I had forgotten in my playboat. Oops. Long and beautiful drive through the mountains to get to the put-in. Setting shuttle took about 40 minutes: J said he was stuck behind a guy going 45 all the way back. Poor guy. Not much activity on the river, only a few rafts and 2 kayakers. The run started off with a bang, fast moving jostling waves that led into a canyon wall going around a bend. J went first, gave the go-ahead. I went next, and had a blast, but missed J’s eddy and went down to the next one. He followed me and I felt bad for missing his. Then the next thing we saw was T swimming in the rapids. It turned out to be a long, nasty swim. There were no good breaks in the rapids, and no easy eddies. I tried to help T and also to corral her boat, and I failed at both. J eventually got T to the side and also got her boat. I didn’t have my cowtail and so I had no way of towing her boat in.

After resting a bit, and scouting up ahead a ways (at what we thought was Sunshine, but wasn’t), T decided to walk on the train tracks back to the put-in. J and I headed on downriver. First, I got the camera from T, and J carried it in his vest. This factoid is important for later events. The gorge was so fast and furious! I had plenty of opportunities to work on my bracing and paddling away from holes. Thankfully J was always ahead of me finding the holes so I had time to avoid them. The waves were much bigger than in Brown’s Canyon, and a lot pushier, coming from all directions. We walked both Sunshine and Sledgehammer rapids because it was just the 2 of us and we were definitely in a “better-safe-than-sorry” mood. The holes looked huge in both rapids. If we decide to do the gorge again, we’ll probably run both. I bet will end up flipping, but hopefully will be able to roll. J took my picture pointing at the Clark’s hole, the one Heather got stuck in at the end of Sledgehammer. Sounded like good times!

The section where the gorge narrows, under the cool mile-up-in-the-air suspension bridge was super intense. I flipped twice, but was able to roll both times. But I had a blast doing it, and right after the section finished I wanted to do it all over again! We pulled out right before wall slammer, and luckily there was enough water to skirt the danger on the right. The rest of the run was just super fun high waves until we left the gorge. Then it was about ½ hour of just fast moving water. The last drop was a dam that had a slot made for kayaks and rafts. The sign on the river said “Slot 23 feet out”. J went first, and he hugged the sign not even 5 feet out. It really freaked me out. Turns out the sign means that the slot extends 23 feet out, not that you had to figure out exactly where 23 feet was from the river’s edge. Anyone could have interpreted it the way I did.

We finished the run, hucked our boats to the truck and J discovered that the keys were no longer in his vest! It turns out that he hadn’t secured them better when he accepted the camera job. The constant getting out and putting away of the camera meant the keys were susceptible to being lost. Major bummer! We had all the various bike lock keys on that ring, too. The scooter bike lock key was the only copy we have. J used my river knife to break into the back slider panel of the truck, breaking off 2 giant pieces in the process. I only have a tiny nub of a knife left. I was able to crawl in and get the spare key that we had in the console. Whew! However, the spare key for the lock on J’s dirt bike was back at camp. So after stopping to get T, we headed back to camp. J and I had a quick dinner, and then he went back up to get his bike.

After he got back, he gathered up all of our dirty laundry for a trip to the laundromat. Thanks J! T and I read in the camper. It was thunderstorming at this point, and really sounded cool. Kept the temps low, too, in the lower 70s. Numbers tomorrow!

--Missy

Colorado Trip Day Four

Monday June 22

Woke up early again, 6ish. It’s nice to have time to slowly get ready. Still loving being able to make coffee in the morning. 48 degrees when I woke up. Got geared up and went to run Brown’s canyon again. Totally sunny and hot day today. We dropped the bike off at the takeout and then decided to try the “cheater” dropoff that our hitchhiker showed us the day before. This was a put-in by a creek that ran through a culvert and eventually into the Arkansas. Saved $6 on parking (yay!). The creek was very fast with lots of bends and big rocks. Kind of reminded me of MN creeking, without the snow and steep gradient. It was a fun ten minute ride. This cheater route starts about 2 miles further down from the park entry, and it starts you right in the meat of things.

The run was the same as yesterday, fast and lots of high rollers. We decided to run the zoom flume more than once, to try and get some video. So we just bombed it without scouting, and J made it fine, I did not, and then T followed behind me upright and not having to roll. I skirted the very right of the massive hole, and got tipped over by a wave, rolled up and immediately got knocked down the other way into the big hole. Unfortunately, this left me with no breath to deal with the sticky hole. It didn’t let me go, and I couldn’t set up for a roll, so I had to swim. Sigh. I was able to get myself and paddle over to the side, and Jeremiah chased down my boat. Those really travel fast and far. After walking our boats back up halfway (on the railroad tracks), I decided I was too tired to try and run the rapid again, and T didn’t want to jinx her clean run, so we decided to just continue on.

After running (and LOVING) the super high rollers by where J helped rescue the raft yesterday we came across a lone floating boat in a rare eddy that could hold a boat (due to the high canyon wall). We then saw the 2 boaters on the opposite side yelling for help. J made the eddy, T and I floated around the wall to the next eddy. We couldn’t see what was going on, but it took a while. The guy’s throw rope wasn’t long enough to help, and J couldn’t use his cowtail because the boat didn’t have a front grab loop and the back one was too close to the cockpit to be safe for J to tow it. Finally, a raft was able to make the eddy, grab the boat, and float it over to the other side. J was wiped out after this.

Finished the run (too short!), and J left on the dirt bike to get the truck. While still in our gear, we noticed a kayak floating upside down in the middle of the river. It was the same boat as before! T started to wade out into the river to see if she could grab it, but the water is too high and too fast. Right after the boat launch is a bunch of fast ripple water, with no eddies on either side. She ran along side the shore anyway, in case it got caught up in the trees. One snaky raft guide asked me why I didn’t swim after it, since I had my vest and helmet still on. I couldn’t believe it. Even if I had somehow miraculously been able to time my swim to catch the boat, that still would have left me holding onto a submerged boat through boulder-strewn whitewater, going around a bend that I had never seen before. What a jerk. Eventfully, the partner of the swimmer paddled on down to catch the boat. The swimmer/walker finally caught up and after a long time they both walked back up with their boats.

The non-swimmer asked for a ride back up to the road so he could hitch a ride to the put-in. There were hardly any cars today. (Which made running the river really nice, hardly any rafts). On the long, windy trip up, the guy told us how the other guy, Jesus, had a tough day. Swam four times! Oof. Hard for just one other kayaker to rescue gear. I guess Jesus doesn’t have a combat roll, and was really pushed around in the little playboat of his. “Jesus needs a creek boat.”

Got back to the campsite at 2 for lunch. It was HOT. 90 degrees outside, 82 inside. Poor doggies. We started the generator and got the AC going. What a relief that was! We all rested for a while before heading to the Salida play hole around 4. J hopped right on in his wavesport and went down to the wave under the bridge. I considered messing around in the hole, but I wasn’t feeling very good. I went upstream with T to work on rolling a bit, but in the end we both just weren’t feeling it and decided to take out. J was done a little while later, tired from all of his rescue work earlier. I think I may not be drinking enough water and am dehydrated. I get headaches and dizzy in the afternoons. I’m going to try to remember to drink more water tomorrow.

Picked up 2 movies at the redbox, and had an early night. Royal Gorge tomorrow!

-Missy

Colorado Trip- Day Three

Sunday, June 21st.

I’m going to stop trying to write blog entries in the third person. It’s taking me too long to go back and correct what I’ve written. So from now on, whoever writes the entry will use the first person and then sign the entry. So there.

Woke up very early this morning and watched the sun rise and spread over the mountain tops. We packed up our gear and our lunch and headed out to run Brown’s canyon. We left camp at 9. Already it was sunny and heading into the 70s. Level at 2500. When J ran it last time, it was 1100. J got pulled over for speeding about a mile from the put-it. The cop was a cute redhead, and I think J gave him the secret redhead signal or something, because all he got was a warning. (That, and the cop educated us on the fact that the lifts on the truck make the speedometer off by about 7 mph. J just said “really, I didn’t know that”, even though we already knew our speedometer was correct because of Karen - the GPS). Then some guy pulled over and yelled to the cute cop that there was an accident ahead- some guy on a motorcycle had hit a deer. So the cute redheaded cop had to go. We passed the accident. It was gross. There were twin fawns on the road about 10 yards from the mother. Missy thought they were unborn. I didn’t see any trauma on the stomach of the mother, but I suppose the wound could have been on the side that was on the road. J thinks the driver ended up being ok, because he saw him moving his fingers when he drove back by the scene when setting shuttle.

The river…was AWESOME!!!! I hate to be prosaic, but it’s hard to describe how much fun it was. We put on at 11 and started off with various pockets of boogie water interspersed with flat-but very fast-moving water. Every now and again you’d find a great huge wave. Sometimes, you’d sight in on a great wave down river and by the time you got there, it went flat. That was disappointing! When we got to the narrower canyon-y spots, there were more and more long stretches of huge rolling waves. This is why I wanted to come to Colorado! I love the rollercoaster waves! The level was so high (according to J) that a lot of the boulders he had to dodge on his last trip were underwater. So it was all just super fast and super fun. I was behind J at one point when he completely disappeared into the trough of the wave. I actually thought he had rolled, so I avoided his line.

We met up with some Cats at one point. It was in a narrowing section with holes and gigantic swirling (aerated) whirlpools. J said we should hang back to let them go (as they get caught in holes), but he didn’t leave NEARLY enough space. Poor planning by J, as I’m sure he’d admit if you asked him. J&M got past both cats, but I didn’t have time. It was unpleasant. I didn’t have any experience paddling in the whirlpools, and I couldn’t steer at all. I kept getting pushed into the cat, and got hit on the head with his paddle a couple of times. Then we got knocked together in a constricting spot and my paddle got stuck under his raft. That sucked. Luckily I pulled free before hitting the wave trains and was able to paddle ahead. Stupid cats. (the rafts…not the animals. Hi Max and Bailey- miss you! Wish you were here!)

Around the middle of the run we came to Zoom Flume…a powerful Class IV run through a short canyon. We pulled out and walked down for a look at the whole thing. There was one massive hole in the middle, but it looked like you could steer right to avoid it. While we were scouting, a bunch a rafts came through. Only one got trashed in the hole. It’s occupants were tossed from the raft easily, all but one small child who had been sitting in the middle of the raft holding on (not paddling). He got bounced around a few times in the hole before the river finally let the raft go. As we were walking back to put on, we got to see a couple of kayaks go. They took the lines we saw and made it fine. One guy got knocked over in the swirly currents after the hole, but he rolled up and was able to punch through the rest of the waves. So we put on- J went first and skirted the hole but got knocked about by the water. The cross currents from the water shooting off and back each side of the canyon were crazy. He said he didn’t flip, but the currents did throw him into a stern squirt. Not a common move for the mega-rocker, I imagine. M went second, missed the giant hole, but got knocked over by a cross-wave coming out of a giant wave-trough. Those waves were huge! Missed 2 roll attempts due to backband coming loose, but eventually made it up (whew!). I came last (and a little scared…M took FOREVER to get in her boat, allowing my nervousness to ramp up exponentially. It went so fast!!! I had planned my line to run the middle at the top and then head to the right to avoid the hole when I saw the tent (there was a tent set up where a guy was taking pictures of the rafts). But I barely had time to concentrate on staying upright through the huge entry waves, and before I knew it I was at the hole. It was actually kind of shocking how fast it went. I tipped in the same spot as M. Rolled (class IV combat roll- hell yeah!) right away, and all eddied out to relive the excitement. So fun!

We then went through some more technical wave sections. The presence of the whirlpools and aerated water meant you had to keep full concentration and a ready brace. I like the worry-free waves much better! A little further down, in the middle of some giant rollers again, came across a raft that had dumped all its passengers and they were stranded behind a big rock 15’ from shore but blocked from an easy swim in due to a jet of fast current. J stopped to help, ferrying the rope back and forth and made sure that he was there in case they let go of the rope. Nobody in the rafts wear helmets or cold weather gear. Crazy! That is one thing that’s kind of crazy. We’re paddling in 80 degree weather with our drysuits and gloves on (well, no gloves for J). The water is THAT cold.

The run finished mildly, and after 2.5 hours of pure awesome we were done. J tricked me into thinking the takeout had the same set of stairs that the put-in had. Jerk. Had a nice picnic lunch, beautiful sunny weather and pretty scenery. We headed back to get the dirtbike, and stopped to give a hitchhiker a lift to the put-in. J asked if the high flows were natural, or contrived for FibArk (hoping it was the latter so that the rivers would come down to a less scary level), but we were told it’s all natural. The very warm weather is causing another bout of snowmelt, and the rivers are spiking as a result. We tried to get some advice on other runs that would be III-IV, but sadly our hitchhiker had only moved to CO last fall, and only recently tried kayaking. So he had no advice.

After loading the bike, we headed into Buena Vista to visit CKS again. T got the same booties that M bought, as they turned out to be really comfortable. Then we drove up to look at the numbers section. I’m sure it’s deceptive from our high roadside vantage point, but it didn’t seem all that scary. So we won’t scratch it from the list of possible runs for later in the week.

-Tina

Colorado Trip- Day Two

Saturday, June 20

Overcast, low to mid 60s. M&T took the dogs on a hike up the hill across the road. It’s a little scary looking for spots to take the dogs. The good people of Colorado are fanatics about marking their “private property” (to the point of having barb-wire fencing around rivers and streams). But I think this hill is ok. No men with shotguns yet. After that, we spent the morning organizing camp and gear. Then we went into town to watch “Call of the River”, a documentary by Ken Ford about kayaking. It was a benefit showing for FibArk. The movie was entertaining (fiberglass carnage!) and interesting. It was neat to see some of the old footage of the beginnings of our fair sport. After the movie we did the grocery shopping. The fridge is not working, which is annoying. The freezer is getting cool, so we can use that as a fridge. But it’s quite tiny. So we had to buy some ice and are using the cooler.

M&T ran the Ark- Salida run from the middle for about 3.5 miles. Put it at camp… nice! J thought it was too tame, so he didn't go. But we had fun! Huge waves and fast water. The fast water was hard to get used to at first. We’d spot wave trains up ahead on the other side, and in MN we’d have had plenty of time to get over. Here, we blew by before we had a chance. J thinks this is a good introduction for us for the stuff we’ll be running later. We’re both a little worried now about our abilities to avoid rocks and boulders. J picked us up from the side of the road and brought us back up to run it again. This time we went a little further down, but there was more flat water so I’m not sure it was worth it. The sun just came out as we were leaving the river.

Colorado Trip Day One

June 19th- Road trip.

We left the cities around 6:30 last night. The original plan was to get on the road closer to 8, but apparently J could wait no longer. Fun, fast moving water here we come!!! J did almost all of the driving, thank god. The original plan was that M&T would spell him in the middle of the night when the roads would be almost empty. This due to the fact that neither has yet tried to drive the truck with the fitty. But unfortunately we hit some pretty bad storms, and there was a lot of rain and lightening. M&T were both too scared to try driving the rig for the first time in such nasty conditions. Luckily, J had already come to the conclusion that he should also NOT let us try driving, as he apparently values his life. So M&T get to try and sleep in the fitty while J rocks out in the truck. It’s actually hard to get to sleep, due to the rocking and jolting. J later tells M&T that at one point the hydroplaned, and so that scary thought is sure to keep M&T from ever relaxing while driving.

J pulled over around 5 am to sleep. Got back up around 6:30 or so. The guy is a machine!!! M manages to lock the keys to the fitty at the rest stop. Sigh. Those readers who have been kayaking with us before will not be shocked to hear this. Despite all our careful planning and awareness of our “problem” with locks, we’re still managing to lock ourselves out. Luckily, T had not quite completely shut one of the windows during the rainstorm, so J slid it open and M crawled inside.

The drive in Colorado was beautiful! I wish we had mountains in MN. J might disagree, as our speed topped out at 25-30 during the many uphill jaunts. But slower just means more time to appreciate the scenery.

We stopped in Buena Vista at the Colorado Kayak Supply store. J got a new breakdown paddle (actually, T needed one, so J wanted her to buy a longer shaft and then trade with him for his shorter one). He also got the happy seat/leg lifter combo thing. M got a new dry top, creeking gloves and booties. T looked into possibly demoing the liquid logic river runner (C250?), but decided to wait and see how things go with the yaks she has. Ends up getting fleece-lined board shorts on sale and a paddle key chain.

Drove up to check out the elephant rock campsite that J had stayed at on his last trip to CO (2007). It was sunny outside, and although the temp was reportedly in the 70s, it was frickin HOT up there. We tried driving the rig into the free campground, but it wasn’t going to fit. Not too bummed out about it, because although the vista was very pretty, I think the desert setting would have been less than ideal for the pooches. So we backed out (bending one of the leveling jacks-grr) and continued to Salida. JJ had researched ahead of time and so we drove to the Salida welcome center to fill up with water. Then we drove to the free campsite that’s right on the Arkansas. We were able to squeeze into a sweet spot right on the water. The fitty provides a nice bit of privacy, along with the bushes on either side. Because it’s FibArk, there are tons of other campers, but when we’re sitting in front of the fitty looking at the river, it feels plenty private.

We dropped the fitty and leveled it. Then we all loaded up to go check out FibArk. It was after 6 at this time, so we weren’t sure if stuff would still be going on. Turns out there was still some competition going on in the rodeo hole. We saw EJ get in his boat and paddle around the eddy. But the competition itself was NOT fast moving and there was too much time waiting around for competitors. We were all very hungry and hot, so we left before EJ had his turn. We walked around looking at the booths for a bit, and then went to eat. By this point, J is starting to fall asleep standing up. So we head back to camp for an early night. So excited to be on vacation and start our paddling tomorrow!!!



View of the campsite from the mountain across the road.




Close-up of campsite



View from our camper.