Last day of the EddyFlower VC........we decided on the Royal Gorge at Med-high water.
It was great. A beautiful gorge. Huge waves + narrow canyon = super fun!!!
I want to thank everyone for the e-mails and support. I will write a wrap up entry in the coming days.
Jason
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Day #30 and #31, Browns Canyon, Numbers and Fractions
Friday I took another easy day (off) and paddled Brown's Canyon with some boaters from our campground. I heard it was a must paddle because it was so scenic. Brown's was a very fun run. It had a lot of boogie water and a handful of cool rapids with nice wave trains. Zoom Flume was probably my favorite. Toward the end of the run I saw a rattle snake floating in the cold water. I felt bad for for it and decided to try to save it. After about a 1/2 mile and a bazillion bushes I eventually got it to shore and it VERY slowly started to slither away. Does that count towards my river karma points even though it was a rattle snake?
Saturday I ended up hooking up with some Colorado natives to run the Numbers and Fractions sections of the Arkansas. It was really fun. The Numbers section was very similar to the Cheoah except a little bigger and more continuous in places. The Fractions was just plain fun. It has a lot of really fun wave trains. It was similar to that wave just before Flipper on the Ocoee except a tad bigger and like 7-8 of them in a row like 4 or 5 times! I actually starting giggling a bit as I was running them!
At the end of the day I ran into Lanie at the put in and ended up running another lap of the Numbers with her. It felt bigger than the morning and even more fun! The Numbers is a great run and is super fun at 2400 cfs. It is a definite must paddle in CO.
Jason
Saturday I ended up hooking up with some Colorado natives to run the Numbers and Fractions sections of the Arkansas. It was really fun. The Numbers section was very similar to the Cheoah except a little bigger and more continuous in places. The Fractions was just plain fun. It has a lot of really fun wave trains. It was similar to that wave just before Flipper on the Ocoee except a tad bigger and like 7-8 of them in a row like 4 or 5 times! I actually starting giggling a bit as I was running them!
At the end of the day I ran into Lanie at the put in and ended up running another lap of the Numbers with her. It felt bigger than the morning and even more fun! The Numbers is a great run and is super fun at 2400 cfs. It is a definite must paddle in CO.
Jason
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Day #28 and #29, East River
Well first let me say 32 days of kayaking will now be 31 days of kayaking. After my spill on OBJ I took it easy and let my back heal. Wednesday was a very nice and much needed day of rest.
I felt better Thursday morning and decided to giver 'er a go. We went over to the East River, which is part of the Crested Butte Quadruple Crown. It is a short steep run with a handful of slides and a few fun boofs. It was just what the doctored ordered. It was fun, but not over exerting. After the run we decided to go into Created Butte to shower and eat. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, the shower at the hostel was awesome!!!!! I feel SO much better. We are going to head over to Buena Vista for FibArk and much more paddling.
Make sure to check out the slide show below................you don't want to miss the last picture!!! ;)
Jason
I felt better Thursday morning and decided to giver 'er a go. We went over to the East River, which is part of the Crested Butte Quadruple Crown. It is a short steep run with a handful of slides and a few fun boofs. It was just what the doctored ordered. It was fun, but not over exerting. After the run we decided to go into Created Butte to shower and eat. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, the shower at the hostel was awesome!!!!! I feel SO much better. We are going to head over to Buena Vista for FibArk and much more paddling.
Make sure to check out the slide show below................you don't want to miss the last picture!!! ;)
Jason
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Day #27, Oh Be Joyful!!!
WOW. Oh Be Joyful was everything it has been hyped up to be......it is SOOOOO steep. It is 1mile long and drops a total of 400 feet! Holy cow!!
We got to Crestted Butte about 2:00 am and camped right down from OBJ. We waited until noon for our friend Ian to drive up and then proceeded to hike up to scout everything. It was a pleasant surprise to see alot of SE boaters out at OBJ. Will and Alex from NC, Keith Yell and crew from AL, Jeff West and his TVF crew and a guy Nick who I met at the Ocoee were all there. Ian and I were super excited so we headed up ahead of Edgar to scout and talk to Jeff West and his crew. Jeff and crew were on lap 10 by the time we met up with them! We were told by Jeff and others (Will) that the river was at a medium -low level and was good to go, but was dishing out some boat abuse. I think we saw three or four broken boats at the campground from different folks. Ian and I scouted it and got some more beta from other folks but couldn't find Edgar. In the interest of brevity we ended up putting on at 5:00 pm, which was good and sort of bad. It was good because Jeff West and his crew offered to take us down. Bad because now the water was higher and it was everyone's (Edgar, Ian and myself) first time. All the rapids were A LOT bigger than what we saw earlier during our scouting. All the waiting around about killed me. I was already nervous, but excited as well. The sitting around all day looking at a big steep river can play games with your head. ;) We were ready, so off we went..........
We divided into two groups. David Levitt, Ian and myself were the first group and Jeff West, Edgar and Nick were the second group. David by the way was awesome. I had bumped into him a few times at the Green and at the Ocoee, but never really got a chance to talk with him. He is a super awesome guy and was really glad I finally got to paddle with him. The river started off with a bang. I peeled out of an eddy and 10 feet later I was dropping off an 18 foot water fall. It was super sweet. All the drops on OBJ have flakes at the lip, which makes for great boofs. After the 18 footer there was some boogie water with a couple of small boofs and then a 15 footer into a funky hole, which flipped me! Ugh! After the 15 footer we had more boogie water, small slides and boofs and then the bottom drops out! The river takes an S-turn into a 25 foot water fall. I boofed it like no other. Wow, it felt so good. I landed nice and solid and was totally pumped up. After the 25 footer there were more steep slides and boofs. Then the bottom drops out again! The big slide is Avalanche, which is huge and long! I dropped into the left side and had a great line all the way down. Unfortunately one person in our group pitoned at the end and now has a basketball size dent in the front of his boat. Ouch! We went through a couple of log jams.......very sketchy. We made our way down to the last two drops. The first one was center left line, but the last one we were told to go left. The center and right line go, but not very well. Oh, and Jeff told us he flipped there earlier in the day and tore up his hand. If Jeff West gets flipped by a rapid then it has my attention more than normal! Everything was going well until I got a little off line on the second to last drop and went into the bottom hole sideways. Not good. I surfed my butt off for a couple of minutes (literally) and almost got out three times. On that third "almost out move" I got window-shaded like no other and my left leg came out of my thigh brace. I was out of the hole......I thouht....I went for a roll, but was getting pounded by rocks and water and couldn't get up and over. I reached for my grab loop but could not get to it and hit something else and then I was able to pull my skirt and get out of my boat. I went down the entire last drop on my back and butt and then fell into a big hole. Ouch! I was exhausted and hurting. I have never taking a beating like that before. Everyone was able to get my gear and get me to shore. My back was really soar as well as my butt. I paddled to the take out and went to camp to lick my wounds.
My back and butt now have a huge bruise and a bunch of swelling. It felt worse in the morning. I was having trouble walking, so to be safe I went get x-rays. Nothing is broken. Thank goodness. Doctor said no kayaking for a few days. We'll see how that goes. ;)
I am a bit miffed about swimming. I think everyone who knows me knows that I am very competitive and very serious about my kayaking. I am doing my best not to be too hard on myself. I am trying to remind myself of something that a very good kayaker once told me, that "everyone is in between swims".
All in all it was a great river. Two HUGE thumbs up. I have never done something so big and so steep. I had a ton of fun despite the swim and would LOVE to go back and do OBJ again. We may head to Salida to take it easy and heal, so maybe next week. We'll see how the back feels.
Jason
We got to Crestted Butte about 2:00 am and camped right down from OBJ. We waited until noon for our friend Ian to drive up and then proceeded to hike up to scout everything. It was a pleasant surprise to see alot of SE boaters out at OBJ. Will and Alex from NC, Keith Yell and crew from AL, Jeff West and his TVF crew and a guy Nick who I met at the Ocoee were all there. Ian and I were super excited so we headed up ahead of Edgar to scout and talk to Jeff West and his crew. Jeff and crew were on lap 10 by the time we met up with them! We were told by Jeff and others (Will) that the river was at a medium -low level and was good to go, but was dishing out some boat abuse. I think we saw three or four broken boats at the campground from different folks. Ian and I scouted it and got some more beta from other folks but couldn't find Edgar. In the interest of brevity we ended up putting on at 5:00 pm, which was good and sort of bad. It was good because Jeff West and his crew offered to take us down. Bad because now the water was higher and it was everyone's (Edgar, Ian and myself) first time. All the rapids were A LOT bigger than what we saw earlier during our scouting. All the waiting around about killed me. I was already nervous, but excited as well. The sitting around all day looking at a big steep river can play games with your head. ;) We were ready, so off we went..........
We divided into two groups. David Levitt, Ian and myself were the first group and Jeff West, Edgar and Nick were the second group. David by the way was awesome. I had bumped into him a few times at the Green and at the Ocoee, but never really got a chance to talk with him. He is a super awesome guy and was really glad I finally got to paddle with him. The river started off with a bang. I peeled out of an eddy and 10 feet later I was dropping off an 18 foot water fall. It was super sweet. All the drops on OBJ have flakes at the lip, which makes for great boofs. After the 18 footer there was some boogie water with a couple of small boofs and then a 15 footer into a funky hole, which flipped me! Ugh! After the 15 footer we had more boogie water, small slides and boofs and then the bottom drops out! The river takes an S-turn into a 25 foot water fall. I boofed it like no other. Wow, it felt so good. I landed nice and solid and was totally pumped up. After the 25 footer there were more steep slides and boofs. Then the bottom drops out again! The big slide is Avalanche, which is huge and long! I dropped into the left side and had a great line all the way down. Unfortunately one person in our group pitoned at the end and now has a basketball size dent in the front of his boat. Ouch! We went through a couple of log jams.......very sketchy. We made our way down to the last two drops. The first one was center left line, but the last one we were told to go left. The center and right line go, but not very well. Oh, and Jeff told us he flipped there earlier in the day and tore up his hand. If Jeff West gets flipped by a rapid then it has my attention more than normal! Everything was going well until I got a little off line on the second to last drop and went into the bottom hole sideways. Not good. I surfed my butt off for a couple of minutes (literally) and almost got out three times. On that third "almost out move" I got window-shaded like no other and my left leg came out of my thigh brace. I was out of the hole......I thouht....I went for a roll, but was getting pounded by rocks and water and couldn't get up and over. I reached for my grab loop but could not get to it and hit something else and then I was able to pull my skirt and get out of my boat. I went down the entire last drop on my back and butt and then fell into a big hole. Ouch! I was exhausted and hurting. I have never taking a beating like that before. Everyone was able to get my gear and get me to shore. My back was really soar as well as my butt. I paddled to the take out and went to camp to lick my wounds.
My back and butt now have a huge bruise and a bunch of swelling. It felt worse in the morning. I was having trouble walking, so to be safe I went get x-rays. Nothing is broken. Thank goodness. Doctor said no kayaking for a few days. We'll see how that goes. ;)
I am a bit miffed about swimming. I think everyone who knows me knows that I am very competitive and very serious about my kayaking. I am doing my best not to be too hard on myself. I am trying to remind myself of something that a very good kayaker once told me, that "everyone is in between swims".
All in all it was a great river. Two HUGE thumbs up. I have never done something so big and so steep. I had a ton of fun despite the swim and would LOVE to go back and do OBJ again. We may head to Salida to take it easy and heal, so maybe next week. We'll see how the back feels.
Jason
Monday, June 9, 2008
Day #26, Dumont, Idaho Springs and Upper Clear Creek
Today we decided to take a "day off" and do a light run. We got in very late last night and this morning we felt very worn out. We thought it would be better to wait and do Baily, which is at high water, when we were feeling 100%. Unfortunately our light day ended up being a 15 mile paddle through class IV read and run water. Ugh! I thought we were doing a short section, but must have remembered wrong. We ended up hooking up with Ian again and paddling all three sections of the "Upper" Clear Creek. It was a fun day. I really like the Upper Clear Creek Section a lot. Not much to note other than....IT WAS 15 MILES!!!!!!!
Before we put on today we got word that Oh Be Joyful was running at a good medium level and the roads were open. Ian, Edgar and I spoke on the river and decided to head to Crested Butte to paddle tomorrow. Ian will have to leave Wednesday, but I think Edgar and I will stay for a week or so and hit some other runs as well.
I am super tired and worn out so I am going to finish my laundry, try to get a good night's sleep and rest up for a big day tomorrow!!!
Jason
Before we put on today we got word that Oh Be Joyful was running at a good medium level and the roads were open. Ian, Edgar and I spoke on the river and decided to head to Crested Butte to paddle tomorrow. Ian will have to leave Wednesday, but I think Edgar and I will stay for a week or so and hit some other runs as well.
I am super tired and worn out so I am going to finish my laundry, try to get a good night's sleep and rest up for a big day tomorrow!!!
Jason
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Day #23, #24 and #25. 6 rivers in 3 days!
All I can say is WOW! What a three day stretch.
It all started Friday when we received word from Ian that Big Thompson was running high and we were invited to come join him. We weren't leaving until 1:00, so Edgar and I got a quick lap on Lower Clear Creek. We ended up doing the Clear Creek run with our friend Lanie. I actually met Lanie back in the fall on the Cheoah river in NC. She was visiting from CO and didn't have anyone to paddle with and joined our group. Here we are paddling together again.....what a small world!
After our quick lap of LCC we headed north of Denver to meet Ian. We arrived at Big Thompson about an hour or so later. Now, before I get into the river I have to preface this river with the a few facts. First, this is a special run because it normally doesn't run or only runs a couple of times a year. Second, this is a Colorado "must run" river. Third, it hasn't run as high as it was running the day we ran it since 2002.
Now the river....................wow. wow. wow. It was non stop ninja fighting action. I have never paddled in so much chaos in my life. Back to back to back to back, etc 5+ foot waves with drops, boulders and holes sprinkled all over for good measures. It was out of control. I think we stopped at about 4 eddys the entire 5.5 mile run......why?.......because there weren't anymore!!!!! It was big, and SO MUCH FUN! We had a group of seven and EVERYONE was basking in the afterglow of the craziness we just experienced. Truly a must run and I am VERY glad we ran it. Although, we did have a bit of a debate later about this run. Some locals said the Big Thompson was class IV or IV+ at the high level we did it at..............."yeah right", I said. Edgar and I both agree it is a V in our book. The run is (as all the runs so far in CO) VERY continuous like nothing.......I repeat NOTHING in the SE that I have paddled and mistakes can compound very quickly. Swimming is not an option. If you do you are going to take a beating and be swimming for while.........with a very real possibly of flush drowning. Superman would be your only hope for getting your gear. Anyways....I digress...............
Saturday, we met nice and early at Brian's house to paddle some more CO rivers that don't run very often. Oh, if I didn't mention it earlier we have been told that this was a spectacular time to come to CO and paddle because of the great snow pack they received this year. Now back to the river.........specifically......The Eagle, Source.............sounds cools right? Well it was. Lot of class IV boogie water and a couple of fun drops (two fat chicks). We have video. I'll try to post it soon. We had a great day until one of our CO friends got pinned in the last big rapid. It was a bit scary. After all the chaos we lost two paddles (the person who was pinned and Edgar). Edgar dropped his paddle as he was trying to get back into the river (after unpinning the boat). Long story short...it is gone. CO steepness is no joke. After a long day of driving and a long day on the river we stopped to get dinner and then drove to camp in Aspen near the rivers we are planning on running tomorrow. Oh, I forgot to mention that at the take out when we arrived some hikers told us that there were a bunch of trees in the river. Because this is a rarely run river we decided to hike up and scout some of the river. We thought the river would eventually meet with the road again before the put in.........especially since the a guide book mentioned "road scouting". Well the river never made it back to the river and Brian, Kevin and I hike the ENTIRE stretch if river!
Sunday after the snow................that's right I said after the snow. IT SNOWED last night!!!! Anyway after the snow the Upper Frying pan was our first river and wow it was fun. Big boulder gardens with pushy water. Very similar to rivers in the SE. Edgar and I finally felt at home. ;) We boofed our way down 5+ miles of beautiful river and had a blast. We quickly packed up, ate lunch and headed over to Castle Creek, which runs into the Slaughter House section of the Roaring River. We planned on paddling them both. When we arrived Brian was greeted by some of his paddling buddies who were nice enough to drive our car down to the take out in exchange for a ride up.....................nice. Castle Creek was very cool as well. It was mostly more fun boulder gardens and class IV boogie water. The first rapid however felt like the longest technical boulder garden rapid EVER! I was literally winded after running it and for the first time that I can remember I had to ask everyone to wait a few minutes for me to catch my breath! lol. There were a couple more technical rapids, but they all went well.
We boogied our way down some class IV read and run rapids and quickly came to the Slaughter House confluence. Slaughter House was a fun class IV boogie water run with two big rapids. The first rapid was Entrance Exam, which everyone passed! lol. The other big rapid was Slaughter House. The Slaughter House rapid is 5 or 6 foot boof on the left that you have to hit to avoid a really nasty hole. We all ran it fine and we were on our way down the river with visions of food and rest in our eyes. We still had about 3 miles or so of class IV boogie water left before the take out and as well as things were going things were about to get epic again. We are all just boofing along down the river when all of the sudden I heard someone yell swimmer! "Us?" I replied. "Yes!" was yelled back at me. I am not sure what happened, but everyone was on top of it and we got the paddle and boat to shore very quickly. Unfortunately, the swimmer was on the other side of the river. Next thing I know one of our paddlers is ferrying across the river with a rope attached to their safety vest. The thought was to avoid a bazillion throws trying to get the rope across the river for the swimmer. Well things went from bad to worse. The rope wasn't long enough or the water pulled it out too much. Well now the rope was pulling the paddler backwards and then upside down and backwards into a rapid. The release of the safety vest didn't release for some reason. I was the only one in their boat and quickly paddled out to try to assist. By the time I got there we had our second swimmer. Long story short (again) we got the person to shore safely and I was off on the longest most epic boat chase of my life! Over a mile of river and countless non-stop rapids later I finally got the boat to shore. I was joined shortly by two other members of our group. We then ferried the boat to the other side of the river and hiked back up to the others.
We were able to get everyone to the right side of the river safely and hike back down to the boats to finish the run. We finished the run without incident and quickly made our way to subway! lol.
I am very worn out as I write this, but looking forward to day #26 and the last week of the Vertical Challenge. So far our team has raised over $1,200 for First Descent and paddled over 25,000 vertical feet.
Tomorrow we are paddling Baily at high water with Ian!!!
Whoo hoo!
Jason
It all started Friday when we received word from Ian that Big Thompson was running high and we were invited to come join him. We weren't leaving until 1:00, so Edgar and I got a quick lap on Lower Clear Creek. We ended up doing the Clear Creek run with our friend Lanie. I actually met Lanie back in the fall on the Cheoah river in NC. She was visiting from CO and didn't have anyone to paddle with and joined our group. Here we are paddling together again.....what a small world!
After our quick lap of LCC we headed north of Denver to meet Ian. We arrived at Big Thompson about an hour or so later. Now, before I get into the river I have to preface this river with the a few facts. First, this is a special run because it normally doesn't run or only runs a couple of times a year. Second, this is a Colorado "must run" river. Third, it hasn't run as high as it was running the day we ran it since 2002.
Now the river....................wow. wow. wow. It was non stop ninja fighting action. I have never paddled in so much chaos in my life. Back to back to back to back, etc 5+ foot waves with drops, boulders and holes sprinkled all over for good measures. It was out of control. I think we stopped at about 4 eddys the entire 5.5 mile run......why?.......because there weren't anymore!!!!! It was big, and SO MUCH FUN! We had a group of seven and EVERYONE was basking in the afterglow of the craziness we just experienced. Truly a must run and I am VERY glad we ran it. Although, we did have a bit of a debate later about this run. Some locals said the Big Thompson was class IV or IV+ at the high level we did it at..............."yeah right", I said. Edgar and I both agree it is a V in our book. The run is (as all the runs so far in CO) VERY continuous like nothing.......I repeat NOTHING in the SE that I have paddled and mistakes can compound very quickly. Swimming is not an option. If you do you are going to take a beating and be swimming for while.........with a very real possibly of flush drowning. Superman would be your only hope for getting your gear. Anyways....I digress...............
Saturday, we met nice and early at Brian's house to paddle some more CO rivers that don't run very often. Oh, if I didn't mention it earlier we have been told that this was a spectacular time to come to CO and paddle because of the great snow pack they received this year. Now back to the river.........specifically......The Eagle, Source.............sounds cools right? Well it was. Lot of class IV boogie water and a couple of fun drops (two fat chicks). We have video. I'll try to post it soon. We had a great day until one of our CO friends got pinned in the last big rapid. It was a bit scary. After all the chaos we lost two paddles (the person who was pinned and Edgar). Edgar dropped his paddle as he was trying to get back into the river (after unpinning the boat). Long story short...it is gone. CO steepness is no joke. After a long day of driving and a long day on the river we stopped to get dinner and then drove to camp in Aspen near the rivers we are planning on running tomorrow. Oh, I forgot to mention that at the take out when we arrived some hikers told us that there were a bunch of trees in the river. Because this is a rarely run river we decided to hike up and scout some of the river. We thought the river would eventually meet with the road again before the put in.........especially since the a guide book mentioned "road scouting". Well the river never made it back to the river and Brian, Kevin and I hike the ENTIRE stretch if river!
Sunday after the snow................that's right I said after the snow. IT SNOWED last night!!!! Anyway after the snow the Upper Frying pan was our first river and wow it was fun. Big boulder gardens with pushy water. Very similar to rivers in the SE. Edgar and I finally felt at home. ;) We boofed our way down 5+ miles of beautiful river and had a blast. We quickly packed up, ate lunch and headed over to Castle Creek, which runs into the Slaughter House section of the Roaring River. We planned on paddling them both. When we arrived Brian was greeted by some of his paddling buddies who were nice enough to drive our car down to the take out in exchange for a ride up.....................nice. Castle Creek was very cool as well. It was mostly more fun boulder gardens and class IV boogie water. The first rapid however felt like the longest technical boulder garden rapid EVER! I was literally winded after running it and for the first time that I can remember I had to ask everyone to wait a few minutes for me to catch my breath! lol. There were a couple more technical rapids, but they all went well.
We boogied our way down some class IV read and run rapids and quickly came to the Slaughter House confluence. Slaughter House was a fun class IV boogie water run with two big rapids. The first rapid was Entrance Exam, which everyone passed! lol. The other big rapid was Slaughter House. The Slaughter House rapid is 5 or 6 foot boof on the left that you have to hit to avoid a really nasty hole. We all ran it fine and we were on our way down the river with visions of food and rest in our eyes. We still had about 3 miles or so of class IV boogie water left before the take out and as well as things were going things were about to get epic again. We are all just boofing along down the river when all of the sudden I heard someone yell swimmer! "Us?" I replied. "Yes!" was yelled back at me. I am not sure what happened, but everyone was on top of it and we got the paddle and boat to shore very quickly. Unfortunately, the swimmer was on the other side of the river. Next thing I know one of our paddlers is ferrying across the river with a rope attached to their safety vest. The thought was to avoid a bazillion throws trying to get the rope across the river for the swimmer. Well things went from bad to worse. The rope wasn't long enough or the water pulled it out too much. Well now the rope was pulling the paddler backwards and then upside down and backwards into a rapid. The release of the safety vest didn't release for some reason. I was the only one in their boat and quickly paddled out to try to assist. By the time I got there we had our second swimmer. Long story short (again) we got the person to shore safely and I was off on the longest most epic boat chase of my life! Over a mile of river and countless non-stop rapids later I finally got the boat to shore. I was joined shortly by two other members of our group. We then ferried the boat to the other side of the river and hiked back up to the others.
We were able to get everyone to the right side of the river safely and hike back down to the boats to finish the run. We finished the run without incident and quickly made our way to subway! lol.
I am very worn out as I write this, but looking forward to day #26 and the last week of the Vertical Challenge. So far our team has raised over $1,200 for First Descent and paddled over 25,000 vertical feet.
Tomorrow we are paddling Baily at high water with Ian!!!
Whoo hoo!
Jason
Friday, June 6, 2008
Day #22, Lower Clear Creek and Lower Boulder Creek
Today started off kind of slow. It rained all night and all of our gear was wet. In addition, it was very cold out (40s in the am). We decided to find a laundry mat to dry our gear and maybe do a load of clothes. While the clothes were going I went to Wal-mart to get food and supplies. We finally got done with our errands at about 11:00ish and headed up to Dumont and the Upper Clear Creek section to scout/paddle. Everything looked good to go, but there was no one around to paddle with/set shuttle. With the cold and lack of shuttle opportunities we decided to go paddle Lower Clear Creek again and hook up with Brian and his crew for an afternoon run.
We got to Lower Clear Creek about 1:00 and it was super fun............as it was the first time. We bombed down pretty quickly and were ready for a lunch break. We went to downtown Golden and checked out the local paddle shop and ate. I was feeling a bit scruffy, so I went to a barber shop for a hair cut and shave...............that is right a shave!!! It was my first barber shave. It was very relaxing.............with the hot towels and warm shaving cream. If I were a rich man I might do it more often although I don't know if I even could back in the South. I tried to get a shave in a barber shop in North Carolina once and the barber said "We stopped doing that a while back because of the AIDS". lol. I guess the Colorado shops didn't get the memo. ;)
After the barber shop I took my dog Logan for a walk. As I was finishing up Edgar came walking down the street very excited telling me it was time to go and meet everyone to go paddle.
We met up with Brian, Trent (Brain's cousin), Mike, Shawn and Kevin. Their plan was to paddle either Left Hand Creek or Lower Boulder. We found out that Left Hand was too low, so off to Lower Boulder.
Lower Boulder was a fun run. It was very continuous like Lower Clear Creek with very few eddys. It was about a six mile run that went very quickly. It was great to paddle with Brian and his crew. They were all super cool. I hope we can paddle with them more.
Tomorrow we are hoping to hook up with another one of Brian's friends, Ian, to go paddle Big Thompson. My fingers are crossed! :)
Jason
We got to Lower Clear Creek about 1:00 and it was super fun............as it was the first time. We bombed down pretty quickly and were ready for a lunch break. We went to downtown Golden and checked out the local paddle shop and ate. I was feeling a bit scruffy, so I went to a barber shop for a hair cut and shave...............that is right a shave!!! It was my first barber shave. It was very relaxing.............with the hot towels and warm shaving cream. If I were a rich man I might do it more often although I don't know if I even could back in the South. I tried to get a shave in a barber shop in North Carolina once and the barber said "We stopped doing that a while back because of the AIDS". lol. I guess the Colorado shops didn't get the memo. ;)
After the barber shop I took my dog Logan for a walk. As I was finishing up Edgar came walking down the street very excited telling me it was time to go and meet everyone to go paddle.
We met up with Brian, Trent (Brain's cousin), Mike, Shawn and Kevin. Their plan was to paddle either Left Hand Creek or Lower Boulder. We found out that Left Hand was too low, so off to Lower Boulder.
Lower Boulder was a fun run. It was very continuous like Lower Clear Creek with very few eddys. It was about a six mile run that went very quickly. It was great to paddle with Brian and his crew. They were all super cool. I hope we can paddle with them more.
Tomorrow we are hoping to hook up with another one of Brian's friends, Ian, to go paddle Big Thompson. My fingers are crossed! :)
Jason
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