I'm currently in Eastern Canada after an incredible trip out west... My buddy Dylan Bruce and I hopped into his Suby and made a 7,000 mile tour to some of the country's best whitewater. Gotta love summer!
Watch the Colorado Tour Vid.
Stop #1 for us was the state of Colorado, and we spent four whirlwind days paddling some of the classics of the area. After taking a frustrating wrong turn outside of Salida, we finally made it to the Pine Creek/Numbers section of the Arkansas. This section of the river turned out to be a perfect warm-up for the adventure, and it was great to paddle with our buddies Ben Blake, Josh Werts, Daniel Windham and Clayton Gaar. Dylan wasn't entirely stoked about the day, with a slight mishap in the Pine Creek Rapid about 30 seconds after putting in, but that's another story...
Colorado!!
Day 2 was a slightly stressful day. I've heard alot about a rapid by the name of Paralyzer on Lake Creek just north of Buena Vista, and just the name has always freaked me out. I was fired up about running Lake Creek though, and after a quick scout to find the location of Tombstone Rapid(highly recommended by the way, it's easy to roll into), Ben, Josh, Dylan, Daniel, Clayton and I put in upstream. It was evident once we got on the run that the water was high, and eddies were in short order out there. Other than one incident involving a channel-wide log that was invisible from upstream, we made it safely through NIMBY, Toaster, and miles and miles of super fun boat-scout boogie.
Ben Blake styling some Colorado Class V in an SR Sherlock.
Photo by Josh Werts.
By the time we got to Paralyzer Rapid, I was feeling pretty fired up, but that thing turned out to be waaaay bigger than I expected. We scouted for about a half hour, and I finally decided to give her a go. Rolling into that mini-gorge of Brains Rapid, into Paralyzer, and then immediately into Z-Turn Rapid was a pretty intense experience, and I definitely felt alone in there, but everything went well, and I was fired up to be given that opportunity. After Lake Creek we rolled into Crested Butte and rendezvoused with Jim Toman, who I can't thank enough for putting us up for two nights. You're my boy blue!
Dropping in. The entrance drop before it fires around the corner into Paralyzer.
Photo by Josh Werts.
Moving left in the thick of Paralyzer, below the double boof, above the huge pillow rapid run-out.
Photo by Josh Werts.
We woke up on Day 3 to a sick couple of runs on the ultra-classic Oh-Be-Joyful Creek near Crested Butte. This creek is the shit and it's definitely my favourite run in Colorado. It's just good clean fun, and it boasts two waterfalls that are awesome for working on all kinds of creeking techniques.
The put-in for Oh-Be-Joyful Creek, 10,500 ft elevation.
Photo by Dylan Bruce
After some quick grub at the campground, we went to check out the North Fork of the Slate mini-gorge. I'll let the video explain this one, but needless to say I'm gonna need to get some redemption next year. It was a very scary rapid, and I allowed myself to lose focus in there. I got humbled for sure, but learned a valuable lesson about not letting your past mistakes affect your mentality, and your performance in the present. I've gotta also give a shout out here to Keith Sprinkle, Jim Toman, and Bill Clipper for the sick safety, moral support, and camera work. Can't thank you guys enough.
The next morning was awesome, because I got to watch/film Dylan running Stupid Falls on the Upper East River. This drop is a burly 60-foot multi-tier drop, and is a very intimidating horizon line to paddle up to. In addition to this, the bedrock is just plain scary(last year I picked little pieces of slate out of my boat after my run). Anyways, long story short... I opted out and Dylan showed us how it's done. Dude's killing it!
Dylan post-styling that shit.
Photo by Jim Toman.
After a couple more afternoon runs on O-B-J, and a delicious dinner at the Toman residence, we were again on the road, and following positive beta, we were in a bee-line for Upper Cherry Creek in California. More about that later...
Watch the Colorado Tour Vid.
Peace, and good lines out there!
Chris Gragtmans
189 comments:
Post a Comment