Colorado 2007!!!

by Ed Gaker 

 

"So, I finished up finals at WVU and headed home for what I thought was a small break before heading to Fayetteville to video boat. Instead, it was a hectic two weeks getting money ready for a hastily put together excursion to Colorado. After working various odd jobs and getting far too much out of a canoe I sold on eBay, I flew out and spent a month out west. My friend Sarah picked me up from the airport early in the morning, and I got a good warm-up run on the Numbers section of the Arkansas. The next two weeks I spent with my good friend Matt Walker and Maggie Snowel. We started out waiting for a shuttle on Bailey, and, due to in climate weather and no shuttle, we ended up driving to Buena Vista to hit up the Clear Creek of the Arkansas. The level was low, and I ended up cracking my boat somewhere along the line. However, the first of the two gorges was absolutely beautiful, and the scenery was spectacular. The Gilman section of the Eagle river near Vail quickly became our staple run because Walker trained for the Homestake creek race, which flowed into the Eagle at the put-in for Gilman. Homestake was a ¼ of a mile long, and low, and always manky. Because I live most of the year in West Virginia, I actually felt pretty used to this type of whitewater, and after watching Matt style all of the drops, this quickly became my favorite ¼ mile in all of Colorado. Gilman was 6 miles of quality whitewater that flowed through a ghost town.



Apparently, a silver mine uncovered Uranium and the whole town had to be evacuated in a day. I am not sure if I believe the story, but it is interesting nonetheless. The last drop, Slurry Pipe, was a high- quality difficult rapid littered with residue from a railroad pipe that had collapsed due to poor maintenance which made it really unique. Altogether in those first two weeks, Matt, Maggie, and I ran Homestake, Gilman, Clear Creek of the Ark, Lower Clear Creek in Boulder, Oh-Be-Joyful and the North Fork of the South Platte. Lower Clear Creek in Boulder was a great roadside run with a solid big-water class V rapid called “Rigor Mortis” at the put-in. I had a great line at Rigor and got a good half-minute beat down later down stream on Elbow, one of the well-known Class IV rapids downstream which kept me pretty humble. If I was working in Boulder, I could see that being a great after-work run. After two weeks, I started traveling with my good friend Matt Fithian. He paddles for Bliss-Stick and lives about 45 minutes from my place in Morgantown. I watched both Matts race at Homestake, and we left Walker and Maggie and headed down to the Crested Butte area looking to paddle Oh-Be-Joyful, Daisy, and Slate. Daisy creek is a great run that has some quality slides and a good 15 foot waterfall with a shallow landing pool that must be landed close to flat. I ran this with my good friend Sarah and her sister, Rebekah, and they definitely showed the 4 guys in the group how to style the falls, even though it was Bekah’s first waterfall. Congrats, Bekah! After Daisy, we hit up a drop called “Wicked Wanda” on the Slate. Because of its constricted nature, the rapid is frequently clogged with wood, but while we were down there it was perfectly clean. OBJ is a great mile long run that drops off of the face of the earth. The whole run consists of nothing but long slides and waterfalls with a few beaver dams thrown in for good measure. Yet, for its gradient, the moves are remarkably easy. All told, I did about 7 runs on this creek. Although it is relatively easy, the creekbed is hard on the boat and the body. Due to a complicated mishap, I had to wake up early one morning to go fetch my paddle at the bottom of Avalanche slide (got pinned up one some logs at the sneak line on the left) and after crawling out of bed because of back spasms, decided that I should probably start running something else. Definitely my favorite run of the trip, though. After Crested Butte, we went to the Lyons river festival. They had a nice rodeo and a great creek race on the South Saint Vrain. Because the road to the SSV is small, windy, and well-traveled, it was a spectators only event. 36 racers came out to compete and honor the memory of local Alex Barron who passed away on Vallecito. The even was loosely organized, grassroots, small, and a great tribute to what everyone said was a great guy. I placed 19th in my buddy’s Pyranha Burn, because by this time, my Gus had been cut up and sent back to Dayton for warranty purposes. Although the Burn wasn’t as fast as the Gus, it was great boat for the race because of its user-friendly maneuverability. We all headed back, and Fithian placed 2nd later that day in the Expert rodeo. The Monday after Lyons was spent on the North Fork of the South Platte, commonly called Bailey. Bailey is a great class IV run with two solid class V rapids. The first falls, a commonly portaged ugly drop, had my number that day, and my only out-of-boat experience of the trip resulted in a trip into an undercut wall and a good 4 or 5 minute beatdown for the Burn. While in the undercut, my contacts fell out, and because I brought no spares, I was pretty much blind for the rest of the trip. Earlier, with Matt and Maggie, I had run this section of river and gotten on the big rapid, Supermax. However, because I could barely see, I decided to walk it and ran safety for Fithian as he styled the drop. The paddle out after Supermax is easy and absolutely beautiful. Rustic, tall canyons with strong desert features. That night our group headed to Salida to start training for the FibARK rodeo in what was my last week in Colorado. This meant an end to creeking for me, not only because I was about as blind as a bat, but also because creeking in Salida is either incredibly easy (Clear Creek of the Ark) or life-threatening(Lake Creek). I decided to spend the time that they were training running laps on Numbers with Sarah, and one day we ran two laps on the Royal Gorge in Canon City with Rebekah. Royal and Numbers are pretty easy big water runs that are just fun from start to finish. The Royal Gorge is particulary beautiful. One bend will have tall canyon walls and the next will be littered with mineshafts and dilapidated piping. After the Gus was shipped off and recycled, I was really thankful that Walker let me use his Burn, not only because that meant I could keep creeking, but also because the Burn turned out to be a very user-friendly boat that was easy to transition into. I can also say that if you are looking for a paddle that can withstand being run over by a semi, the Stikine is not for you. In a low point in the middle of the trip, my paddle flew out of the car with 4 other paddles and were run over. I began using a Powerhouse, which like the Burn, was easy to transition into. Overall, the trip was a great time, and I was really happy with time in COlorado. It is definitely a must-make destination for paddlers of any skill level.""""