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"I am leaving the ranch here momentarily and starting at First
Descents but thought I would shoot a quick update. Sarah and I ran the
Upper Animas and the following weekend hit the Pine Creek/Numbers and
Homestake Creek outside of Vail. The Upper Animas was an incredibly
beautiful thirty mile run outside of Durango in a mining town called
Silverton. The last three miles, known as the Rockwood Box, contained
class IV rapids with sheer rock faces on either side. Homestake Creek
is a great ¼ mile of incredibly sweet and steep whitewater with too
many good boofs to describe. Both are easy to catch running during
snowmelt and should be priorities on anyone’s list of rivers to hit on
a road-trip to Colorado.
My last day in the Crested Butte area was spent climbing Schofield
Pass and running the South Fork of the Crystal, also known as the
Devil’s Punchbowls. Why, you ask, is this section of river under the
auspices of Satan? Well, the road crosses the Crystal, so one’s brakes
are wet initially, and then the “road” drops off of the face of the
earth. Well, the brakes end up malfunctioning and the vehicle drops
into the canyon containing the punchbowls. They were named after a man
killed his whole family after his second mishap on the road. Just this
year, a very lucky man in a four-wheeler took a plunge and lost his
ATV but made it out alive. Needless to say, we walked about a mile to
the river in order to save wear and tear on the truck and, well… our
lives.
History aside, this is a series of two drops (twenty-five foot
waterfall and a fifteen foot slide culminating in a twenty foot
waterfall) with a fifteen-foot pool separating them. The pool is in a
no-escape canyon, so mistakes off of the first falls can be serious.
Although I couldn’t see it from the top, the entrance also required a
sketchy seal launch which promptly made me really good friends with
the right wall. Anyway, I nailed my lines and walked out as the sun
set. What a great way to say goodbye to one of the most beautiful
areas of the country."
Regards,
Edward Gaker
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