I met up with Ian and Texas Ken who have seemed to have become regulars on this adventure, at Kermits for a nice long run of Upper Clear Creek, Black Rock, and Lower Clear Creek.
The flow was between 1000cfs to 1050cfs and was awesome. Big water=big waves=big holes=big fun. Everything went perfectly and was fast and pretty clean for this blast rock creek. We got to the Narrows and I soloed Mr. Bill and it was like butter, no margarine, no Parkay, strictly butter. It was not good looking with most of the hole looking sticky and re-circing back into a wall,cave, undercut? The right looked like it could catch you or typewriter you back to the left.
We all walked Rigo which looked the same just very, very fast.
Tom Cole was there to do an interview for 9news which is about as famous as I am going to get. I really appreciate tom taking so much time on his day off to support this. Hopefully it helps bring in some donations. I will try to embed the video on here.
Here is the news story in case you were not sitting around the boob tube at ten:
When we got done in Golden it stormed super hard. Some of the hardest rain I can remember.
I left Frisco and had to go over Loveland pass because you can't take a bike on I-70 through the Eisenhower and Johnson tunnel. Let me just say that Loveland Pass is long and steep. I will keep it there for all the little ones reading.
East side from the summit
I had to stop about halfway up because they were doing time trial runs for some fancy I will never be able to afford them type of sports cars. This actually was nice because when I got to the top I new that there wasn't going to be any cars coming down so I hauled the proverbial donkey on down the mountain going about 40mph the whole time.
I finally got in one of my pictures
I got onto I-70 at the bottom and made it to Idaho Springs in about thirty minutes. You got to love the downhill. I called up Chad who I met along with Ryan, Chris, Jenny, and Sydney at Crested Butte. It just so happened they had a guide house and I could crash there. They were also having a barley soda party that night. Isn't it nice when everything works out?
I will make this short cause the run is short. A mile of rock dodging with a few holes to watch out for. Continuous Colorado Mank. Thanks to Will for running it with me and letting me stash at his place.
I was originally going to leave on Sat. but it was raining hard and blowing wind so I just worked the KEEN booth all night and then crashed at Mark's friend's place. Thanks again Mark. I woke up Sunday to a deer across the street and knew it was going to be a good day.
On the way back to Leadville
The ride was just as beautiful going back as it was coming down (except it was uphill). I got into Leadville and was exhausted so I stopped at one of the best restaurants out there and the best Mexican in Colorado: The Grill. I got the stuffed Chicken Sopapilla Especial and it was amazing. If you all know me you know I can eat and I had just ridden 60 miles to boot. This thing put me in a coma. I also recommend the Gold Martguerita.
Seeing as how I could barely move I had to find some where to sleep close by. I didn't know if there was camping around so I spent the night on the back loading area of the forest service building. Some people came by later at night and super early in the morning but I was not hassled even though I was worried the cops were going to get called. Not a good nights sleep.
To the right of Climax Mine
I woke up the next day and headed to The Proving Grounds for some breakfast. It is a little coffee shop and I got a some great coffee and a chocolate croissant and a turkey and jack croissant and all were delicious.
I then began to climb Fremont Pass which ends at the Climax mine. I hadn't been up that way in a while and it is starting to get cleaned up nicely. Besides the mine the area is typical Colorado scenery, meaning typical for us for everyone else it is amazing. You have to feel lucky living here, don't take it for granted. This was also the first truly blue sky day I could remember in a while. Didn't see a cloud until late afternoon.
Actual Picture of the Colorado Sky
I came down and got on the bike path along Copper and scouted Upper Tenmile on my way to Frisco. Short blurb to be done in the next post.
The next day after running Clear Creek, Clay, Greg and myself decided to head on up to Lake Creek and giver her a go. All I can say is that this was one of my favorite runs so far and I put it near the top of my list. That is without running the bottom four even. Now I won't give Jahvea the satisfaction of saying it is better than the Big South, but it is pretty damn good. It is definitely amazing as it opens up and you can see huge fourteeners all around. It is also nice because it is longer than most creeks and you are not done after a mile of boating which makes for a great day.
It was running at about 1000cfs which is pretty high, so we didn't run the bottom four which probably would have made it even better. The water was fast and we had no idea where we were going. I like runs like that that where you don't know what lies around the corner and you have to have good scouting and catch eddies. It really ups the stress and I feel makes you paddle better.
We got to tombstone and everything went fine and were then on the look out for NIMBY. Once we got to NIMBY we were greeted by a group who as I asked if we could scout on their land, had Tecate and limes waiting for us before we were even out of our boats. I think we need to rename the rapid. The owner then offered to let me use the cabin when I wanted. So if you want to hang out at NIMBY give me a call. The house overlooks the start of the rapid and is absolutely beautiful.
Big right boof on NIMBY
NIMBY is a long rapid with a boulder garden entrance for about 100yds and then crashes into a wall at a 90 degree left turn. You have to stay off the wall then make a 90 degree cut back through a narrow slot which is guarded by a boil you need to punch over. At this level it was a decent sized boil and backed up into a nasty looking hole/cave?. You then go down the slot and can either go right which has a good boof or left which is a tricky wave/hole punch to thread some rocks and then a smaller boof. We couldn't see what the bottom of the big boof looked like so we all went to the left and it went fine.
Clay pop-tarting his way through Toaster
The next big rapid is Toaster and I don't know what it looked like but it went pretty easy on this day. You have some boogie lead in with a strong curler to the right which can push you into the right shore or I am guessing at other times some wood. You need to turn 90 degrees to the left here and then you have to come through a narrow slot without getting pushed up into the wall on the right. Pretty easy.
The guide book is right on with its description of a monster hole that is hard to notice. I was in the lead for this section and we were worried about dropping into the big four at this point when all of a sudden I was looking down into a huge hole. I remembered that you were supposed to be left and tried to get there but just ended up gutting it down the middle and all of the meat. I took a big stroke and leaned forward and rode a stern squirt for about ten feet like I was poppin wheelies. Greg came through and got side surfed and i was worried he wasn't going to get out. He did and Clay went right and it was all gravy. I did here from a good boater that the next day this hole caused a swim.
Don't you wish you got brains like that?
Soon after we had some awesome boogie and then took out to scout and it was a good thing because around the corner was Brains the lead in to the bottom 4. I have a big head but not big enough for those brains. We then went and looked at Paralyzer. I think it gets its name because if you look at it at 1000cfs you don't move for a while, and if you ran it a good possibility that it is the last you run. One thing was not paralyzed at that point and that was my bowels which indicated it was time to end the run there.
If you are not regular this works better than ex-lax
P.S. I hear some of you like to run the bottom four at that level and big ups to you.
After the Pine Creek race Ken, the Peaches and myself went to hit up Clear Creek of the Ark. It was a nice bonus because i thought that it was done running for the year. What do I know? We got it at about 250cfs which is medium and it was a quick short run. We ran the first two gorges and they are pretty easy. It is a good creek for beginners and gives you the feel of being gorged in. Lap it as you feel fit and don't forget to hit the boof at the end of the second gorge.
Everyone looks confused for some reason
i have no video cause it was so short and not very friendly for it. a.k.a. I was lazy.
I rolled into Pine Creek about an hour before the race started and hunkered down. I have some footy of the race as well as some hooligan race. I will try to get the video up soon.
The not so munchy hole
The race was ok, only about fifteen racers for the boater x. Where was everyone?
I was not impressed with the hole as it let most everyone out of its grasps. Lame
After the race I went with Texas Ken and Greg and Clay to run Clear Creek of de Ark. I met all three of these guys at CB. If you need to find a crew go to CB, it is like Craig's List for meeting people, except without all the murder and phonies.
Got into Salida, late cause there was a strong headwind, so I ate at Mama D's. Damn good Chicago Dogs and then went to the campsite. Next morning I met up with Greg and Clay, you might know them from such posts as CB Georgia boys. Now if you were paying attention you would know that there were three of them in CB. However, their third blew out his shoulder on OBJ after I left.
We then went and ran Lake Creek. Beautiful and scored the ultimate hookup.
I was supposed to work the KEEN booth but we got back kinda late so had to put that off until Sat.
On Sat. The weather decided to rain and blow but we still pulled in a little bit of dough for American Whitewater. I am guessing around 70-100 bucks so that was cool. Thanks to Mark and KEEN for letting me raise some money.
Fibark is pretty chill, go down there with a crew cause it kinda sucks when you just know a couple 18yr olds. (No offense gents)
I have all of the race, I just edited it to the carnage for time's sake. If anyone wants the complete raw footage let me know.
P.S. When I get the video up you will notice that there is no playboating shots. Why, you ask? Because A: I suck at playboating B: Playboating is like The Numbers
Brian, Uldis, Paul, you know what I am talking about.
Woke up at 3 am to be ready for Roger to get me through Glenwood Canyon since the bike path was still closed cause of high water. Roger dropped me off at Dotsero and I noticed that my attachment nut for my trailer had fallen off during the ride. Using my MacGyver like skills I fashioned one out of a beer tab and some wire. "Give me an Avocado, an ice-pick and my snorkel, trust me bro."
Notch Mountain view from HY 24
From there is was on and even though this was the same ride I made to Homestake and Gilman, I felt way better and it didn't take me nearly as long. I got to Edwards and had so much time I just sat around and annoyed Ross at Alpine Quest. He finally was so pissed that he called a local photographer and hooked me up with the Vail Mountaineer for a story and photo shoot. Watch out Hollywood here I come.
After shooting my flowing Jew curls in every direction I headed to Lauren's house to stay for the night. She had to work so I ended up going to dinner with her Roomie. Summer time in Vail is nice because it becomes semi-affordable as most places were 50% off. I opted for sushi since I wouldn't ever be able to afford it again.
Now I should have left the next morning but I was tired and I decided to stick around for another day and participate in one of Vail's oldest traditions, Cougar hunting. While the summer is not the ideal time for Cougar hunting (due to a lack of food most Cougars retreat from the area), some of these ferocious beasts can still be seen. Especially at Vail's Hot Summer Night Concert series which premiered that Tues. Needless to say maullings occurred. Oh and if you move to Vail, go to Vandettas Pizza and get to know Arthur, he seems to know every single person in Vail, I am not kidding.
Feeling refreshed the next morning I headed towards Leadville where I was going to stay the night. This required going up Battle Hill Pass which was a 4 mile summit (takes you to Homestake)
Support your Vets and Troops
I am guessing these are the old barracks
I can't think of a prettier place to be stationed
I eventually got to the top and began to ride toward Camp Hale. Camp Hale is where the famous 10th Mountain Division trained before going over to Italy and kicking Nazi butt. They might have had one of the most beautiful training areas ever. While I was taking pictures I saw a fox and tried to find it to take a shot, being so sly though, the fox popped up behind me so the pic isn't that good.
Sneaky lil' guy popped up right behind me
From there it was climbing Tennessee Pass, which I can say has been one of my favorite passes yet, beautiful and relatively easy as well. When you get to the top there is a memorial for the 10th Mountain Division. I am hoping the pictures come out well enough so that you can read about them and I don't have to try to paraphrase. If you know me you know I am a Social Studies teacher so I have to throw in the historical perspective on this stuff so when my students look at the pictures they learn something as well. Just click on the pics and they will blow up so you can read them.
Coming down the pass was amazing and one of the most beautiful areas ever. I love going to BV and Salida because of the 14ers that hug you along the way.
Coming down Tennesee Pass
I arrived at Leadville and decided to do some covert ops and blended in with the Ride the Rockies folks to camp at the high school. I ate dinner at High Mountain Pies which has some awesome pizza, especially when you are starving. The next morning I awoke with them and rode with them as they back tracked to Independence Pass. At this point I got my first flat and had to repair it. I then continued on to the Pine creek race outside Buena Vista. I will stop here and pick up with the Race on my next post. Sorry this was so long, but plenty of photos.
So the group who came in at the middle of the night turned out to be some SE peeps that were raft guides on Clear Creek and were thinking about running Yule Creek. Originally I had planned for Brian to drop me off in Leadville and I would ride home to New Castle from there, but I didn't want to pass up this opportunity, so I went with them and went back over Kebler and McClure to Marble. We met up with some other boater there (a.k.a. Pros) and then went to huck Crystal Mills.
The road is definitely a little bouncy but as long as you have some clearance it is all good. We got to the falls and it is as beautiful there as the claims and pictures say.
The Falls have a funky entrance where the left has a F-U rock and the right is chunky so you have to kind of drive left but not too left and then straighten out. I was a little nervous after watching the better kayakers have some pretty ugly lines, including backwards and sideways runs. However since it looked like they were getting out fine and not really having any problems getting out of the curtain I decided to step up to the plate.
Jake on line. Notice the rock underwater to the left.
My first run went smooth as you can see in the video, it actually felt really good besides the roll at the end. That is always the best feeling, when you nail something just right. I hiked back up for another run and this time things weren't so good, I tried the same line but drove out too far to the left and didn't straighten out, I hit the F-U rock and it spun me backwards. I got stuck in the hole and couldn't roll out of the curtain. I tried rolling on both sides but it felt like my paddle was never getting any friction to initiate the roll. Finally i pulled but then got body re-circed twice. I tried balling and catching the curtain but it didn't work the first time. I did get pushed down and out eventually but still had to swim away so it didn't pull me back in. Good ol' number three for the season. I would post the video but it was on Sydney's camera, so I she sends me that I will post it.
Ryan and Chad had my back though and got my boat for my, so thanks and I owe ya a sixer.
Ever see a prettier booty beer shot?
After that we went up to Crystal City and got the tour from a slightly inebriated local. this included the talk of the Cystal Club which apparently housed some red doors at one point. He also pointed out that the upper windows on some of the houses were not windows but doors to get out of the houses in the winter when the snow was ten feet high.
After our tour we came back to Marble and Discovered Ryan's Montero had suffered a flat. So the other boaters and SE Chris went up to Yule. By the time we had gotten up there they had already put on. So we ran up there to see if we could watch them. Ryan, Sydney and Myself scrambled down to Ball Check and when I came down for the second time with my camera my phone fell out of my jacket pocket and took a nice 60ft ride and boofed 30ft off Ball Check, so I don't have any of your numbers anymore.
I did however get some ok video of them all running Wall Check.
It was late so the rest of us didn't run Yule and decided to do it the next day. I am not making up excuses but I had not eaten anything except some oatmeal and a cliff bar, and hadn't really drank any water in about 24 hours, plus I wasn't feeling exceptionally hot in the head after the swim.
Here is why I am not making excuses, cause the next day we went and ran Shoshone and Grizzly for the ladies and I had eaten and drank some water and was feeling ok, but not good enough to run Yule that day. I know some of you who know me think I just run stuff without weighing my skill or consequences but that is not the case. Do I think that I could have done it without an incident? Sure, but I decided that Yule was not for me this year. It will be there next year and I live right here, and hopefully I will only continue to get better as a boater. So enjoy this humbleness that you normally don't get from me on Mt. Buzz
I hope Ryan and Chad got it the next day as there were some technical difficulties occurring.
P.S. Chris from Tenn is the second yellow boat in the vid. Pretty good line too.
If you have ever been to OBJ you know that there are huge mountains usually behind the put in, not today my friends
Ah, what makes CB worth it. OBJ is a kayaker's Disneyland, nothing but fairly easy waterfalls and slides. Flows were low due to it being cold and rainy/snowy. Speaking of which except for one day on my tour I have been rained or snowed on everyday. I guess it has been good since the snow melt has slowed. Luckily Mark with KEEN gave me a pair ofShellrock WPshoes which have been amazing at keeping my feet dry. They have been comfortable enough to hike around in and then stiff enough in the sole to ride a bike for good long hauls. Even when it has been hot my feet haven't become sweat buckets, the shoes are pretty dang cool if you ask me.
Stern first baby
When we went up to OBJ it began to snow and I had about a half an inch of snow in my cockpit just waiting to put on. Colorado weather is always some of the strangest weather out there.
Georgia 1 havin some fun on first drop
I love that you put on and take two strokes and launch a clean 15ft falls and then it is off to the races.Say it with me now: BOOF
Even though the flows were low it was still great fun and the big falls is always good. Can you even mess that one up? I have seen stomping boofs, 45 degrees, pencils, head landings and it always ends up with a smile.
BK to the fullest dropping 24.45738459587439 ft
Georgia 2 In the mix with the big one
Avalanche was pretty scrapy and you do have to portage around the corner now, which you didn't two years ago. I did decide to run the lower slides and they actually felt like they had the most water on them and it all went smooth as butter. The last one could always get ugly if you don't get left.
Georgia 3 droppin it like its hot
Ian and the gents left that evening and I stayed to wait for the Kelly Bros. to show up. Later that evening I met some good ol' boys from Georgia and took them down the run for a nice second lap for the day. They were out doing a pretty good tour before college started. Isn't it great to be young?
During the middle of the night a group showed up at the campsite and that would lead to the next mission, later to come.
The next day I sat around reading the third book that I have been reading on the trip " A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Poole, who also wrote one other book "The Neon Bible" which is the name of the sophmore album by Canada's sweet band The Arcade Fire. I would recommend both the book and the band if you have not been introduced to either yet. Hereis a great song from their debut album "Funeral" to give you a taste. Did I mention they play a Hurdy Gurdy?
Finally the Kelly Bros. show up, with Paul sporting a brand new Mango Jefe, I was extremely jealous. We put on and ran down to Avalanche as it had gotten even lower than the previous day. We decided to hike back up and run the section again since it was so fun. We then hung around the 23.5985784654875467534657* ft waterfall and hucked it for a while working on different poses that would have Sports Illustrated all up on our jock begging for photo rights and making us billionaires. I think I might have ran the waterfall about six or seven times that day. It is that fun. Seriously people.
As always OBJ was a photo-op and so I got a few for ya.
We continued down from Daisey into the Slate which is a pretty fun easy run that eventually becomes a mini gorge and reminds me of some tropical area with little side tributaries falling in moss covered sides. The only drop of note is Wicked Wanda which I ran the first time I was in CB ,but this time there was a log on the right side and it can go but we all decided to portage this time.
We also did some portage cleaning since there were so many of us and took out three portages on the run including a huge tree.
Eric giving the log a big hug, I guess Greeley is a lonely place?
Not really a whole lot to post on here for the Slate. We did have a swimmer who I will let remain nameless, but when I get to the Fort he should probably buy some brew ha ha. J/K
I was eating a sandwich at the coffee shop minding my own business when a couple of guys who were up to no good, starting welding boats in my neighborhood, I took one last bite wiping my lips and said "Who gives a hoot? Yo home to Crested Butte." We Pulled up at about quarter to five, met Natalie and DK and figured out who would drive. We drove for a while and then crossed the creek and knowing that we needed no sneak we looked at Big Wood sitting right there, knowing that we would be boofing it and catching some air.
Sorry for the bad Fresh Prince version. But that is basically what happened, ran into Ian and Kevin again and we rallied up to Daisey with Josh and Josh, Natalie and DK.
Daisy is just good semi-clean for the area fun. Water was low, but who cares when you get to boof a clean 15?
Might have to change the name since there ain't a whole lot of wood in there anymore
Heck even Rip Ur Head Off is fun as long as you can keep your head on. the key is to have a clean entrance into the narrow slot so you are moving from left to right but not hitting the F-U flake in the middle which could bounce you into the river left over hang.
Mr. Bill
Posts
