#15 Crystal Mill Falls

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.

Crystal River Kayaking from Kevin J on Vimeo.

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.