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.
So after spending some time in the Fort, I got a ride back to Carbondale. I was worried that I was going to miss the CB season by riding all the way back. As I found out that wasn't even close to the case.
I started climbing gradually up CO-133 and was able to bike next to the Crystal River for all of the way. The Narrows looked fun and had I known that they were class V at that level ~1200cfs, I probably would have made a pit stop and done some solo boating (don't tell mom. Got up and took a peak at the Meatgrinder, it looks like a pretty technical rapid but definitely do-able (coming back down when the river was at 800cfs, it looked even better).
Hogies and Grinders
I eventually got to Marble split and started to head up McClure Pass. All I can say is that it was the hardest three miles of biking I have done. It is so steep (8% most of the time) and gains roughly 2000ft. I will admitt that I had to get off of my bike a few times and walk a little bit to give my legs a break. It isn't any easier to walk a loaded rig. At some points I wasn't even going fast enough for my bike computer to pick up my speed.
Not that long or high, but burly nonetheless
I finally got to the top and got a pretty sweet coast down towards Paonia. I was heading towards Paonia State Park and Reservoir. I rode along Muddy Creek which lives up to its name and there was a quick fun looking class IV section in there. The entire reservoir was super muddy brown (I use this in the sense that it was the color brown, not some gnarly way to describe kayaking creek runs) because of the inflow of Muddy Creek.
Paonia Resevoir looking green
Once I got to the end of the resavoir I saw a nice outflow sluice that looks like some good stunt boating. I am down if anyone ever wants to run it. From there I headed onto CR 12 which is not paved for those of you who might want to take this route.
Looking across the resevoir
It was getting late and I was tire but I finally made it to Erickson Springs campground and had a sweet little site right next to Anthracite Creek. Anthracite has some of the coolest looking water, it is almost gray and see-through clear but yet it is not. I would call it somewhat opaque. Erickson Springs is a starting point to hike into some of the Anthracite wilderness runs in case anyone was wondering.
The next moring I started my climb of Kebler pass which pretty much begins where I camp and ends a few miles away fromCrested Butte. Needless to say it was a long haul on my Surly Long Haul Trucker. It was about thirty miles of climbing, but it was some of the most beatiful passing through a huge aspen grove. The real downside was I was misinformed by numerous people that Kebler is paved. The only paved part is the bridge that goes over the Ruby? section of Antracite, log still in the rapid. But I would recommend this climb just for its peacefulness and beauty.
It was a long one
About two I arrived in the quaint little softball playing town of Crested Butte. I am going to move there and get on a team, ASAP. I am a wicked switch hitter even though I throw like a two year old.
I put on about 70 miles for this leg.
I apologize, I though I had some pics of Anthracite Creek and of Kebler Pass, but I guess I forgot to take them.
Duke of Earl, Duke Ellington, and Duke of Hazard and myself hiked in to the "Little North" on Thursday. Flows were medium to medium high and were pretty darn fun.Getting ready to put on. From left to right: Duke of Earl, Duke Ellington, Duke of hazard
As always Starter Fluid did not disappoint and the whole upper section went off without a hitch except when I decided to exit my craft after running Cool World. My line on Cool world was good until the left eddy line grabbed me and spun me around. Usually I am having to paddle pretty hard left and since there was way more water pushing to the right I thought it would be even harder, but I barely did anything and then I was backwards. Oh well se la vi or something like that, carpe dium type stuff.
We got to Nitrogen Narcosis and had ourselves a little break before continuing on. We made pretty good time and it only took us six hours. We were on wood alert and were constantly scouting to make sure no problems arose.
Did anyone know that Bonk! is the shnip shnap snitty shnitty bang bang at this level?
Most of the in-between stuff was super fun and everything was juicing including Deion Sanders Gorge. There is the usual wood in there, but we did clean out some wood and the section of the upper Rush were there is a big honking tree river right and then a smaller tree on river left, we lifted the tree on the left up making it passable at higher flows.
I seriously love this river and cannot wait for the 4th.Coming back for you on Independence Weekend
the only bummer is that when it is this high the big three are becoming less than stellar and my personal fav, Slideways looked full on, so was a walk today. I guess that is the trade off.What happened to the eddys?
Probably one of the worst looking rapids was Tubular Balls. That thing just turned into a giant boil backing up a damn big hole. Run on the left with the tongue and watch out for the left wall.
Sorry the post is so lame I am tired and have to head to CB tomorrow. Hope you all like the video
P.S. thanks to the Duchess of York for helping with the hike
Paul and I got down to Lower Narrows and since I was coming to the entrance from the top I got pushed river left. You can sneak it right, but I forgot and went left. I was fighting to get back right, but by the time I got to the entrance move it was not good and I was a little off line as I hit the boil coming off the junk pile. I rolled immediately though and came into the eddy, where to my suprise I looked like a first year boater and rolled in the eddy line. This put me far left and as the video shows I got stuck.
After I got un pinned I took off and it went fine.
I decided that I couldn't be done on that note and went back up for round two. Much smoother as I came down the right line which is where you should be. Except for a weird roll, which is ironically where I rolled in the race, it was Vin Diesel style fast and furious.
After getting back from SSV I called up Paul the Kayaker and we hit the Poudre to do some big water Narrows runs. The Pineview gauge was at ~3.7/8 which is definitely on the higher side of life. I can't remember how high I have run Uppers, but it wasn't even close to this level. Big water boating going on.
On the first rapid Super Collider, it was waaaaaaaaaay bigger down in there than from the road and while I was mostly on line for it it wasn't on my terms and I couldn't get away from the wall to set my angle a little better.
I was a little nervous after that to run Whiteline, but I stomped the entrance boof and set up perfectly for the final boof and I layed it down.
We got to middle narrows and it felt big even though I have run it in a playboat much higher. Don't get me wrong, it was super fun, it just felt big for some reason.
Finally we got to Lower Narrows, but that is another write up
On Tuesday I was still sore and recovering from the century I put on my bike, so I decided to do a little nearby boating. I met up with Ian, Scott, and Mike and we hit up SSV.
Most people talk smack aboot this run but we had pretty decent flows. The group was guessing about 250cfs. I personally thought the run was sweet and a good technical run.
the bad news was I broke my boat and I don't know how cause I didn't hit anything too hard. Kinda sucks I only got three days out of it.
The other bad news was that I swam. I was coming down one of the longer rapids and the boater in front of me was not having the best of lines and basically went down it backwards and so I was catching up to him. As I came over the last horizon line I was staring right at him and was about to boof over the hole right into his face. I turned at the last second and hit him out of the hole but it put me in the hole nice and side ways. I gave her a good run for the money for about 20-30 seconds but finally could not pull myself out and got windowshaded for the second time and pulled. When I came up, I was surprised to see another boat and swimmer in the hole with me.
The rapid that caused all the damage. Still a super fun rapid
I grabbed my stuff and we rescued the other swimmer's boat and paddle so it was no biggy and I haven't done a hole ride in a while so it was probably a good thing.Poor little guy, out there all alone
We ended the run without further incident and called it a good day.
I waited around till about 11:30 knowing that boaters are notoriously late getting to meeting spots, even though we were supposed to meet at 8am. I started riding down the Poudre Canyon and got a good ways past Rustic when I finally met up with them. We headed back up and I will just say our mission ended in defeat. Damn you Ranger Rick.
Not to be totally down in out we proceeded to run a couple laps on Spencer Heights which is a run that I absolutely love. The Sportsman's gauge was reading a bout 2.9 which is an ok flow. I don't think it can get too big personally.
We all came up to Rocket Launcher and most people ran it and everyone came out just fine, I think it was 7/7. This was a first for me as I have ran the run probably about fifteen times and have always walked Rocket Launcher. It was styled and I was feeling good.
After that we portaged around Poudre falls which would be so lovely if it wasn't for that third drop and ran Cyclotron which is hole punching at its finest and ends with a sweet mushroom rock boof. Which I of course missed.
We came up to Boneyard next a long and technical rapid involving serious amounts of skill and bravery just to comprehend the complexities of its nature. Once again styled by all.
We then entered the mini gorge which is just a collection of boofs and holes to punch. So good once it hits your lips. We did run into some trouble here as a boater (I don't like using names of people who have bad days) went for quite the hole ride in the entrance of the gorge. It just so happened that this was his first swim in about 5 years, his last being on Double Trouble.
The rest of the run went smoothly and we went back up for round two.
Right now I am furious because I had some awesome video of all of us stomping Rocket Launcher and then routing Cyclotron and Boneyard on our second lap. I recorded over it by accident with some SSV stuff. I hate myself right now and will try to get some more footy later.
Sorry to the crew that you can't be world famous on my blog, and thanks for the donations and support. You all rock.
On Saturday I left Steamboat and had to make it to the summit of Cameron's Pass in order to meet some boaters to run the Little North early in the morning.
I was on the road by 6:00am and spent the next few hours of the morn climbing Rabbit Ears Pass. It was about a 7 mile ride at a 7% grade to reach the West summit. I had forgotten that Rabbit Ears had two summits and so I had to continue with more up and down riding to reach the East Summit. It was then down hill for only about 2 miles and then a 50 mile ride to Walden.
I can't think of too many places that are prettier to take a bike ride through. Once in the valley I was surrounded by green meadows which were boxed in by the Zircles and Rawahs. Absolutely stunning.
I got to Walden around lunch time and stopped to eat and rest. My knee had begun to act up and felt like it needed to pop. It felt like it could pop and relieve all the pressure or pop and tear my quad so I was a little worried. My Achilles were starting to tighten up again.
A cow and two of her calves, probably last year's offspring
I left Walden and headed for Cameron Pass and around Gould the rain hit and it was freezing cold. It was however still beautiful out and the mountains were awesome. I also can't think of a time that I am on the west side of Cameron's and don't see a moose. I saw 7 moose that night.
Same moose as the above picture, but if you look into the background there is another cow and she had three first year calves, I only saw one.
I was starting to get dizzy and bonk and had to pedal hard to Gould. I stopped and had some homemade ice-cream at the Drifter's Cookhouse. Blackberry White chocolate Cheesecake and it was probably some of, if not the best ice-cream I have ever eaten. Thanks again for the ice-cream.Typical Cameron's scenery
My bike and the Crags
I was feeling exhausted and the owners not only gave me the ice-cream, but offered me a cabin for the night. i politely declined because I needed to be at the meeting point by 8am. So I kept trucking and by 8pm I had reached the summit of Cameron's and was at the designated campsite. I was freezing cold and completely wiped, but it felt good to have gotten to point B. I put in about 100 miles that day and summited two passes.
Holding down the fort in the rear 
Everyone looks confused for some reason 
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