Slaughter House

After Frying Pan we headed over to the Slaughter House section on the Roaring Fork river. It was getting late and we put on about 6:30pm. Tanner was feeling tired after 6 days of paddling so it was just Mike and I.

This is one of the juiciest, quality, class IV runs in the state. It goes on and on, it stays pretty consistent in its difficulty for the full four miles. The general character is technical, channelized IV.

We finished it in just under an hour.

Upper Frying Pan

Cousin Allyn informed me I was swaddled in impenetrable jargon so I have added some links on the left frame to help. I can't help with the general extreme sport lexicon.

I guess the Upper Frying Pan would have been our 6th day paddling across Colorado. We left Eagle and headed over this cool pass to the Frying Pan River near Basalt, CO. I loved the scenary everything is green in Colorado right now.

The Upper Frying Pan is a cold technical class IV+ river that has the feel of a creekwith its boulder garden style drops. It had been our list for a couple of years. We took a look at it last year and decided to back down, this year we were feeling a bit more confident, but still put on with some anxiety, as we always do.

The first drops were on us fairly quick and were a load of fun.
As with most unknown rapids we usually scout horizon lines, but we came upon on rapid were the eddy wasn't large enough for all of us. Mike tried to eddy beside me, but decided to charge the rapid rather than flushing into it backwards. He looked good going down and I positioned myself to follow. Tanner had chosen a different line and was also below. I dropped in and apparently chose the wrong line and found myself pinned on a rock. I tried everything to get leverage to move over it or wiggle around it but I wasn't going anywhere. The rapid was rather long and Tanner and Mike were not in eyesight so I blew my whistle for a while and they came to the rescue. Luckily Tanner was on my side of the river and was able to pull me off the rock and send me on down.

It was a good lesson learned. Stay within eyesight and always have one boater stopped on each side of the river.

We regrouped and moved on down through some more fun rapids and finally to what I imagine was the crux of the run. Mike looked for while and decided to walk, Tanner followed. I decided to just portage the opening move and run the majority of the rapid minus the sketchy entrance.
The river was really a lot if fun, the remainder had a less boulder garden style and a more continuous nature.

Headed out

We are headed down to Aspen and then over toward Buena Vista, I'll update you guys when I get an internet connection. Thanks Barb and Don for the 5 star accommodations in Eagle it was great!

Dowd Chute and Upper Eagle

Shortly after meeting up with Mike we decided to forgo the Gore Creek run since they probably had some Teva game competitions on it. We set shuttle and hooked up with the nice guy from Breckenridge that ran the Dowd Chute (Huge Water!) and the Upper Eagle. It was running just over 5.5 feet high on the bridge. This correlates to a a rating approaching V-, but was likely IVish in actuality. I was rather nervous but Mike seemed comfortable. I let him go first.

Dowd Chute from put-in to take out is just over a mile long and was over in less than 10 minutes. The rapid proper is channelized and pretty much the biggest water I have ever been in. Waves that seemed taller than me and probably were, we missed the holes that would swallow a car. You would take huge hits that would move your entire boat laterally 5 feet. Good fun.

After Dowd we enjoyed the relative safety of III+ on the Upper Eagle. I could argue it was harder as once again the waves and holes were enormous. The river was flowing at 2400 cfs and is pretty high. We enjoyed the endless wave trains on down. Thanks to Greg who led the charge as I was feeling rather tentative about the huge water.

No pictures, this water was just moving too fast and we really didn't make and stops.

Eagle Source 09

Good fun today. Headed out early to watch the Teva Games kick of with the Homestake Creek race. It was fun seeing the lines, but the water was low and didn't look that tough. I wanted to see some more carnage.

Shortly afterwards we headed up to the Eagle Source for revenge. Last year some willows tried to destroy my shoulder and I ended up walking two of the three major drops. Not this year. The river is a narrow low flow creek that quickly decends into Redcliff. In the middle there is this cool little mini-gorge.


The river keeps on trucking into a rapid called Not Done Yet. Last year, we read some horror stories about a pin in the middle that was rather dangerous. This year, I decided to man up and hit it. Not before bending and breaking some willow branches that were in the left channel.


That was about it for the Eagle Source. We did have some excitement with a log jam I though I could skirt on the left and missed the move and plowed right into it. Luckily it moved with me. We rolled down to Red Cliff portaged the last wood section and hooked up with these 18 year old lads from Georgia for a ride to the put in. We rolled back down to Minturn and the take out for Dowd chute and Mike showed up 5 minutes later perfect timing.

Sweetwater Creek

Sweetwater Creek is quite possibly the worst run in Colorado. Worst run that I have actually run at least. The fact that it took an entire day is what really kills me. Despite the deadly combination of singletrack boogie water and constant log chokes, the run started off with a really fun drop. So fun, that we hiked back up and dropped it again. Stay left on the flake or you'll careen sideways off a block and end up upside down and backwards as I quickly learned while trying to improve upon my nearly perfect boof the first time.


A different angle shows its character a bit more. Quite fun.
The fun didn't last long. 30 yards downstream was the first portage. The drop could have been runnable against the right wall, but there was just too much wood. After this the river picked up and we dodged rocks and trees in half blocked channels. We came across the next wood choked rapid and Tanner decided it was all good. Famous last words. The picture below is the second log in a three log series.

Just below is another 3/4 blocked channel. I actually had to wade out and grab Tanner's paddle so he could hold on and pull his skirt. If he tried to flush and roll and missed it be would have been screwed as we figured out when we washed close to it after he pulled. It wasn't really that bad, because Tanner told me take a photo and we wouldn't have had the chance to talk with the angry rooster and his Billy Goat friend.


we negotiated the ruffled rooster without incident and put in just below this third log and I headed down to the next bend, the left channel looked clean. Oh man, was I wrong. I tried to grab an eddy and check the next rapid but it wasn't happening. I flushed out the back and saw the next log blocking my path. In horror, I whipped my boat around again facing upstream and started clutching at the willows and rocks. I finally got purchase on some precarious twig. It was a balancing act until I got my left arm on a rock and was able to pop out and get to shore. I tried to tell Tanner the right line was rocky but clean, but he decided to portage as well.

A couple of dozen more tentative trips around blind corners and we came upon a man-made diversion that we decided had too much wood, not to mention a log we would have to ram and boof in the runout. we were right beside the road at this point and decided that was the end of this adventure. Tanner hitched back to the car and I walked down the next gorge to scout. I saw 3 more wood portages in my short walk before Tanner picked me up.

Alkali Creek

Tuesday we got off to a late start because I forgot to run billing before we left. I think right around 1pm we took off for Tenmile creek and the Snake river in Keystone. As we were passing through Wolcott, Tanner mentioned something about this obscure creek that rarely flows and 50cfs is cranking. It is short and gets pretty steep at its best. On a side note, this creek runs right under about 5 zip lines. Some of them are huge. It's kinda crazy. Anyway, Alkali Creek was what we were looking at apparently.

Barely a boat's width wide it starts off winding through the valley towards the canyon's constriction. We knew it was steep in there because you are quite a bit higher than the Eagle river and you can practically see the Eagle river take-out and the put-in from the same vantage point. Quickly the tempo picks up and we saw the first horizon line, I had no idea what we were in for so I hoped out and scouted and yelled up to Tan man that it's all good.



The next drop was weird looking and I thought I would be slammed into the wall. That said, I should have realized the water really wasn't powerful enough to do much. Tanner showed me how and I followed along.


A couple of more minor obstacles and we were at the crux. A fun quadruple drops that really made the run worth it.



A couple of more and we were out on the Eagle.

Coors Falls, West Fork Clear Creek

A couple of shoots of Coors Falls and the run-out, just off the road to Berthoud Pass, 2.2 miles past the Merrietta restaurant.

Second day 'Man Week'

After a slow start on Monday, we finally got rolling out of town at 3pm. We rolled up to Coors Falls on the West Fork of Clear Creek to check it out. The falls are different than I imagined, around a bend with basically 3 drops in a row. The third spaced a little further out offering time to recoup if the first two went poorly. The action doesn't let up after that, pretty much a white stripe for 100 yards or so, but nothing too bad, just quick. I think we will hit this up on the way back in to town, as we felt the level was a bit high at 300+, not to mention it was cold and raining.

Headed down to Dumont section and put on at a high medium level. Good fun.

First bit is a quick moving and rowdy section that keeps you busy and a bit white knuckled if you don't know the run. The next section is a pool drop section that is about 8 ledges and holes that were a bit washed out, but less bony than usual. Then came the carnage!

I remembered a rapid that flipped Tanner and Fred before, and thought it was coming ahead. I asked Mike should we scout and he said "no, just go left to right". I thought he was wrong and headed right to left only to come over a lip and into a huge hole. I was stuck for long enough to glance over my right shoulder to see Tanner coming right in after me, I imagine his face reciprocated mine. After getting over the boil, I looked over my left shoulder to see all 7 feet of Tanner's boat in the air and falling backwards. I prepared for a swimmer, but Tanner stuck it out for most of the rapid but wasn't able to get upright. He bailed and I remember not what he said, but his horrified tone. I was in good position and he grabbed the back of my boat and I got him to shore. Mike and I chased his boat for a mile or so, before wedging it just after the Phoenix rapid.

Tanner showed up a little rattled, but ok.

NSV - Proving Grounds

Technically, the first run of 'Man Week 09'. Good low flow creeking. Perhaps a bit manky, but fun none the less. It was running about 250cfs, a good 50cfs higher than our last adventure. The first drop comes just below button rock parking lot and is a sieved out gnarly beast. The guide book says it is class V+ if the sneak on the right wasn't there. I wouldn't call it a good sneak line. You drop over a lip bump a tree, then a rock, then over another lip into another rock, around a blind chute-like corner into the safety of a boulder strewn pool and hump some more rocks into back into the main flow.

From Proving Grounds

The next drop is quality. Good boof.

From Proving Grounds

From Proving Grounds

From Proving Grounds

We scouted the next drop and Mike and I didn't notice the easy line of the next drop, Tanner saw it and styled the entrance, but lost his line mid-way. While trying to get back on line, he hit a rock, got turned around backwards and continued down the wrong line facing Mike and I. We were laughing our asses off. Tanner was fine through the whole thing, but it really was the funniest thing I have seen in a while. He made it to the last hole and I remember him, facing the sky, going into the burly bottom hole backwards. He flipped and got all stuck against the bank and swam out. That really is the namesake of blog. Upright and Backwards.

From Proving Grounds

High spirited, we pumped some fist in the air and Mike and I followed on down.

From Proving Grounds