Crested Butte Creeks

The Crested Butte Creeks offer kayakers a chance to bounce down sharp slate bedrock in a beatiful high alpine valleys. Its more fun than it sounds. We started with the Upper East, which is the easiest of the four. This would be a cool run of it was longer. But it isn't and I didn't take any pictures because the run only took about six minutes.

On to Daisey Creek. This Creek is tiny and quite fun. It starts with about five slides in quick succession. Josh Heise checks out the site of his scary vertical pin last year (go left on the third slide).

After the into slides, the creek briefly mellows to class II before dropping off Big Wood Falls, which has a cleaner landing than it has had in years.

After Daisey, we floated on down the Slate. This is the least popular creek in the area. It actually has some good rapids, but also quite a bit of wood and a couple barbed wire fences. On a side note, on the Slate river, Heise found part of his breakdown paddle that he lost 11 months ago in his pin on Daisey. Crazy. Heise runs some of the less clean whitewater in the area.

The biggest drop on the Slate is Wicked Wanda. It is definitely runnable, but also definitely dangerous. The entrance is flippy and there is a log extending from the center of the rapid. It would probably be more appealing with more water or less wood.

On to the main event: Oh be joyful. There isn't much to say about this creek that has not already been said. I'll just add that this creek is not as easy as some people make it out to be. Yes, there are good lines, but also chances to crash badly if you get off line. It is definitely alot of fun though.

Kevin boofs the put-in drop.

Un-named slide to 8 footer:

Donnie with a great line off the big-un.

The fellas ponder the Avalanche slide (and more importantly the Beaver Dam From Hell).

Top half of the Avalanche Slide:

Top half of the bottom slide.

Ian makes the turn on the bottom slide.

There is no good gauge for OBJ, Daisey or the Slate. The Slate gauge is far downstream. For what its worth, the creeks were nice medium when the Slate was at 700-800, okay low when the Slate was at 600, and real low when the Slate was at 500. This barometer is very rough and will vary based on the time of the season (higher gauge reading needed earlier in the season). The creeks will also be higher later in the day on days when the weather is warm.

Third Gorge Lime/Rockwood

The Third Gorge of Lime Creek (aka Cascade Creek) through Rockwood is a nice wilderness day run that involves a hike in (1.5 miles), some Class IV creeking, some Class III wavetrains on the Upper A, the Rockwood Box, and then a big hike up a hill to your car. It feels like a full day even though it can be easily completed in an afternoon. I think this is a good option for accessing Rockwood earlier in the season when the Upper A is low and cold and Cascade is higher relative to the flow on the Animas. The first time I did this run, Cascade was low and pretty dull. However, when we did it in May of this year, we had about 400 in the Creek and the run was fun. The Animas was at 2200 in town, which is a very rough barometer.

The first rapid of note is the Landslide Drop, which is usually portaged. The launch/runout to this rapid is probably the most exciting part of Cascade Creek.

One of the main attractions of this run is the chance to run Rockwood at a good flow. With the Animas at 2200 in town, Rockwood was good fun. Really no Class V moves, just quality Class IV, but do not swim. It is hard to take pictures that really capture the Box, but I tried.

First Gorge Lime Creek

The First Gorge of Lime Creek is a short high alpine run that does not need a whole lot of water to run. If the creek looks too low at the put-in, the level is probably good, but could be too low. We did it in late May when the Animas at Durango was at 2400. This made for a nice medium-low flow, but this barometer is very rough, so don't quote me on it. The run starts with some small ledges. If these are scrapy but okay, the gorge below will be good.

Low-medium was a great level for Adrenaline Falls. Adrenaline is an intimidating falls with a tricky entrance. We somehow did not get a single shot of the one really photo-worthy drop on the run, but it went well. The S-turn was fun as always and then we reached the finale, Dragon's Back. Count runs Dragon's Back down the traditional right line.

Mark tried a new line. It didn't work very well, but reinforced the general concensus that a left line here equals a swim.