Return to the Black Canyon

What can you say about the Black Canyon? An utterly amazing place with a work and danger to paddling ratio that most kayakers would never sign on for. If this run was in an average canyon, it would see little to no traffic; but it isn't. The Black Canyon is about enjoying an epic adventure in the most scenic place in Colorado, running a handful of cool rapids and fraternizing with the other high-class individuals who frequent the place.

On my first foray into the canyon in 2010, I dislocated my shoulder twice, destroyed my feet on the portage, and generally got my ass kicked due to the physically demanding nature of the run. The flow was 600 cfs and I swore I would never do it any lower.

Fast forward to 2011. Tragically, after running strong for months, the watermasters droped the river to a paltry 580cfs the night before. Oh well, we didn't all drive to Montrose for the arts scene. Better go kayaking anyway. At this low end of runnable flows, most of the rapids are quite manageable. There are very few hard decisions to make because most of the rapids are either Class IV or V+. A word of caution though- this is not Numbers Class IV. This run is littered with sieves and should not be attempted if you ever find yourself upside down or out-of-control in Class IV as a small mistake could be fatal. Enough of the scare tactics, here are the pictures:

Rolf braves a low water Daywrecker experience:

Jeremy runs a nice line in the entrance to Double Drop. This rapid usually runs clean, but contains a gaping sieve on the left out of the frame.

Triple Drop- no thanks.

The Principal's Office- one of the 3++++++ rapids in the Black. The extra +'s are for what happens if you miss the line.

Scott Dent cruising into possibly my favorite rapid- Lower Intestine.

Cali Nick in Ballcrusher.

Rush hour at the waterfall. Heise scouts while Jason boofs.

And then, there is the portage. Maybe it was better footwear, or maybe it was knowing the route a bit better, or maybe it was the cooler weather, but somehow, it did not seem nearly as bad this time. Don't get me wrong, it's still really hard, but doable. And as a bonus, I don't even have much poison ivy...yet.

The best place ever.

Cave camp pool in the morning.

Mr. Black Canyon- Tom Janney running Next Generation, sprained ankle be damned.

Yup, more of this.

Til next year...

Vallecito

Vallecito is a run that has always made me nervous. With a mile of boxed in Class V in an inescapable gorge and stories of great boaters getting humbled, this is a run that deserves respect. Also deserving consideration is the water level. The photos in this post were taken at 2.05 feet (about 290 cfs), which everyone seems to agree is a padded but not terrifying level. I would not want to go in much higher primarily because of the boil/backcut cave at Entrance Falls. But many people do go in higher, so it is definitely possible.

Big thanks to Cruise, Danny, Shawn and Cody for thinking that taking five newbies in at once (for a total group size of nine) was a good idea. It would have been a much more stressful day without their beta.

Crowded put-in.



Cruise stomping the everliving crap out of Entrance Falls.



Famous John coming through entrance.



Big Eric entering Trash Can. Wonder how it got that name.



If you look closely, you can see the log jammed deep in Fuzzy Bunny- bummer.



The view downstream from Fuzzy Bunny.



Cody demonstrating the manky Boufant sneak- note the logs on the left blocking the normal line.



Cody styling Paddle Bitch.



Issues in Paddle Bitch.



As you have probably gathered, the wood situation in Vallecito is not so great right now. There are three problem spots with big logs that probably cannot be removed until the water drops. But they will be out eventually, and the run is still really good, even with these issues. All in all, this is an amazing run in an amazing canyon, but not to be taken lightly. I can't wait to get a few more runs and get the lines a bit more dialed.

Crested Butte 2011

We headed up to Crested Butte the first weekend of July to hit the four CB creeks: OBJ, Daisey, Slate and Upper East. Due to the record-breaking snowpack in this part of the state, the creeks were all still running strong at a time when they are often petering out. We did the quadruple crown (all 4 creeks in a day) Saturday and Sunday and then hit Daisey again on Monday before taking off, paddling with a different crew from across the state and beyond each day. Due to the large snowpack and hot days, water levels were solid medium in the morning and high at night. The general plan was to do OBJ in the morning when levels were reasonable, followed by Daisey-Slate in the afternoon and the Upper East in the evening.

Chris Menges has the lines on OBJ pretty well figured out.

The section above the "25 footer" seemed pretty frantic with good flows, but there were still a few eddies to break it down. C1er on the drops before the corner.



It seemed like everyone had trouble getting away from the curtain on the big one. I went deep and blew my skirt on my first run. There were even some reports of people hitting the bottom. Fortunately, this is one of the few OK places to be upside down on the run.



The bottom slides looked stout with big flows. Avalanche seemed to go well for most takers, but many folks took big hits on the very bottom drop- so I did not run it. Chase looking good (straight) on Avalanche.



After OBJ, we hit Daisey and Slate with rising flows in the Afternoon. The consensus was that this combo was a very quality run. Daisey is a bit manky, with in my opinion, the sharpest rocks of any of the CB creeks...but it has a 20 foot boof. For some reason, I came off Big Wood crooked all 3 times I ran it, which does not look as cool, but makes for no big hit to the bottom. A typical crooked line by the author- photo credit: Kevin Cripps.


The Slate is really fun with good water, with lots of fun twisty class IV with big diagonals and holes. I only got one picture, because the Slate isn't really a run you stop on. The crew exiting the wooded mini-gorge.



We finished up Saturday and Sunday with the Upper East which was pretty much out of its banks by evening. It was a whole different run from the slow scrapy version I remember, with big diagonal waves and holes. It actually handed out some beatings to boaters who has successfully completed the other three creeks. Not much time for photos on this one either. Just this one- feeling stupid?

As a barometer, we had flows of about 1000cfs on the Slate and about 2200 on the East, and I would consider this just about optimal.

Cataract @ 70,000

I like big water. At least that is what I like to say. But maybe I just like runs where I can roll without hitting my head on rocks, and have no idea what I am talking about with big water. There is more than enough time for these thoughts to revolve in your head on the multi-hour drive and shuttle for Cataract Canyon. The level is 70,000 cfs. Maybe it is all washed out into Class III. Maybe not. Only one way to find out.

But first, flatwater. Lots of it. Like 50+ miles before you reach the rapids. We paddled from 2PM to 11PM on day 1 and made about 40 miles. Kevin takes the flatwater paddle in very seriously.



Russ' bunk buddy on night 1.



When we finally reach the rapids at noon on day 2, tensions are a bit high. We have two paddlers in our group who have done the run at 50k and they are astonished by how high the river is. Rapid number 2, which I guess is usually not big deal has 20 foot waves and huge eddylines. No way to go but downstream.

Things never really get much harder than number 2 though. Most of the rapids are similar with long snaking wavetrains- some waves 20-30 feet high. But most are friendly and there are no holes. Every rock in the river is so far underwater that the only river features are eddylines and compression waves.

Even Big Drop 1 is washed out.



Big Drops 2 and 3 are not quite washed out. This picture does no justice, but if you can imagine, these features (Little Niagra on the right, and the Window Wave on the left) are thirty feet tall. The barely noticeable "marker waves" are 10+ feet tall. The line here was to punch the diagonal between the two bigger features.



View downstream of the rest of the rapid.



Deep contempation at Satan's Gut.



And then there was more flatwater. Seriously, Cat has alot of flatwater. At least it is scenic.



Our trip took a total of 48 hours, about 22 on the water. The high flows did not really speed up the flatwater, especially with a headwind. It is hard to rate the difficulty of the rapids. There are no real moves to make except in the Big Drops, but the waves and eddylines are huge and a swim would be really really bad. I literally do not know how a swimmer would get to shore in the rapids. The folks in our group who had done it at 50k thought that level was harder because there were holes in play that were washed out at 70k. Take this description for what it is worth. Cat at these levels is a very unique experience and I would love to go back...with a jetboat ride through the flatwater.

High Water on Pine Creek

Pine Creek at high water is an interesting run/rapid. Lots of folks put somewhere higher than the Numbers to get a little more action. At high water the stuff above Pine Creek itself is fun and the runout to the rapid is great. It is also a popular theory that the Pine Creek hole flushes at high flows so it is no big deal. This is a very easy theory to explain from your couch in the middle of the winter, but harder to back up when you actually see the rapid at 3000cfs, when the hole is still there but... kinda flushing.

At high flows the dam drop above Pine Creek goes well and is actually pretty fun.

The rapid itself from above. You are not getting left at this level.



Anonymous kayaker deep in the gut of the hole.



Cool video of our group and a couple other running the hole. Video by Robin Johnson.

Kayakers vs. Pine Creek Hole from Robin Johnson on Vimeo.

So, it does flush. Get out there and do your big water training.

Upper Animas

The Upper A is an amazing place that must be experienced to appreciate. Difficulty is highly dependent on flows, but it is always a great experience. We hit it recently with what I consider perfect flows. 1300 (medium) in Silverton, but with side creeks pumping it was pretty high by Rockwood (1700 on the Tacoma gauge). Side note: the Tacoma gauge reads low at higher levels (1700 at Tacoma felt like 2500+cfs as we floated past the gauge). The smoky put-in thanks to huge wildfires in Arizona.

During one of the fall rainstorms last year, in the spot where the old Snowshed Rapid used to be, a side drainage ripped out in a huge landslide, partially blocking the river. Fortunately, the result is a totally clean rapid.

Russ running the new rapid.

The only other pics I got were of No Name (oops, camera battery died). No Name is the biggest rapid on the Animas. Is is nice IV+ at low water but a hole forms at high water that has most boaters walking. At our flow the hole was forming, but not yet the high water monster. A couple kayakers pose in No Name for scale (This is the entrance. The big hole is out of the frame downstream.).

The Upper A is really too much river for one blog post. Broken Bridge is great at every level, Rockwood is intense at higher flows and the in-between is pure bliss. Get it before it's gone.

Cascade Creek

Cascade Creek (aka 3rd Gorge of Lime) is a great single day adventure. You get some hiking, 2 miles of creeking, 6ish miles of Upper A wavetrains, the option of the Rockwood Box with healthy flows and then some more hiking. The adventure starts with a 1-2 mile downhill hike from Purgatory to Purgatory flats.

We were a little dubious on the flows after everything spiked overnight, but a quick peek at the Cascade Slot and Lime Creek at the highway assured us that flows would not be too high. Too high does not really refer to the rapids on the run, which would be sweet at flood, but rather to the eddy above the 5+ portage and one limbo log at the bottom of a rapid most of they down the creek. These photos are from med-high flows (est 600+ in the creek, 1600 on the Tacoma gauge). Purgatory flats- your put-in and first opportunity to get a real visual on flows.

A couple wavetrains and a roll under a log bring you to the landslide portage. Maybe it would be just easier to run...maybe not (it has been run).

The launch out of the portage is the most gripping part of the run. It requires a seal launch right where the current slams into a wall. However, it goes better than it looks and is actually the best rapid on the run.

The only rapid that really stands out in my mind below this is the ledgy drop a few hundred yards downstream of the portage. At this level the hole looked horrible, but the ledge appeared to be a good boof. We proved ourselves completely wrong as four of us plugged the hole and paddled out one after another. Big Eric gets ready to displace some backwash.

The rest of the run is all straightforward Class IV, but it is wall-to-wall water in places and pretty continuous, so a swim would be bad. After you hit the Animas, you have six miles (maybe 45 minutes) to the Rockwood Box, which will be harder than Cascade at pretty much any level.