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.