Piedra

The Piedra, the old fallback. Nothing else is running yet? Do the Piedra. Everything is scary high? Do the Piedra. Despite its long shuttle, and paddling 8 miles of flatwater for one mile of whitewater, somehow it is still worth it. The one mile of whitewater is one of the best miles of class IV in Colorado, and the flatwater actually moves pretty fast with good flows.

A couple weeks ago we went up for a beautiful Piedra day and hiked about 1/2 mile up the First Fork to a drop that I had scouted with low water. With water in it, it was only about a six foot ledge, but it was clean and fun. Drew boofs it.

Unfortunately there were about 5 log jam portages between the ledge and the put-in, so it probably won't be repeated, but at least we were warm for the actual paddling portion of the day.

Once the rapids kick off, they are powerful and fluffy with big easy lines.

Boof!

The Eye of the Needle is by far the biggest rapid on the run. Though technically easy, this one always gets the blood pumping due to the powerful constriction and chunky run out. I recommend always scouting this one because I have seen several different woof configurations in the runout. Never content with the standard line, Kevin drops in switch.

The paddle out is long but scenic and the water moves fast. Stop at the hotsprings on river left if they are not already full of naked hippies.