Shannon and I just got back from one of our best adventures in Colorado, yet. Shannon works at REI (a huge outdoor sports store) and can rent equipment for free. We'd been talking about planning a canoe trip in Colorado for a while, but only recently had the time for it. Planning was somewhat last minute, but we did a lot of research on the rivers in Colorado and which sections were doable in a canoe. I wanted something that would challenge us, but not kill us. I've canoed plenty of rivers around Kentucky and didn't want another boring trip on flat water that required paddling to get anywhere. We settled on a 30 mile section of the Upper Colorado River that included mostly class I and II rapids with a few class II+ and class III rapids. We read about each of the more difficult rapids and marked them on our map so that we knew were to expect each of them.
We packed our bags Wednesday night and woke up at 5 am Thursday morning for our two hour drive to the river. Both of us had to drive because we had to leave one car at our take-out location and drive the other, with all our gear, to the put-in. We arrived at the put-in at 9 am. It took about an hour to get the boat ready, tie in our dry bags, and secure all our equipment (extra paddle, water bottles, bailing bucket, etc) and we were finally floating around ten. I sat in the back and Shannon sat in the front of the canoe. Shannon hadn't been on whitewater in over eight years and though I have a moderate amount of experience canoeing and whitewater rafting, this would be my first time whitewater canoeing. We were both a bit apprehensive as we began the trip.
There were only a few class I warm up rapids before our first big challenge, a class III rapid called Needle's Eye. It was in a canyon with steep walls on either side and a large rock in the middle of the river. The drop in the water level on either side of the rock was about two feet. One description of the rapid reads "at higher flows, the hole in the center can easily flip a raft." We weren't quite prepared for the rapid and approached it from the center of the river. We learned the hard way that it wasn't easy to maneuver the 16 foot canoe in swift water. The front of the canoe struck the rock before we had time to turn away from it. Luckily, the current pulled the boat around the rock and through the rapid without flipping it. We made it through a few class II rapids following Needle's Eye, then had to stop to bail a few inches of water out of the bottom of our canoe. The low sitting canoe allowed lots of waves to crash over the sidewalls.
Here is an early cabin from the area we stopped to explore. There was a geocache nearby, too.
About three miles into the trip, we learned our next hard lesson. We were floating down a relatively benign (but fast flowing) section of the river when we noticed a tombstone rock in front of us. We tried to maneuver to the left of it, but again found the boat to be unresponsive. We struck the rock with the front right of our boat and this time paid for it. The canoe flipped. The current was very swift and Shannon and I both grabbed onto the boat as it floated down stream. After several seconds, I was able to get my feet on the bottom of the river. The current was so strong that I had to let go of my paddle and hold the canoe with both hands to keep from losing my grip. The water was about five feet deep, so I couldn't stand, but drug my feet along the bottom of the river as I slowly pulled the boat closer to the shore. I was wearing sandals, so my feet and ankles got beaten up as they dragged across the rocky bottom of the river. After a long, frantic minute, we had wrestled the canoe to water shallow enough to stand in. We flipped the boat over and secured it on some rocks. It was full of water, but all of our gear was still in place and attached to the canoe. We had at least done a good job tying everything down. The only thing we lost was a battery and a roll of toilette paper that had been in a mesh bag I'd forgotten to close after the last time I'd opened it (and the paddle I let go of). We actually watched the roll of toilette paper (inside of a zip lock bag) float by as we were pulling the boat to shore.
We were both ok, but had learned another valuable lesson about whitewater canoeing. In order to effectively maneuver the boat, I had to paddle backwards (and HARD) to slow it down in the swift water and give us time to move the boat to the proper position in the rapids. Flipping our boat in such a simple manner also made us even more nervous about the tough rapids ahead. If we couldn't keep the boat upright in this section of river, how were we going to survive the toughest set of rapids we'd face, only a few miles ahead?
The answer came in the form of a commercial rafting group that we happened upon at the last put-in point before the next set of class III rapids. I'd been nervously excited about Yarmony Rapid, the crux of our entire trip, since I first read about it on several river guide websites. Shannon and I had been discussing how we were going to make it through Yarmony, especially after flipping the canoe earlier. Before we left for the trip, one of Shannon's co-workers warned her that we would flip going through Yarmony.
As we floated down river after our capsize, we were also looking for the floating toilette paper and our spare paddle. We didn't want to litter, and were concerned that we'd already lost our spare paddle only three miles into the trip. We managed to find both the toilette paper and the paddle floating in separate eddies down the river. We'd recovered everything we lost during the flip, so our confidence was somewhat boosted. At least we had a spare paddle if anything went wrong in Yarmony.
At least I look like I know what I'm doing...
The scenery along the river was beautiful.
We stopped at the last put-in before Red Gore Canyon (which contains Yarmony and several class II+ rapids before and after it). A commercial guide was preparing to run the section with several clients in a raft and a ducky. We asked the guide about how Yarmony was at the current water level and if she though we could make it in a canoe. She agreed with Shannon's co-worker, saying that she'd "never seen anyone do it in one of those right side up." She gave us some helpful pointers about the rapids and offered to let us follow their group through the challenging section. We gladly accepted the offer.
Along with the two rafts were two kayakers, who also knew the section of the river. While we floated toward the rapids, we talked with the kayakers and raft guide about how to best approach the rapids. Basically, we just needed to try and follow their line, a challenging task, considering the kayaks were significantly more manueverable at about 1/3 the length of our canoe and the raft could easily bounce off of rocks without flipping.
As the rapids approached, I got down on my knees in the bottom of the canoe (to lower the center of gravity). The first rapid, Red Eye, was a class II that required us to stay left of a large rock. Using my new strategy of paddling backwards to steer the boat, we made it through Red Eye with little fuss. Next up, Yarmony. Yarmony consists of a few drops with boulders to avoid scattered through the rapid. As we entered the first drop, huge waves crashed over our heads and poured into the boat. We kept the canoe lined up well, though, following the raft in front of us. After the first drop, the nose of the canoe got caught in a slow moving eddy while the back remained in the fast moving current, spinning the canoe backwards in the middle of the rapid. I wrestled the back of the canoe into the eddy and forced the front of the canoe back into the current, spinning us back to face the correct direction. Fierce back-paddling as we went over the next drop kept us away from a wall on the left. From there, a long wave train poured water over the sides of the canoe, but we'd made it through the toughest part of the rapid. Without flipping. A few more class II rapids in the canyon poured more water into the boat, but were a breeze to navigate compared to Yarmony. The four inches of water that had accumulated in our canoe had made it significantly more unstable, so we thanked our "guides" and stopped the canoe on a rocky beach to bail out the water. We'd made it through the toughest rapids of the trip and could finally let our nerves relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery around us.
We camped over night at a sandy beach around the halfway point of the river. Here's a picture of our campsite. It was taken after the camera got wet, which is why it's so hazy.
The second day consisted of a lot of flat water with several class I and II rapids interspersed. We were able to relax and just float with the current most of the day, though it was overcast, so it was quite a bit cooler than it had been the previous day. Unfortunately, Shannon's "waterproof" camera got a little too wet and was unable to take pictures for the most of the trip. Guess we'll have to do it again to get some pictures.
We packed our bags Wednesday night and woke up at 5 am Thursday morning for our two hour drive to the river. Both of us had to drive because we had to leave one car at our take-out location and drive the other, with all our gear, to the put-in. We arrived at the put-in at 9 am. It took about an hour to get the boat ready, tie in our dry bags, and secure all our equipment (extra paddle, water bottles, bailing bucket, etc) and we were finally floating around ten. I sat in the back and Shannon sat in the front of the canoe. Shannon hadn't been on whitewater in over eight years and though I have a moderate amount of experience canoeing and whitewater rafting, this would be my first time whitewater canoeing. We were both a bit apprehensive as we began the trip.
There were only a few class I warm up rapids before our first big challenge, a class III rapid called Needle's Eye. It was in a canyon with steep walls on either side and a large rock in the middle of the river. The drop in the water level on either side of the rock was about two feet. One description of the rapid reads "at higher flows, the hole in the center can easily flip a raft." We weren't quite prepared for the rapid and approached it from the center of the river. We learned the hard way that it wasn't easy to maneuver the 16 foot canoe in swift water. The front of the canoe struck the rock before we had time to turn away from it. Luckily, the current pulled the boat around the rock and through the rapid without flipping it. We made it through a few class II rapids following Needle's Eye, then had to stop to bail a few inches of water out of the bottom of our canoe. The low sitting canoe allowed lots of waves to crash over the sidewalls.
Here is an early cabin from the area we stopped to explore. There was a geocache nearby, too.
About three miles into the trip, we learned our next hard lesson. We were floating down a relatively benign (but fast flowing) section of the river when we noticed a tombstone rock in front of us. We tried to maneuver to the left of it, but again found the boat to be unresponsive. We struck the rock with the front right of our boat and this time paid for it. The canoe flipped. The current was very swift and Shannon and I both grabbed onto the boat as it floated down stream. After several seconds, I was able to get my feet on the bottom of the river. The current was so strong that I had to let go of my paddle and hold the canoe with both hands to keep from losing my grip. The water was about five feet deep, so I couldn't stand, but drug my feet along the bottom of the river as I slowly pulled the boat closer to the shore. I was wearing sandals, so my feet and ankles got beaten up as they dragged across the rocky bottom of the river. After a long, frantic minute, we had wrestled the canoe to water shallow enough to stand in. We flipped the boat over and secured it on some rocks. It was full of water, but all of our gear was still in place and attached to the canoe. We had at least done a good job tying everything down. The only thing we lost was a battery and a roll of toilette paper that had been in a mesh bag I'd forgotten to close after the last time I'd opened it (and the paddle I let go of). We actually watched the roll of toilette paper (inside of a zip lock bag) float by as we were pulling the boat to shore.
We were both ok, but had learned another valuable lesson about whitewater canoeing. In order to effectively maneuver the boat, I had to paddle backwards (and HARD) to slow it down in the swift water and give us time to move the boat to the proper position in the rapids. Flipping our boat in such a simple manner also made us even more nervous about the tough rapids ahead. If we couldn't keep the boat upright in this section of river, how were we going to survive the toughest set of rapids we'd face, only a few miles ahead?
The answer came in the form of a commercial rafting group that we happened upon at the last put-in point before the next set of class III rapids. I'd been nervously excited about Yarmony Rapid, the crux of our entire trip, since I first read about it on several river guide websites. Shannon and I had been discussing how we were going to make it through Yarmony, especially after flipping the canoe earlier. Before we left for the trip, one of Shannon's co-workers warned her that we would flip going through Yarmony.
As we floated down river after our capsize, we were also looking for the floating toilette paper and our spare paddle. We didn't want to litter, and were concerned that we'd already lost our spare paddle only three miles into the trip. We managed to find both the toilette paper and the paddle floating in separate eddies down the river. We'd recovered everything we lost during the flip, so our confidence was somewhat boosted. At least we had a spare paddle if anything went wrong in Yarmony.
At least I look like I know what I'm doing...
The scenery along the river was beautiful.
We stopped at the last put-in before Red Gore Canyon (which contains Yarmony and several class II+ rapids before and after it). A commercial guide was preparing to run the section with several clients in a raft and a ducky. We asked the guide about how Yarmony was at the current water level and if she though we could make it in a canoe. She agreed with Shannon's co-worker, saying that she'd "never seen anyone do it in one of those right side up." She gave us some helpful pointers about the rapids and offered to let us follow their group through the challenging section. We gladly accepted the offer.
Along with the two rafts were two kayakers, who also knew the section of the river. While we floated toward the rapids, we talked with the kayakers and raft guide about how to best approach the rapids. Basically, we just needed to try and follow their line, a challenging task, considering the kayaks were significantly more manueverable at about 1/3 the length of our canoe and the raft could easily bounce off of rocks without flipping.
As the rapids approached, I got down on my knees in the bottom of the canoe (to lower the center of gravity). The first rapid, Red Eye, was a class II that required us to stay left of a large rock. Using my new strategy of paddling backwards to steer the boat, we made it through Red Eye with little fuss. Next up, Yarmony. Yarmony consists of a few drops with boulders to avoid scattered through the rapid. As we entered the first drop, huge waves crashed over our heads and poured into the boat. We kept the canoe lined up well, though, following the raft in front of us. After the first drop, the nose of the canoe got caught in a slow moving eddy while the back remained in the fast moving current, spinning the canoe backwards in the middle of the rapid. I wrestled the back of the canoe into the eddy and forced the front of the canoe back into the current, spinning us back to face the correct direction. Fierce back-paddling as we went over the next drop kept us away from a wall on the left. From there, a long wave train poured water over the sides of the canoe, but we'd made it through the toughest part of the rapid. Without flipping. A few more class II rapids in the canyon poured more water into the boat, but were a breeze to navigate compared to Yarmony. The four inches of water that had accumulated in our canoe had made it significantly more unstable, so we thanked our "guides" and stopped the canoe on a rocky beach to bail out the water. We'd made it through the toughest rapids of the trip and could finally let our nerves relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery around us.
We camped over night at a sandy beach around the halfway point of the river. Here's a picture of our campsite. It was taken after the camera got wet, which is why it's so hazy.
The second day consisted of a lot of flat water with several class I and II rapids interspersed. We were able to relax and just float with the current most of the day, though it was overcast, so it was quite a bit cooler than it had been the previous day. Unfortunately, Shannon's "waterproof" camera got a little too wet and was unable to take pictures for the most of the trip. Guess we'll have to do it again to get some pictures.
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