What Rivers/Creeks Are You Most Stoked About?

[Yonder_River]

All this talk about kayaking plus the warm weather here in Colorado have got me starting to think about paddling again.

On that note, what rivers/creeks are you most excited to get back on or run for the first time? It's always great to hear what folks favorites are or what they're aspiring to.

Old Stuff:
Bear Creek: (at high water, I know it's manky, but it gets better w/ more h20)
Clear Creek of the Ark: (super fun, non-stop, low consequence creekin)
Black Rock: (having this in the backyard makes Denver more liveable)


New Stuff:
Oh Be Joyful: (I think I'm game for all the drops, although the broken backs scare me)
South Boulder Creek: (Don't know why I haven't gotten on this yet)
Gilman Gorge: (I've heard this is a great run)


Seattle mags, how's your season going? I'm moving up mid-Summer and am hoping to get on a few things before your season ends.

[Conundrum]

Old:

NF Payette
SF Payette
SF Clearwater
Lochsa

New:

Secesh
SF Salmon
Owyhee/Bruneau

Things are starting to look good here in Idaho too.

[Storm11]

Old:
Westwater (always a good time)
Upper Taylor (at high water this time)

New:
Piedra (if it runs)
Pilar/Lower Taos Box (again...if it runs)
Upper Dolores
Numbers/Browns

[RootSkier]

Old:
Golden Canyon baby, yeah! (South Fork Clearwater)
Lolo Creek - the old standby
Bear Creek Montana (15 minutes from home...kickass low-stress class V drops)
Pack, ID

New:
Lower Smith Creek, ID (I am not sure if I will sack up, though)
squirt boating at newly discovered mystery spot on the main Payette
more unreality in the Kootenays, BC

[Conundrum]

squirt boating at newly discovered mystery spot on the main Payette

You talking about below the Chief Parish rapid?

[RootSkier]

No idea...never paddled on the main...in fact, I have never been below Banks on that highway. But I have seen video of the spot...they are calling it the Magic Bus...it is a convergance that doesn't look like much but dishes out some serious downtime.

[Yonder_River]

Lolo Creek - the old standby

Was wondering if any of you up north had run this- it sounds like a blast. I helped some folks run shuttle on this years ago when I did my first run on the Lochsa. Wish I had the skills to hit it when I lived up that way.

What's the nature of the run? Can you compare it to any of the creeks down here?

[RootSkier]

I haven't run that much stuff in CO.

The first thing about Lolo is that it is remote as hell. Second thing is long ass class IV boulder gardens that get continuous and pushy at medium-high flows (ie when it is fun). It's long...like 12 miles, the shuttle is long too (as you know).

We run it quite a bit. It usually runs from March-end of May or beginning of June.

Summary: the scenery is awesome and the rapids are great. People I know from CO have compared it to the Encampment.

[powderfarmer]

Me too, infact got the boats pulled out of the garage today, just to get them near the front of the gear pile.

Old
Numbers above 2 g..... just cause its a great playing run
Clear Creek of the ark ..... great fun, not gripped the whole time
gore ...... well
upper snake ..... five minus 10 minutes from my house

New
OBJ ..... need some huckage
Most of the not hair steam boat creeks


As a whole I don't really want to push myself that hard in my boats this year. I want to spend a whole year at the easier- moderate 5 level and go from there. This is probably the sport that just straight up scares the shit out of me more than any other. But I still love it and will probably spend 30 days on a river this year.

[Storm11]

This is probably the sport that just straight up scares the shit out of me more than any other. But I still love it and will probably spend 30 days on a river this year.

Join the club...

[eastvailhucker]

OBJ, OBJ....Upper East!!! Gore!! Treasure, BIG SUR---Which will happen this year!

Escalante..w/o losing my paddle.

Gilman at highwater through dowd at lets say 10ft...pucker factor.

and.....hopefully the new hole in lyons!!! it will be on all summer long.

Please attend the benefit at OScars on March 19th. Killer silent auction and tons of brew to drink!!!

I will post details as soon as i find them in my outlook.


D

[powderfarmer]

OBJ, OBJ....Upper East!!! Gore!! Treasure, BIG SUR---Which will happen this year!

Escalante..w/o losing my paddle.

Gilman at highwater through dowd at lets say 10ft...pucker factor.

and.....hopefully the new hole in lyons!!! it will be on all summer long.

Please attend the benefit at OScars on March 19th. Killer silent auction and tons of brew to drink!!!

I will post details as soon as i find them in my outlook.


D

F gillman, I forgot all about dowd at big water. Anything over like 4 feet(I think I remembering the gauge right, right around 1500plus) is friggin great afterwork run. Its my favorite mile of water around.

[FreakofSnow]

Some of old standby's:

Lochsa
Gallatin
Madison (Quake and Bear Trap)
Boulder
Town run on Clark Fork

Hope to hit
North Fork of Blackfoot
Some of the creeks down the 'Root
Payette maybe?
Some in Colorado

[cmsummit]

This is probably the sport that just straight up scares the shit out of me more than any other. But I still love it and will probably spend 30 days on a river this year.

agreed.

old:
dowd
numbers
royal gorge

new:
dowd @ over 5' on the gage
pine creek
bailey
gore

[Foggy_Goggles]

OB fucking J, bitch!
Encampment
All of Clear Creek
High Water Ark
Byers Big Water Bash
Slaughterhouse

minimal playboating until July
avioding the chachies and running with the outlaw dirt bag crew

[Yonder_River]

pine creek
bailey
gore

These are all excellent runs to step it up a bit and get used to harder water.
Some people bag on Bailey/Gore since they tend to be the only thing flowing in late summer/early fall and folks run them quite a bit then- but they are both classics in my opinion. No roads, beautiful canyons, and FUN relatively continuous rapids.

Pine Creek is great too, just watch out for "the hole". I'm sure you've seen it already- that f*ker is scary!! I've seen/heard of horrendous swims out of that beast. It likes to eat creekers.

[eastvailhucker]

i had a full on rodeo ride in that frickin hole two summers ago...front loops, back loops, spilts, its gots some power!!

No swim though!!!

it gets a little manky if ya do.

[cmsummit]

These are all excellent runs to step it up a bit and get used to harder water.
Some people bag on Bailey/Gore since they tend to be the only thing flowing in late summer/early fall and folks run them quite a bit then- but they are both classics in my opinion. No roads, beautiful canyons, and FUN relatively continuous rapids.

Pine Creek is great too, just watch out for "the hole". I'm sure you've seen it already- that f*ker is scary!! I've seen/heard of horrendous swims out of that beast. It likes to eat creekers.

When I run the Numbers I typically put in right below the hole and run Triple drop down through. I've only run all of Pine Creek once and it was at low water ~450ish(?) and I just punched through Moonpie hole with no problem. It's that lateral wave directly above the hole that scares me and would set me up for a thorough pummelling below.

I watched a buddy get recirc'ed in that hole for about 45 seconds.

Anyways, my brother gave me his Phat at the end of last season, so now that I have a creeker I'm going to have to step up to the plate this year.

[420Powderpimp]

Great Topic!

Old:
High Water Ark
Gore
Upper Animas
Cali Creekin'
Too many to list

New:
Big Sur
Vallecito
Crystal Gorge
Black Canyon
Dowd @ highwater
NF Payette

Too many to list, has anyone started? I have no days for '06, it will hard to beat 130 days in '05.

[eastvailhucker]

i hit the upper a last summer during the red bull divide and conquer.

i wanna say it was around 2500-3000 cfs.

All I gotta say is that is that is the most amazing river in Colorado. And at that level, HOLY F**K!!! big holes, constant moves, no slack water and damn is the water cold.

I highly recommend putting it on the list if you have never been down it.

[Yonder_River]

[QUOTE=cmsummit]
I watched a buddy get recirc'ed in that hole for about 45 seconds.
QUOTE]


Wow, that must have been a horror show to watch.

I think I'd spend about all of 15 seconds in that sucker before I pulled. Mainly to save energy for the potentially deadly swim after that. At least three people have died by drowning around there.

[eastvailhucker]

pastey white folks from kansas and oklahoma on church trips running the class iv and V in oversized PFD and over inflated smiwing abilities are the ones who tend to drown or take bad swims.

as a former safety yaker, there is nothing like a paniced person grabbing your boat and your vest.

cannot wait till runoff!!!

[heelbilly]

old:
Homestake - please for at least two weeks
gilman - high
dowd / lil dowd, to Avon - over the gauge
Gore - 3500
Crystal Gorge
Oh Be (disneyworld!)
W Fork Clear Creek
Big South many times


Missed last year but want this year:
California - so many waterfalls!
Lime to Rockwood
Vallecito
Animas and Rockwood Box + the 'new' section below

New:
White Stripe Park County of Hoosier
2nd Gorge Lime
What 'ya Got?

[cmsummit]

White Stripe Park County of Hoosier

that thing is uber-manky.

[HR Huck'nstuff]

I'm lucky, both 20 minutes from home, run all year.

Lil White,






And, the Truss of the White Salmon,


My favorite and the one I most look forward to... the Clear Fork of the Cowlitz.

Best day on the river, and one I would love to repeat (or a vartiation of if the stars align)... The REAL Triple Crown... The Ohanepecosch, Cispus, and Truss of the White Salmon.

1900 vert feet, 16 miles, and a case of Rainier