What up whitewater boat riders!

Just wanted to check in from Colorado and share some of the goings on as of late…  I’ve always kind of given Colorado a bad rap, and it’s been a fun 2-3 day stop on the way to Cali, but never the final destination for any trip.  I decided that it was about time I gave the Teva Mountain Games Homestake Race a shot, and hit a number of runs I’ve missed out on in the past.

Looking very out of place in Texas.

Pat and I made the long journey out in a Dagger Suby a week before the race, and crashed with the myth and legend, Chris Schell, when we got to Denver.  The 10 days since have been a ridiculous barrage of steep whitewater and good people.

We started things off well with some laps on Homestake Creek and Gilman Gorge on day 1, and Tommy Hilleke was cool enough to let us make Glenwood Springs our base camp for the next couple of days.  That was awesome and I can’t thank the Hilleke family enough.

Pat hiking up for another lap on Homestake.

By far one of my favourite parts of the trip has been paddling the Barrel Springs section of the Colorado…  The Colorado is running super high with snow runoff, and I think the Upper/Lower Death combo is one of the burliest big water rapids I have ever run!  I was praying that my sprayskirt wouldn’t implode and my paddle wouldn’t get ripped out of my hands as I plugged into that massive hole.

The entrance to the monster.

Both runs were incredible out there, and it’s tough to beat the feeling of becoming a part of something that makes you feel so inconsequential.  The Barrel Springs rapid was huge too and super fun.  Possibly my favourite run in the state…

Another great thing about that section is the fact that we could paddle it straight to the Hilleke’s doorstep.

Pat on the float down out of Glenwood Canyon to the city.

Myself hiking up to the house in a state of satisfaction.

We also did an epic mission into the Crystal drainage and checked out some sick park and hucks.  It was the craziest off-roading I have ever done, and fortunately the rack only flew off Tommy’s truck once.  Here are a couple of pics from that adventure…

Crystal Mill Falls… such a sweet drop.

Reattaching some roofracks.

The epicocity of Colorado backcountry.

South Fork Crystal!

Please don’t miss the eddy above this.

Hope everyone else is getting on some good water.  Video coverage of these drops as well as Yule Creek and Homestake Race coming soon!

Peace.
Chris

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Team News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.