Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
1
Newsletter of The Bluegrass Wildwater Association July/August 2006
Adventures on the Yampa 2006Story by Meryl Douglas Pictures by Lloyd Funkhouser
Sometime in the early spring Tim Miller ran into me at the Big South Fork and asked if Dale and Iwould like to go on a multi-day trip down the Yampa, on the Colorado/Utah border. I decided it
In This Issue: Adventures on the Yampa30 Simple Ways to Be GoodSpecial 30th Anniversary Supplement
Cont. on pg. 3
Bowlines is the Newsletter of the Bluegrass WildwaterAssociation, POB 4231, Lexington Ky, 40544
Club Officers 2006-2007Join in on the Fun!
President Philip Sisk 859-231-6565Vice-President Hanley Loller 859-806-9843Treasurer Pam Ward 859-312-5244Secretary Kelly Glasser 859-312-2031Safety Joey Calder 859-244-7478Program Dale•Perry 859-489-5334Newsletter Kathy Rose 859-797-4727Cyber Communications Don Spangler 859-277-7314Conservation Dustin Anderson 859-225-7915Film Festival Coordinator Todd Garland 502-875-9234Russell Fork River FestivalCoordinator Steve RuthEquipment Coordinator David Leachman 859-278-9403At-Large Member: Chris Shardl 859-277-5944Membership Coordinator Megan Memmer 734-945-1653Wildwater Cats Rep. Jessica DussexPast President Jason Bailey 859-278-0764
BWA website: www.surfbwa.orgJoin the BWA! BWA Membership $20/individual; $25/Family year entitles youto receive the newsletter,10% discounts at many local and out of state outfittershops, use of club equipment, discount at pool rolling sessions, a listing in theBWA Handbook, a stream gauge guide, and web site with a listserve formember’s messages.Meetings are held at 7:30, the second Tuesday of each month atlocation announced on our website.
To submit newsletter articles and/or pictures email Kathy Rose:[email protected]
“30 Simple Ways to be Good”To Celebrate 30 Years of the BWA
1. Ride a bike.2. Buy locally produced products.3. Use Compact Fluorescent Bulbs4. Pick up litter.5. Turn off your lights.6. Drink water instead.7. Walk (crawl) to your destination.8. Get involved.9. Compost for gardening.10. Reduce or reuse first.11. Collect rainwater12. Volunteer13. Protect yourself.14. Support non-profit organizations.15. Boat local when possible16. Zeroscape parts of your yard.17. Be creative!18. Mow grass at 3" to keep it healthy.19. Produce renewable energy.(Before 20, be safe)20. Plant a tree.21. Strive to have a meaningful life.22. Be a good steward of the environment.23. Read a book, or more.24. Rewear clothes to conserve water.25. Nurture plants and other living things.26. Sing campfire songs.27. Love your body.28. Believe in something.29. Recycle30. Carpool.
ConservationCornerDustin AndersonConservation Officer
Women’s Paddling TripWho: All interested women
All skill levels welcomeWhen: August 19 & 20Where: TBAContact: Zina Merkin
2
seemed like a good idea, and I invited Penny andher 9 year old daughter Lauren. In the weeksleading up to our departure date I was feeling alittle worried. There were only going to be 12named rapids in 70 miles on the Yampa, what if itwas boring? I didn’t know most of the people,what if we hated each other? We were going tospend a few days in Colorado before and afterthe trip too. Given that we had a 9 year old alongwould we be able to find things to do that we’d allenjoy? Was I going to get enough out of this tripto justify driving through Kansas TWICE?
Dale had decided months before that it wasn’tgoing to be worth it for him, but at the last minuteopted to come to Colorado even though he’d beskipping the Yampa trip. On Saturday June 10he and I left Lexington, picked up Penny andLauren in Louisville and started off on the longdrive. Soon Lauren began asking “Are we inKansas yet?” Turns out she was excited to get tosee Kansas because it’s the setting of the Wizardof Oz. This enthusiasm lasted until about 5 min-utes after we crossed the state line. Actually, Iliked the dry plains of western Kansas, the ante-lope and the dramatically eroded creek beds. Infact, if it were about a quarter of its actual sizethe whole state would be pretty pleasant.
By Sunday afternoon we were in Golden, site ofone of the 15 whitewater parks in Colorado and areally nice town. There we met up with a group ofVikings who had left Louisville about 15 hoursahead of us. They had already had 3 swims andlost a boat on Clear Creek, so most of them werelooking for a mellow day. The park has 2 mainplay features, one wave and one hole, and about3/4 mile of rapids. It worked out great for usbecause we could take turns playing on thefeatures or playing with Lauren and her foamieboaters. We made dinner at the park, witnessingthe magic of low humidity when we discoveredour clothes were dry before the food was cooked.We camped at Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Ihighly recommend this campground; it’s scenic,about 1/2 hour from Boulder or Golden, and hasgreat facilities.
Monday it was off to the Cache La Poudre withthe Vikings. We could happily have spent a weekthere if we’d had the time. There are seven classII-IV sections along a 40- mile section of the river,fantastic scenery farther upstream, and severalplaces to gawk at nasty things most of uswouldn’t want to run. Our first day there we brokeup into several groups to run 2 different sectionsof the river, fish, and laze around.
Tuesday all of us except Dale and Lauren put onthe Upper Rustic, a run we figured we’d all enjoy.It was supposed to be slightly easier than theclass III+ to IV- “beginner-intermediate” (anyonesee a contradiction here?) section just down-stream. I was a little nervous when I saw the firstrapid. It was straight forward enough but had bigstrainers on each side; a swim here could meantrouble. When everyone got through with noproblems I figured we were home free. We weredoing great, trading off leading through the con-tinuous but easily boat-scoutable rapids, whenwe got to a corner we couldn’t see around with alargish feature near the top. Penny and I got outto scout. I failed to adequately secure my boat onthe bank and it went off to run the rapid on itsown. As I scrambled downstream to try to catch itI could see that there wasn’t anything too badaround the corner so I gave Penny the OK sign.Just then, Dale yelled at me from the road. Hewas parked right there and he drove me about amile to the next place the river slowed downenough for it to be possible to catch a boat.Meanwhile, seems that although there wasn’t anyone bad thing around the corner the continuous,pushy current coupled with numerous mediumsized waves and holes with no break for a milewas a little too much for some. We had 3 boats tocorral, and three people took off the river at thatpoint. That was probably the best rapid of theday. Those of us who stayed on got cold andtired and were ready to take off at least an hourbefore the takeout. When we got there andchanged we discovered that it was boiling hotout, the water was just cold enough that hours ofexposure had chilled us in spite of it.
Cont. from pg. 1
Penny, Lauren and I needed to be in Eagle be-fore dark so we could regroup and be ready toleave for the Yampa at 5 am, so we (and Dale)left straight from the takeout. In Eagle we metGary and Linda, rafters that Tim had met onanother river trip. Brian flew in to the local airportand Linda brought him to their house. They fedus dinner and put us up at their house and evenlet us leave all our extra stuff there so Dalewouldn’t have to haul it around with him while wewere gone.
On Wednesday morning Gary and Linda’s friendRachel showed up and we set off on the 4-hourdrive to the Yampa put-in, leaving Dale to sleepawhile longer before he headed to the Arkansas.There we met up with Tim, his teenage daughterKelsey, Keith, his 12-year old daughter Hollis,Lloyd, and Sheri, a complete whitewater neo-phyte from Tennessee. Soon after, 2 more ofGary and Linda’s friends showed up: Suzy andher college-age daughter Meadow. Our fullcomplement of 13 had arrived. Penny, Brian and Ihad kayaks, Lloyd and Tim were rowing therented rafts, and the Coloradans traded off row-ing their private rafts.
It turns out that rafting is a lot of work. We had toinflate and outfit the three private rafts, strappingon oar rigs, floor protectors, nets, and coolercradles. We also had two rented rafts that camealready set up from the outfitter, along with foodand meal plans for our 5-day trip.
It was well into the afternoon before we launched.We had 7 miles to go before camp. On theYampa you have to reserve your exact campspots and deviation is not permitted. The waterwas flat and the wind started picking up. It wasblowing so hard that it would pile up water on theside of the kayaks, threatening to tip us over, butit was worse for the rafts. They had to fight not toget blown into the bank. At least it was not blow-ing straight upstream, so we were able to makeprogress. Surprisingly good progress. We got tocamp in just a couple hours.
We had a meeting about camp stuff, includingwho would cook and when. We’d each have tocook each meal once, in groups of three. I volun-teered for that night’s dinner along with Linda andBrian. It sounded easy enough: steak, bakedpotatoes, and salad. The big problem was thewind. Nothing would stay put, sand got all overeverything, and the wind blew the flames awayfrom the food. Also we were rationed 19 pieces ofcharcoal to bake the potatoes, which we decidedto ignore after reading through all the menus andmaking sure there’d be enough for the rest of themeals. It was a several hour ordeal. Luckily we’dstarted early, so there was still some daylight leftwhen we were done.
While we’d been cooking others had been explor-ing. Lauren and Hollis had become friends andwere running and climbing around all over theplace. After dinner Penny showed Lauren, Hollis,Brian and me an interesting ravine she had
found. We started up “Penny’s Gulch”, findingfossils, looking at plants, hoping for a glimpse ofan animal. It was starting to get late and at everyturn we’d say, “Let’s just go around this one morebend.” We always wanted to see what was com-ing up and at least wanted to get to a plateau, butwe didn’t have flashlights and we did have twokids, so we finally turned back and reached campjust before dark.
Thursday we had something like 15 river miles tocover, with the first named rapid coming abouthalfway through. The current was moving andthere were a few riffles, but we were not focusedon the water, we were busy gawking at the can-yon walls. I really cannot do justice with words tothe amazing and variable scenery along the river,not just that day but all through the trip. Just likethe previous day we were surprised by howquickly the miles went by. Brian and I wentthrough that first rapid thinking we were nowherenear it yet. We agreed that it was certainly a rapidand if it wasn’t one of the named ones we weregoing to get bigger whitewater than we’d ex-pected. The rafters soon let us know where wereally were.
After arriving at camp those of us with no dinner
duties set off on a trail hike. It lacked the sense ofadventure we’d had exploring Penny’s Gulch butended in a spectacular overlook. After dinner Ijoined in a game of bocce ball. Suzy alwaysbrings a set on river trips, and I could see why. Itis perfectly suited for the unpredictable terrainavailable and a lot of fun; Linda and I werescreaming with laughter.
Friday we stopped for acouple of hikes. The firstwas to a rock shelterwhere pioneers hadwritten their namesstarting in the 1800s, thesecond to a prehistoricIndian grain storagearea. This area wasunder an overhang andhad a constant coolbreeze. The signs saidthe Indians hadn’t livedthere. I guess they musthave had a good reason,but it seemed pretty niceto me.
We approached WarmSprings late in the day. It
was the biggest rapid of the trip and also wherewe’d be camping that night. We spent some timescouting, scaring several snakes. It looked like itmight be tricky for the rafts to get over to andthrough the shallow channel they’d need to be into access our designated beach, but all wentwithout incident. It was dark before dinner wasover, so we just spent a little time stargazingbefore heading off to bed.
Saturday we had a lot of river miles to cover andan activity-packed camp to look forward to so wegot up and on the water early. We passedthrough the confluence with the Green River andwe were going to stop there at Echo Park Ranchfor a break. It’s supposed to be nice and therewere pit toilets. Some were looking forward to achange from the “groover”, a sealable container
with a removabletoilet seat, whichwe’d been using.However, thesecond we got toshore mosquitoesbegan voraciouslyattacking us, even
biting through our clothes. We called a hastyretreat. I was worried it’d be like that at camp. Iwas thinking maybe I could paddle all the way outand sit in the car or something.
Luckily, camp was relatively bug free and at thetime we got there inhabited by a herd of mountainsheep which soon thundered past us into thehills. This camp had a pretty little creek runningthrough it. We ate a quick lunch and headed upthe creek: Linda, Suzy, and Meadow had beenhere before and had a lot of things they wantedto show us. First stop was a spot on the creekwhere you could duck behind a sheet of waterinto an air space next to a rock. It looked like funbut the water was too cold for me. Next, we hikedup a tiny little side creek to “Butt Plug Falls”. Thisis a limestone shelf with a butt-width groovechanneling water over about an 8-foot drop. Youcan sit in the channel and completely block thewater until it starts to flow around you. Mean-while, someone stands where the flow ought tobe. Then the plugger jumps up, dousing themwith a rush of water. Maybe you had to be there,but trust me it was loads of fun.
Next we hiked a little way up a trail, thenscrambled over some rocks to enter “The Laby-rinth”, acres of slick rock all around, inviting us toclimb and explore. Wherever there was dirt it wascovered with biological soil crust, a livinggroundcover made up of cyanobacteria and othertiny life forms. This crust is an important erosioninhibitor, takes years to develop, and is easilydestroyed by foot traffic. Its presence compli-cated our route finding as we tried to avoid step-ping on any undisturbed soil. We mostlyscrambled but in a couple spots real climbingwas called for. There was some exposure, so it
was a little scary, but the slick rock was not at allslick, it was more like sandpaper, so it was easyto get a good grip. Once again we had to forceourselves away from exploring; we still wanted tosee the petroglyphs before dark.
That night we made ice cream and lingeredaround the fire, reluctant to go to bed and end
our last full day on the Yampa. Finally a couplepeople seemed in danger of dozing off and fallinginto the fire, so we broke it off and went to sleep.
Sunday morning Linda decided she wanted togive kayaking a try. Linda got in Penny’s boatwhile Penny got on the raft. We started the daywith a bunch of class II-II+ rapids and Linda didgreat. She only flipped over when she was tryingto practice crossing eddy lines, and these were
pretty big boily eddy lines for a beginner. Shewas intrigued by how you could feel all the littlewaves you wouldn’t notice in a raft. In the after-noon I decided to try rowing a raft. I did okay inthe little stuff but then miscalculated in a class IIIrapid and ran through a hole I was trying to miss.Nothing bad happened but I gave up the oarsafter that. There were two things I had a lot oftrouble with when rowing the raft. The first washaving to plan ahead a lot more; last minutechanges were just not quick enough. The secondwas figuring out what to do to keep the wavesfrom grabbing the oars. They didn’t go up highenough to keep them out of the water when thewaves were big. Maybe I’ll figure some of this outon my next raft trip.
At the takeout we found our shuttled vehicles andthe outfitter waiting to pick up the rafts we’drented. We had to clean and disassemble theprivate rafts, process the garbage and humanwaste, and figure out how to fit me, Penny andLauren into the van the rest of the Lexington crewhad come out in. Brian and the Coloradans weregoing home but the rest of us Kentuckians weregoing to see the dinosaurs as long as we were inDinosaur National Monument.
We headed for Vernal, Utah to spend the night.We were surprised to learn at the rest area that
there was an oil-field boom going on and we’d becompeting for hotel rooms with the importedworkers. We didn’t have any trouble findingrooms, but sure enough all our neighborsseemed to be oil field workers.
Monday we visited the monument, saw fossils,and listened to a lecture about fossils, thenheaded back to Eagle. Dale met us at Gary andLinda’s house. We all went to dinner at Suzy’sfabulous mountain cabin style house just outsidetown, where we tried to decide what to do aboutWestwater. Gary had a 2-day permit forWestwater, a class III (IV) section of the Colorado
that Penny didn’t want Laurenon, and the other kids didn’treally want to go either. On topof that Penny wasn’t sure if sheshould be stepping it up thatmuch so soon after her acci-dent, and I was tired andgrumpy. Suzy offered to let thekids stay at her house, and wefinally decided to go for just oneday.
Tuesday we were off early backto Utah. Penny and I werenervous. Gary was going tolead the rafts down, but howwould that translate for us inour kayaks? Everyone said we
wouldn’t really be able to scout or portage oncewe got into the canyon. We met a fellow kayakerat the put in and were happy to discover he wasa veteran of the run. He was with a private rafttrip, but we seemed to be moving at a similarpace, so he could show us the lines. Unfortu-nately, it turned out that by the time we got to theend of the long flatwater beginning of the run, hehad been shanghaied into guiding one of therafts. The river started picking up and everythingseemed to be boat scoutable. I relaxed a little. Irelaxed even more when I recognized that I wasin the middle of the hardest rapid on the run and Icould easily see my line. After that it was justpure big-water fun. I mean BIG water, it wasHUGE but it was all class III. I would really like toget back there again.
Wednesday we had a little more big water fun,running the Shoshone section of the Coloradonear Glenwood Springs. This time all the rafterspaddled together in one raft. Then we ran a classII section, adding the kids and a 2-person duckyto the group. We had a regretful farewell at the
takeout. Tim, Kelsey, Keith, Hollis, Lloyd andSheri were going to spend another night at Garyand Linda’s before heading back to Kentucky inthe morning, but Penny, Lauren, Dale and I weregoing to camp nearby and hike up to hanginglake in the morning.
I was the only one who actually made it to hang-ing lake on Thursday; clearly it was time to thinkabout heading home. We ate lunch in the parkingarea surrounded by ground squirrels and bluejays. One jay was making a big fuss. It turned outto be fussing at a snake; I’m not sure what kind.We started driving east, taking a minor detourthrough spectacular Loveland Pass on the conti-nental divide. We camped back at good oldGolden Gate Canyon State Park.
Friday Dale and I ran the town run on Bouldercreek while Penny and Lauren bought souvenirgifts in Boulder. In the afternoon we said goodbyeto our vacation and started in earnest on the longdrive back. Yes, it was worth it.
Bluegrass Wildwater AssociationPO Box 4231Lexington, Ky. 40504
The Bluegrass Wildwater Association30th Anniversary Reunion Blowout!
+ 10!
When: October 14 & 15Where: OAR on the Ocoee River (TN)
Club will providemain course forSaturday night.
Potluck contest!
Surprises!
For more infocheck out ourweb site.
