Fundraising

Hello my name is Kevin Jacobi . I am a Fort Collins native with a passion for the rivers. I currently teach seventh grade social studies in New Castle, CO. I chose this area not only based on the new school and the positive community, but for the areas optimal kayaking. Past summers of mine were spent rafting and guiding people through the Cache la Poudre or teaching the eager how to kayak. I decided that this summer I wanted to help others and benefit the outdoors while doing what I truly enjoy.

My goal is to kayak 50 class V stretches of river on a self-supported bike tour across Colorado while raising money for charity. I am trying to raise money for two organizations I feel have worthy causes. First Descents, a non-profit organization located out of Vail, Colorado that aims to help young adults with cancer experience emotional healing through outdoor activities. They offer these courageous people the opportunity to kayak, mountain bike, and other activities. In addition I am raising money for American White Water, an association that promotes river stewardship and conservation while promoting the sport of kayaking.

I decided to do this journey by bicycle, not only to add to the challenge, but as a unique way to see the beauty of the Colorado outdoors. I feel it adds more to the experience by combining the adventure and challenge of biking and kayaking.

I am highly motivated to complete the task at hand. I would like you to help show your support for the above charities by offering a donation. Your contributions will not only go to supporting these charities, but will also motivate me in the completion of my personal challenge.
You can donate either by clicking on one of the links at the top right of the page or you can mail a check made out to one of the organizations to me and I will keep track of the total raised and I can write you a thank you.

Kevin Jacobi
612 River View Dr. #809
New Castle, CO 81647

Thank you

Poudre River Gnarrows Race 2009

One of these four is not like the other, fingers up Gnat

Notice Paul the Kayaker's suit

Ah, there is truly nothing better than this day. Copious amounts of smack talking the week before have led up to this day. Roughly 3 miles of class IV-V continuous boater x. Go fast or go home. Winner gets the much sought after "Buckle" and second place gets you 40oz of malt barely soda.

Me charging Whiteline

Awoody about to give a WY boof on Christian's head

The racers are divided up into heats of four or five boaters who then race at the same time. This race consists of running from about a quarter mile above Upper narrows all the way through Lower Narrows. The top two from each heat make it into the semi-finals. This year we also let the winner of the loser's bracket get entry into the finals. The semi, loser, and finals are boater x but take place on the lower narrows.

The loser's bracket is awesome because it was about ten boaters in boater x style going down the lower narrows at once. In the video you can see me get vertically pinned in that section. I couldn't get far enough left with all of the boaters and came right into the rock pile at the entrance move. Oh well, it just cost me a mustache and a belt buckle.

After two semi finals and the loser's bracket you get the finals made up of five of the fastest boaters around. This year it consisted of Cutch (last year's winner), Christian, Natalie, Marty, and Nathan.L to R: Nathan, Kyle, Natalie, Christian, Marty

With three FoCo racers we were hoping the belt would come back home and for a moment it looked so. Marty came out strong but could not hold off Christian and took a slightly slower line on the left, none the less Marty put on a great show for all of us young bucks and showed what true old man strength is all about. Then he slammed his 40 like he was back in NZ during the college days.Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, the passing of the buckle

Ladies he is single, dirty hippies need not apply

The after party might have been the best yet with New Belgium's finest on tap, and 125lbs of fresh alive and pinching crawdads waiting to be put in a boil. Done up by real New Orleans people. Lil' Wayne would have been proud.

Soon to be a family man Patrick and everyone's favorite buzzard Cmike drinking their booty beers

I think I might fit in a little better now here with this bad boy

Poudre Gnarrows Race 2009 from Kevin J on Vimeo.

More Big South than you can shake a stick at.

Big Southapalooza lives on


I didn't even have to go to flight school for this one

Once the gate opened it was on. I boated the Big South on Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun, and Wed and will hopefully get on it this Sat again.

Cooler than a polar bear's toenails

Tues and Thurs were nice because there weren't any crowds up there and it was Scott, two others and myself each time. The weekend was congested traffic and we ran in a group of seven each time.

Peter on Starter Fluid. Rev yer engines

Wed was nice again. Just Paul, Frenchy and myself and we finished the whole run in about 3 hours.

Tommy on the Cool World run-out ledge

About to have a clean take off on this flight. Narrow landing strip huh?

This run is so awesome because it is long and just has so many fun little or big rapids. My favorite place on the run is about 2/3 of the way through Prime Time Gorge. You come through a left slot and just land in this gorged in pool. It feels like a rain forest in there and it is calm and peaceful.

Another day working it like she did

Here are some pics from different runs. I didn't take too many and no video just cause I was enjoying the river, and never really got out of my boat. I will link in Ross' video though from the day we went together if he lets me.Grinding the perfect line on Pin Cushin like I am JP Walker (thats a snowboarder for all you tele snobs)

A little sequence of me staying out of trouble. Unfortunately Scott's camera stopped here and didn't get the finish.

Scarier than Double Trouble

A little something to keep shuttle bunnies from getting bored

We met these crazy Germans at the takeout at 10:30. They had just finish a quick Peterson lap and politely asked if they could "hang out." Since I am completely secure with my sexuality I gave them the thumbs up and next thing you know there are two Germans in the parking lot in speedos. Watch out ladies

#23 Joe Wright

Before the Big South gate opened, I had to get my Joe Wright and Spencers in so I headed up with my ol' roomie Paul. You all know him better as P to the K, Paul the Kayaker or 1/2 of the high fiving tandem. We also went up with his new roomie Crystal, who is a sick boater. Sorry gents, she is currently dating Nick Turner, so unless you have built a few whitewater parks, written a guidebook and started a sweet helmet company, I am guessing your resume ain't good enough. We met up at Teds with Nathan, Frenchy, and Marty.

We got to the put in and I ran Cornholio and put down the sickest line ever, as in I wanted to puke after running it. I have never portaged the drop and it was by far and away my worst line, and really the only bad line I can remember having on that drop. You all can see it in the video.

We then bombed on down into Carnito canyon where I am happy to say I had amazing lines and like playing Operation never came close to touching any walls. That rapid is awesome if you head down right of center working right and hit a boof into a swirling eddy boil, then turn 90 degrees to you left and charge over a great boof flake. It reminds me of a smaller version of the cyclotron boof flake, also featured in the vid. Then hook a left around a rock in the middle and stay off the walls. Fun times. Everyone did great and good times were had by all.

After that it is just tight class IV creeking and hoping you have water so ya don't break yer boat.

Joe Wright from Kevin J on Vimeo.

#22 Upper Boulder Creek

One of the better longer rapids

On the way back from getting Brian's boat from the Source I decided to add this one to the list. Even though it is a pretty straight forward run, it is always a little more tense when you are running a new run and basically solo.

Upper Boulder Canyon is more Colorado short mank, actually mankier than any run I can think of. Flows were even good, right around 400cfs which I believe is a good flow for that run.

The rapid starts at the drop upstream from where I am

In the run-out

I don't really know what to tell you besides this. Don't make it a destination, but if you run the gnar above and below and tag it on to other Boulder runs it is good.

Just a lil' guy

#21 The Source

Hellums Falls: We put in right below this

Once again, maybe it is because the source was a new run for me, but I thought it was super dooper double looper fun. Brian and I put on about with about 330cfs and I thought this was a pretty good flow. It lives up to the guidebook description of a knife fight in a phonebooth type of kayaking. It was just the two of us and we had never done the run so it was high speed read and run, a.k.a. good stuff that dreams are made of.

Some beautiful state flowers

Everything went fast, almost too fast to remember. I have no idea what deforestation rapid looks like and vaguely remember slot machine. It was just boof keep your boat straight, boof keep your boat straight.

It actually was hard to keep an eye in Brian because if I looked behind me for more than a nano second I would hit a rock and get off line, so be heads up on this one.

At this point I need to point out a cardinal rule of boating: The river gods are ALWAYS listening and if you disrespect them in any way they make you repent.

Before we put on we were talking about maybe running Upper Boulder Creek and Eldo after words. I didn't know how much time we would have, but Brian reassured me that "This run will only take 10 minutes." Famous last words

As I came around a corner I saw Brian upside down, and at the next corner I came around to see Brian standing on the right shore. I continued down after the boat and to find an eddy (few and far) and caught the most amazing eddy above Dead Hiker Falls on the left.

Another fallen soldier at dead hiker falls

After deciding that it wouldn't be wise to cross here I finished the run and hiked back up to Brian. Unfortunately we didn't have a pin kit with us and we could not get the boat out that day. Brian had also lost his paddle probably never to be seen again.


By the time we got the truck back and drove to Boulder it was getting dark so we had to postpone UBC and Eldo, cause the run didn't take 10 minutes.



We came back on Thursday and z-dragged that boat right on out of there. Flows were about half (170cfs) of what they were when we ran it so that helped. It was then time to hit UBC, unfortunately Brian couldn't participate in this one for obvious reasons.

Poor little magnum

First time I have had to use a Z-drag, pretty fun. The eddy I caught is the eddy on the left of the boat, except it wasn't there that day, it was micro next to the rocks on the shore in the pic.

Flows were high enough to move river bed. This rock was in Brian's Boat when we got it out

For a minute we thought the boat was good then we discovered the right chine had been seperated for about 20 inches

Idaho Springs to Boulder (sort of)

After sitting around in Idaho Springs and only snagging Woods I decided that it was time to head to the Boulder area. I began biking down HY 6 to Golden and I was then going to head over to Boulder on HY93 and meet Brian for some Boulder goods.

This did not happen. I never saw any no biking signs leading into HY6 along the canyon until I was quite a ways into it. I also happened to bike past a cop who made me turn around. Here is were the law did not have my best interests in mind. Instead of letting me bike downhill going almost as fast as traffic, and I was only twenty minutes from exiting the canyon, I was forced to ride back out of the canyon which took 45 minutes and then I was told I needed to go up HY119 to Blackhawk. This was a far more dangerous road, with just as much traffic, if not more and no shoulder. Did I mention that everyone driving up was probably either drunk or a blue hair, thus contributing to to the increased danger.

This route also put me on the road for an extra two hours. Not that safe if you ask me. The best part was that the cop was notified that some bikers were drinking and driving and failed to do anything. I passed them as he was letting them go, and when they drove by me they must have thought I had snitched on them so they yelled some words that hurt my virgin ears at me and then raised their beers. Good work Officer Farva.

I had Brian pick me up in Blackhawk because by the time I would have gotten to Boulder this way it would have been night and I was not to keen on riding on Hy119 anymore.

We decided to go and run the Source of Boulder Creek.

This post was basically just a Dennis Miller type rant, sorry.

#20 Woods Creek

I sat around Idaho springs waiting and waiting to run Woods Creek and West Fork of Clear Creek. Finally Ryan was nice enough to wake up early with me and go run Woods before his mid-day raft trip.

We got up to the run and it looked pretty fun to me with a 200' sluice leading into a ten foot pool and then a 5' ledge boof into another 5' ledge boof. This then led into a pretty technical long rapid which started by being far left under a collapsed bridge. The sketchiness increased with some huge nails hanging down over head and sticking up on the left shore.

Once you passed under the bridge you were immediately bouncing through a set of holes and heading river right. Mank was to be found all around. Towards the end all of the water is crashing off a rock wall on the right and making a curling trough. A couple feet down stream is a 8-10' boof. The problem is that a rock is sticking out on the left and you could easily piton into it if driving too hard to the left, and there is a rock in the dead center that looks like it could break your boat if you landed on it, or at least pig nose if you pitoned. So you have to drive left and thread these to obstacles and it is all good.

The big rapid. You can see the rock on river left and the tree branch next to the pine tree on the bottom is covering the view of the other rock.

All in all a very fun run, just short and worthy of a few laps or definitely combine w/ WF of CC which unfortunately we had time to scout (looked good through Z gorge) but not enough time to run.

P.S. This was my 20th run which was kinda my adjusted goal after I realized I wouldn't make 50 this year. New goal is 25, and 30 might even be possible. (50 is possible, and I think easily so, but I will explain why later)

#19 Clear Creek (Blackrock)

Mr. Bill

I met up with Ian and Texas Ken who have seemed to have become regulars on this adventure, at Kermits for a nice long run of Upper Clear Creek, Black Rock, and Lower Clear Creek.

The flow was between 1000cfs to 1050cfs and was awesome. Big water=big waves=big holes=big fun. Everything went perfectly and was fast and pretty clean for this blast rock creek. We got to the Narrows and I soloed Mr. Bill and it was like butter, no margarine, no Parkay, strictly butter. It was not good looking with most of the hole looking sticky and re-circing back into a wall,cave, undercut? The right looked like it could catch you or typewriter you back to the left.

Clear Creek from Kevin J on Vimeo.

We all walked Rigo which looked the same just very, very fast.

Tom Cole was there to do an interview for 9news which is about as famous as I am going to get. I really appreciate tom taking so much time on his day off to support this. Hopefully it helps bring in some donations. I will try to embed the video on here.

Here is the news story in case you were not sitting around the boob tube at ten:


Sorry about the advertisement

When we got done in Golden it stormed super hard. Some of the hardest rain I can remember.

Frisco to Idaho Springs

Looking back at the west side from the summit

I left Frisco and had to go over Loveland pass because you can't take a bike on I-70 through the Eisenhower and Johnson tunnel. Let me just say that Loveland Pass is long and steep. I will keep it there for all the little ones reading.

East side from the summit

I had to stop about halfway up because they were doing time trial runs for some fancy I will never be able to afford them type of sports cars. This actually was nice because when I got to the top I new that there wasn't going to be any cars coming down so I hauled the proverbial donkey on down the mountain going about 40mph the whole time.

I finally got in one of my pictures

I got onto I-70 at the bottom and made it to Idaho Springs in about thirty minutes. You got to love the downhill. I called up Chad who I met along with Ryan, Chris, Jenny, and Sydney at Crested Butte. It just so happened they had a guide house and I could crash there. They were also having a barley soda party that night. Isn't it nice when everything works out?

#18 Upper Tenmile Creek

I will make this short cause the run is short. A mile of rock dodging with a few holes to watch out for. Continuous Colorado Mank. Thanks to Will for running it with me and letting me stash at his place.

Salida to Frisco

Salida "wildlife"

I was originally going to leave on Sat. but it was raining hard and blowing wind so I just worked the KEEN booth all night and then crashed at Mark's friend's place. Thanks again Mark. I woke up Sunday to a deer across the street and knew it was going to be a good day.

On the way back to Leadville

The ride was just as beautiful going back as it was coming down (except it was uphill). I got into Leadville and was exhausted so I stopped at one of the best restaurants out there and the best Mexican in Colorado: The Grill. I got the stuffed Chicken Sopapilla Especial and it was amazing. If you all know me you know I can eat and I had just ridden 60 miles to boot. This thing put me in a coma. I also recommend the Gold Martguerita.

Seeing as how I could barely move I had to find some where to sleep close by. I didn't know if there was camping around so I spent the night on the back loading area of the forest service building. Some people came by later at night and super early in the morning but I was not hassled even though I was worried the cops were going to get called. Not a good nights sleep.

To the right of Climax Mine

I woke up the next day and headed to The Proving Grounds for some breakfast. It is a little coffee shop and I got a some great coffee and a chocolate croissant and a turkey and jack croissant and all were delicious.


I then began to climb Fremont Pass which ends at the Climax mine. I hadn't been up that way in a while and it is starting to get cleaned up nicely. Besides the mine the area is typical Colorado scenery, meaning typical for us for everyone else it is amazing. You have to feel lucky living here, don't take it for granted. This was also the first truly blue sky day I could remember in a while. Didn't see a cloud until late afternoon.

Actual Picture of the Colorado Sky

I came down and got on the bike path along Copper and scouted Upper Tenmile on my way to Frisco. Short blurb to be done in the next post.

Coming down from Fremont Pass

#17 Lake Creek

Typical Lake Creek scenery

The next day after running Clear Creek, Clay, Greg and myself decided to head on up to Lake Creek and giver her a go. All I can say is that this was one of my favorite runs so far and I put it near the top of my list. That is without running the bottom four even. Now I won't give Jahvea the satisfaction of saying it is better than the Big South, but it is pretty damn good. It is definitely amazing as it opens up and you can see huge fourteeners all around. It is also nice because it is longer than most creeks and you are not done after a mile of boating which makes for a great day.

It was running at about 1000cfs which is pretty high, so we didn't run the bottom four which probably would have made it even better. The water was fast and we had no idea where we were going. I like runs like that that where you don't know what lies around the corner and you have to have good scouting and catch eddies. It really ups the stress and I feel makes you paddle better.

We got to tombstone and everything went fine and were then on the look out for NIMBY. Once we got to NIMBY we were greeted by a group who as I asked if we could scout on their land, had Tecate and limes waiting for us before we were even out of our boats. I think we need to rename the rapid. The owner then offered to let me use the cabin when I wanted. So if you want to hang out at NIMBY give me a call. The house overlooks the start of the rapid and is absolutely beautiful.

Big right boof on NIMBY

NIMBY is a long rapid with a boulder garden entrance for about 100yds and then crashes into a wall at a 90 degree left turn. You have to stay off the wall then make a 90 degree cut back through a narrow slot which is guarded by a boil you need to punch over. At this level it was a decent sized boil and backed up into a nasty looking hole/cave?. You then go down the slot and can either go right which has a good boof or left which is a tricky wave/hole punch to thread some rocks and then a smaller boof. We couldn't see what the bottom of the big boof looked like so we all went to the left and it went fine.

Clay pop-tarting his way through Toaster

The next big rapid is Toaster and I don't know what it looked like but it went pretty easy on this day. You have some boogie lead in with a strong curler to the right which can push you into the right shore or I am guessing at other times some wood. You need to turn 90 degrees to the left here and then you have to come through a narrow slot without getting pushed up into the wall on the right. Pretty easy.

The guide book is right on with its description of a monster hole that is hard to notice. I was in the lead for this section and we were worried about dropping into the big four at this point when all of a sudden I was looking down into a huge hole. I remembered that you were supposed to be left and tried to get there but just ended up gutting it down the middle and all of the meat. I took a big stroke and leaned forward and rode a stern squirt for about ten feet like I was poppin wheelies. Greg came through and got side surfed and i was worried he wasn't going to get out. He did and Clay went right and it was all gravy. I did here from a good boater that the next day this hole caused a swim.

Don't you wish you got brains like that?

Soon after we had some awesome boogie and then took out to scout and it was a good thing because around the corner was Brains the lead in to the bottom 4. I have a big head but not big enough for those brains. We then went and looked at Paralyzer. I think it gets its name because if you look at it at 1000cfs you don't move for a while, and if you ran it a good possibility that it is the last you run. One thing was not paralyzed at that point and that was my bowels which indicated it was time to end the run there.

If you are not regular this works better than ex-lax

P.S. I hear some of you like to run the bottom four at that level and big ups to you.

#16 Clear Creek of the Arkansas

Holding down the fort in the rear

After the Pine Creek race Ken, the Peaches and myself went to hit up Clear Creek of the Ark. It was a nice bonus because i thought that it was done running for the year. What do I know? We got it at about 250cfs which is medium and it was a quick short run. We ran the first two gorges and they are pretty easy. It is a good creek for beginners and gives you the feel of being gorged in. Lap it as you feel fit and don't forget to hit the boof at the end of the second gorge.

Everyone looks confused for some reason

i have no video cause it was so short and not very friendly for it. a.k.a. I was lazy.

FIBARK Suckas

Fans before the pfd rule came into effect

I rolled into Pine Creek about an hour before the race started and hunkered down. I have some footy of the race as well as some hooligan race. I will try to get the video up soon.

The not so munchy hole

The race was ok, only about fifteen racers for the boater x. Where was everyone?

I was not impressed with the hole as it let most everyone out of its grasps. Lame

After the race I went with Texas Ken and Greg and Clay to run Clear Creek of de Ark. I met all three of these guys at CB. If you need to find a crew go to CB, it is like Craig's List for meeting people, except without all the murder and phonies.

Got into Salida, late cause there was a strong headwind, so I ate at Mama D's. Damn good Chicago Dogs and then went to the campsite. Next morning I met up with Greg and Clay, you might know them from such posts as CB Georgia boys. Now if you were paying attention you would know that there were three of them in CB. However, their third blew out his shoulder on OBJ after I left.

We then went and ran Lake Creek. Beautiful and scored the ultimate hookup.

I was supposed to work the KEEN booth but we got back kinda late so had to put that off until Sat.

On Sat. The weather decided to rain and blow but we still pulled in a little bit of dough for American Whitewater. I am guessing around 70-100 bucks so that was cool. Thanks to Mark and KEEN for letting me raise some money.

Fibark is pretty chill, go down there with a crew cause it kinda sucks when you just know a couple 18yr olds. (No offense gents)

Fibark Boater X from Kevin J on Vimeo.

I have all of the race, I just edited it to the carnage for time's sake. If anyone wants the complete raw footage let me know.

P.S. When I get the video up you will notice that there is no playboating shots. Why, you ask? Because A: I suck at playboating B: Playboating is like The Numbers

Brian, Uldis, Paul, you know what I am talking about.

Fibark Hooligan race from Kevin J on Vimeo.

Glenwood to Salida, Bring On FIBARK

Falls Creek Coming into Gilman Gorge



Woke up at 3 am to be ready for Roger to get me through Glenwood Canyon since the bike path was still closed cause of high water. Roger dropped me off at Dotsero and I noticed that my attachment nut for my trailer had fallen off during the ride. Using my MacGyver like skills I fashioned one out of a beer tab and some wire. "Give me an Avocado, an ice-pick and my snorkel, trust me bro."


Notch Mountain view from HY 24

From there is was on and even though this was the same ride I made to Homestake and Gilman, I felt way better and it didn't take me nearly as long. I got to Edwards and had so much time I just sat around and annoyed Ross at Alpine Quest. He finally was so pissed that he called a local photographer and hooked me up with the Vail Mountaineer for a story and photo shoot. Watch out Hollywood here I come.

After shooting my flowing Jew curls in every direction I headed to Lauren's house to stay for the night. She had to work so I ended up going to dinner with her Roomie. Summer time in Vail is nice because it becomes semi-affordable as most places were 50% off. I opted for sushi since I wouldn't ever be able to afford it again.

Now I should have left the next morning but I was tired and I decided to stick around for another day and participate in one of Vail's oldest traditions, Cougar hunting. While the summer is not the ideal time for Cougar hunting (due to a lack of food most Cougars retreat from the area), some of these ferocious beasts can still be seen. Especially at Vail's Hot Summer Night Concert series which premiered that Tues. Needless to say maullings occurred. Oh and if you move to Vail, go to Vandettas Pizza and get to know Arthur, he seems to know every single person in Vail, I am not kidding.

Feeling refreshed the next morning I headed towards Leadville where I was going to stay the night. This required going up Battle Hill Pass which was a 4 mile summit (takes you to Homestake)

Support your Vets and Troops

I am guessing these are the old barracks

I can't think of a prettier place to be stationed

I eventually got to the top and began to ride toward Camp Hale. Camp Hale is where the famous 10th Mountain Division trained before going over to Italy and kicking Nazi butt. They might have had one of the most beautiful training areas ever. While I was taking pictures I saw a fox and tried to find it to take a shot, being so sly though, the fox popped up behind me so the pic isn't that good.

Sneaky lil' guy popped up right behind me

From there it was climbing Tennessee Pass, which I can say has been one of my favorite passes yet, beautiful and relatively easy as well. When you get to the top there is a memorial for the 10th Mountain Division. I am hoping the pictures come out well enough so that you can read about them and I don't have to try to paraphrase. If you know me you know I am a Social Studies teacher so I have to throw in the historical perspective on this stuff so when my students look at the pictures they learn something as well. Just click on the pics and they will blow up so you can read them.

Coming down the pass was amazing and one of the most beautiful areas ever. I love going to BV and Salida because of the 14ers that hug you along the way.

Coming down Tennesee Pass

I arrived at Leadville and decided to do some covert ops and blended in with the Ride the Rockies folks to camp at the high school. I ate dinner at High Mountain Pies which has some awesome pizza, especially when you are starving. The next morning I awoke with them and rode with them as they back tracked to Independence Pass. At this point I got my first flat and had to repair it. I then continued on to the Pine creek race outside Buena Vista. I will stop here and pick up with the Race on my next post. Sorry this was so long, but plenty of photos.

#15 Crystal Mill Falls

So the group who came in at the middle of the night turned out to be some SE peeps that were raft guides on Clear Creek and were thinking about running Yule Creek. Originally I had planned for Brian to drop me off in Leadville and I would ride home to New Castle from there, but I didn't want to pass up this opportunity, so I went with them and went back over Kebler and McClure to Marble. We met up with some other boater there (a.k.a. Pros) and then went to huck Crystal Mills.

The road is definitely a little bouncy but as long as you have some clearance it is all good. We got to the falls and it is as beautiful there as the claims and pictures say.


The Falls have a funky entrance where the left has a F-U rock and the right is chunky so you have to kind of drive left but not too left and then straighten out. I was a little nervous after watching the better kayakers have some pretty ugly lines, including backwards and sideways runs. However since it looked like they were getting out fine and not really having any problems getting out of the curtain I decided to step up to the plate.

Jake on line. Notice the rock underwater to the left.

My first run went smooth as you can see in the video, it actually felt really good besides the roll at the end. That is always the best feeling, when you nail something just right. I hiked back up for another run and this time things weren't so good, I tried the same line but drove out too far to the left and didn't straighten out, I hit the F-U rock and it spun me backwards. I got stuck in the hole and couldn't roll out of the curtain. I tried rolling on both sides but it felt like my paddle was never getting any friction to initiate the roll. Finally i pulled but then got body re-circed twice. I tried balling and catching the curtain but it didn't work the first time. I did get pushed down and out eventually but still had to swim away so it didn't pull me back in.
Good ol' number three for the season. I would post the video but it was on Sydney's camera, so I she sends me that I will post it.

Ryan and Chad had my back though and got my boat for my, so thanks and I owe ya a sixer.

Ever see a prettier booty beer shot?

After that we went up to Crystal City and got the tour from a slightly inebriated local. this included the talk of the Cystal Club which apparently housed some red doors at one point. He also pointed out that the upper windows on some of the houses were not windows but doors to get out of the houses in the winter when the snow was ten feet high.

After our tour we came back to Marble and Discovered Ryan's Montero had suffered a flat. So the other boaters and SE Chris went up to Yule. By the time we had gotten up there they had already put on. So we ran up there to see if we could watch them. Ryan, Sydney and Myself scrambled down to Ball Check and when I came down for the second time with my camera my phone fell out of my jacket pocket and took a nice 60ft ride and boofed 30ft off Ball Check, so I don't have any of your numbers anymore.

I did however get some ok video of them all running Wall Check.

Crystal River Kayaking from Kevin J on Vimeo.

It was late so the rest of us didn't run Yule and decided to do it the next day. I am not making up excuses but I had not eaten anything except some oatmeal and a cliff bar, and hadn't really drank any water in about 24 hours, plus I wasn't feeling exceptionally hot in the head after the swim.

Here is why I am not making excuses, cause the next day we went and ran Shoshone and Grizzly for the ladies and I had eaten and drank some water and was feeling ok, but not good enough to run Yule that day. I know some of you who know me think I just run stuff without weighing my skill or consequences but that is not the case. Do I think that I could have done it without an incident? Sure, but I decided that Yule was not for me this year. It will be there next year and I live right here, and hopefully I will only continue to get better as a boater. So enjoy this humbleness that you normally don't get from me on Mt. Buzz

I hope Ryan and Chad got it the next day as there were some technical difficulties occurring.

P.S. Chris from Tenn is the second yellow boat in the vid. Pretty good line too.

#14 Oh-Be-Joyful

If you have ever been to OBJ you know that there are huge mountains usually behind the put in, not today my friends

Ah, what makes CB worth it. OBJ is a kayaker's Disneyland, nothing but fairly easy waterfalls and slides. Flows were low due to it being cold and rainy/snowy. Speaking of which except for one day on my tour I have been rained or snowed on everyday. I guess it has been good since the snow melt has slowed. Luckily Mark with KEEN gave me a pair of Shellrock WP shoes which have been amazing at keeping my feet dry. They have been comfortable enough to hike around in and then stiff enough in the sole to ride a bike for good long hauls. Even when it has been hot my feet haven't become sweat buckets, the shoes are pretty dang cool if you ask me.

Stern first baby

When we went up to OBJ it began to snow and I had about a half an inch of snow in my cockpit just waiting to put on. Colorado weather is always some of the strangest weather out there.

Georgia 1 havin some fun on first drop

I love that you put on and take two strokes and launch a clean 15ft falls and then it is off to the races.Say it with me now: BOOF

Even though the flows were low it was still great fun and the big falls is always good. Can you even mess that one up? I have seen stomping boofs, 45 degrees, pencils, head landings and it always ends up with a smile.

BK to the fullest dropping 24.45738459587439 ft

Georgia 2 In the mix with the big one

Avalanche was pretty scrapy and you do have to portage around the corner now, which you didn't two years ago. I did decide to run the lower slides and they actually felt like they had the most water on them and it all went smooth as butter. The last one could always get ugly if you don't get left.

Georgia 3 droppin it like its hot

Ian and the gents left that evening and I stayed to wait for the Kelly Bros. to show up. Later that evening I met some good ol' boys from Georgia and took them down the run for a nice second lap for the day. They were out doing a pretty good tour before college started. Isn't it great to be young?

During the middle of the night a group showed up at the campsite and that would lead to the next mission, later to come.

The next day I sat around reading the third book that I have been reading on the trip " A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Poole, who also wrote one other book "The Neon Bible" which is the name of the sophmore album by Canada's sweet band The Arcade Fire. I would recommend both the book and the band if you have not been introduced to either yet. Here is a great song from their debut album "Funeral" to give you a taste. Did I mention they play a Hurdy Gurdy?

Finally the Kelly Bros. show up, with Paul sporting a brand new Mango Jefe, I was extremely jealous. We put on and ran down to Avalanche as it had gotten even lower than the previous day. We decided to hike back up and run the section again since it was so fun. We then hung around the 23.5985784654875467534657* ft waterfall and hucked it for a while working on different poses that would have Sports Illustrated all up on our jock begging for photo rights and making us billionaires. I think I might have ran the waterfall about six or seven times that day. It is that fun. Seriously people.



As always OBJ was a photo-op and so I got a few for ya.

Younger Kelly on the entrance falls

Here is a little vid for ya

Crested Butte Kayaking from Kevin J on Vimeo.

#13 Slate

Taste the rainbow

We continued down from Daisey into the Slate which is a pretty fun easy run that eventually becomes a mini gorge and reminds me of some tropical area with little side tributaries falling in moss covered sides. The only drop of note is Wicked Wanda which I ran the first time I was in CB ,but this time there was a log on the right side and it can go but we all decided to portage this time.

We also did some portage cleaning since there were so many of us and took out three portages on the run including a huge tree.

Eric giving the log a big hug, I guess Greeley is a lonely place?

Not really a whole lot to post on here for the Slate. We did have a swimmer who I will let remain nameless, but when I get to the Fort he should probably buy some brew ha ha. J/K

#12 Daisy

Eric on the run-out of Rip Ur Head Off

I was eating a sandwich at the coffee shop minding my own business when a couple of guys who were up to no good, starting welding boats in my neighborhood, I took one last bite wiping my lips and said "Who gives a hoot? Yo home to Crested Butte." We Pulled up at about quarter to five, met Natalie and DK and figured out who would drive. We drove for a while and then crossed the creek and knowing that we needed no sneak we looked at Big Wood sitting right there, knowing that we would be boofing it and catching some air.

Sorry for the bad Fresh Prince version. But that is basically what happened, ran into Ian and Kevin again and we rallied up to Daisey with Josh and Josh, Natalie and DK.

Daisy is just good semi-clean for the area fun. Water was low, but who cares when you get to boof a clean 15?

Might have to change the name since there ain't a whole lot of wood in there anymore



Heck even Rip Ur Head Off is fun as long as you can keep your head on. the key is to have a clean entrance into the narrow slot so you are moving from left to right but not hitting the F-U flake in the middle which could bounce you into the river left over hang.


Dear God is that a floating head?

Carbondale to Cressted Butte

So after spending some time in the Fort, I got a ride back to Carbondale. I was worried that I was going to miss the CB season by riding all the way back. As I found out that wasn't even close to the case.

I started climbing gradually up CO-133 and was able to bike next to the Crystal River for all of the way. The Narrows looked fun and had I known that they were class V at that level ~1200cfs, I probably would have made a pit stop and done some solo boating (don't tell mom. Got up and took a peak at the Meatgrinder, it looks like a pretty technical rapid but definitely do-able (coming back down when the river was at 800cfs, it looked even better).

Hogies and Grinders

I eventually got to Marble split and started to head up McClure Pass. All I can say is that it was the hardest three miles of biking I have done. It is so steep (8% most of the time) and gains roughly 2000ft. I will admitt that I had to get off of my bike a few times and walk a little bit to give my legs a break. It isn't any easier to walk a loaded rig. At some points I wasn't even going fast enough for my bike computer to pick up my speed.

Not that long or high, but burly nonetheless

I finally got to the top and got a pretty sweet coast down towards Paonia. I was heading towards Paonia State Park and Reservoir. I rode along Muddy Creek which lives up to its name and there was a quick fun looking class IV section in there. The entire reservoir was super muddy brown (I use this in the sense that it was the color brown, not some gnarly way to describe kayaking creek runs) because of the inflow of Muddy Creek.

Paonia Resevoir looking green

Once I got to the end of the resavoir I saw a nice outflow sluice that looks like some good stunt boating. I am down if anyone ever wants to run it. From there I headed onto CR 12 which is not paved for those of you who might want to take this route.

Looking across the resevoir

It was getting late and I was tire but I finally made it to Erickson Springs campground and had a sweet little site right next to Anthracite Creek. Anthracite has some of the coolest looking water, it is almost gray and see-through clear but yet it is not. I would call it somewhat opaque. Erickson Springs is a starting point to hike into some of the Anthracite wilderness runs in case anyone was wondering.

The next moring I started my climb of Kebler pass which pretty much begins where I camp and ends a few miles away fromCrested Butte. Needless to say it was a long haul on my Surly Long Haul Trucker. It was about thirty miles of climbing, but it was some of the most beatiful passing through a huge aspen grove. The real downside was I was misinformed by numerous people that Kebler is paved. The only paved part is the bridge that goes over the Ruby? section of Antracite, log still in the rapid. But I would recommend this climb just for its peacefulness and beauty.

It was a long one

About two I arrived in the quaint little softball playing town of Crested Butte. I am going to move there and get on a team, ASAP. I am a wicked switch hitter even though I throw like a two year old.

I put on about 70 miles for this leg.

I apologize, I though I had some pics of Anthracite Creek and of Kebler Pass, but I guess I forgot to take them.

#11 "Little North"

Taking a break from our hike

Duke of Earl, Duke Ellington, and Duke of Hazard and myself hiked in to the "Little North" on Thursday. Flows were medium to medium high and were pretty darn fun.Getting ready to put on. From left to right: Duke of Earl, Duke Ellington, Duke of hazard

As always Starter Fluid did not disappoint and the whole upper section went off without a hitch except when I decided to exit my craft after running Cool World. My line on Cool world was good until the left eddy line grabbed me and spun me around. Usually I am having to paddle pretty hard left and since there was way more water pushing to the right I thought it would be even harder, but I barely did anything and then I was backwards. Oh well se la vi or something like that, carpe dium type stuff.

We got to Nitrogen Narcosis and had ourselves a little break before continuing on. We made pretty good time and it only took us six hours. We were on wood alert and were constantly scouting to make sure no problems arose.

Did anyone know that Bonk! is the shnip shnap snitty shnitty bang bang at this level?

Most of the in-between stuff was super fun and everything was juicing including Deion Sanders Gorge. There is the usual wood in there, but we did clean out some wood and the section of the upper Rush were there is a big honking tree river right and then a smaller tree on river left, we lifted the tree on the left up making it passable at higher flows.

I seriously love this river and cannot wait for the 4th.Coming back for you on Independence Weekend

the only bummer is that when it is this high the big three are becoming less than stellar and my personal fav, Slideways looked full on, so was a walk today. I guess that is the trade off.What happened to the eddys?

Probably one of the worst looking rapids was Tubular Balls. That thing just turned into a giant boil backing up a damn big hole. Run on the left with the tongue and watch out for the left wall.

Sorry the post is so lame I am tired and have to head to CB tomorrow.
Hope you all like the video

P.S. thanks to the Duchess of York for helping with the hike

Little North from Kevin J on Vimeo.

#10 Lower Narrows

Paul and I got down to Lower Narrows and since I was coming to the entrance from the top I got pushed river left. You can sneak it right, but I forgot and went left. I was fighting to get back right, but by the time I got to the entrance move it was not good and I was a little off line as I hit the boil coming off the junk pile. I rolled immediately though and came into the eddy, where to my suprise I looked like a first year boater and rolled in the eddy line. This put me far left and as the video shows I got stuck.

After I got un pinned I took off and it went fine.

I decided that I couldn't be done on that note and went back up for round two. Much smoother as I came down the right line which is where you should be. Except for a weird roll, which is ironically where I rolled in the race, it was Vin Diesel style fast and furious.

Hells Yeah, double digits for the run list.

Poudre Gnarrows 3.7ft from Kevin J on Vimeo.

#9 Upper Narrows

After getting back from SSV I called up Paul the Kayaker and we hit the Poudre to do some big water Narrows runs. The Pineview gauge was at ~3.7/8 which is definitely on the higher side of life. I can't remember how high I have run Uppers, but it wasn't even close to this level. Big water boating going on.

On the first rapid Super Collider, it was waaaaaaaaaay bigger down in there than from the road and while I was mostly on line for it it wasn't on my terms and I couldn't get away from the wall to set my angle a little better.

I was a little nervous after that to run Whiteline, but I stomped the entrance boof and set up perfectly for the final boof and I layed it down.

We got to middle narrows and it felt big even though I have run it in a playboat much higher. Don't get me wrong, it was super fun, it just felt big for some reason.

Finally we got to Lower Narrows, but that is another write up

#8 South Saint Vrain

On Tuesday I was still sore and recovering from the century I put on my bike, so I decided to do a little nearby boating. I met up with Ian, Scott, and Mike and we hit up SSV.

Most people talk smack aboot this run but we had pretty decent flows. The group was guessing about 250cfs. I personally thought the run was sweet and a good technical run.

the bad news was I broke my boat and I don't know how cause I didn't hit anything too hard. Kinda sucks I only got three days out of it.

The other bad news was that I swam. I was coming down one of the longer rapids and the boater in front of me was not having the best of lines and basically went down it backwards and so I was catching up to him. As I came over the last horizon line I was staring right at him and was about to boof over the hole right into his face. I turned at the last second and hit him out of the hole but it put me in the hole nice and side ways. I gave her a good run for the money for about 20-30 seconds but finally could not pull myself out and got windowshaded for the second time and pulled. When I came up, I was surprised to see another boat and swimmer in the hole with me.

The rapid that caused all the damage. Still a super fun rapid

I grabbed my stuff and we rescued the other swimmer's boat and paddle so it was no biggy and I haven't done a hole ride in a while so it was probably a good thing.Poor little guy, out there all alone

We ended the run without further incident and called it a good day.

SSV Kayaking from Kevin J on Vimeo.

#7 Spencer Heights

I waited around till about 11:30 knowing that boaters are notoriously late getting to meeting spots, even though we were supposed to meet at 8am. I started riding down the Poudre Canyon and got a good ways past Rustic when I finally met up with them. We headed back up and I will just say our mission ended in defeat. Damn you Ranger Rick.

Not to be totally down in out we proceeded to run a couple laps on Spencer Heights which is a run that I absolutely love. The Sportsman's gauge was reading a bout 2.9 which is an ok flow. I don't think it can get too big personally.

We all came up to Rocket Launcher and most people ran it and everyone came out just fine, I think it was 7/7. This was a first for me as I have ran the run probably about fifteen times and have always walked Rocket Launcher. It was styled and I was feeling good.

After that we portaged around Poudre falls which would be so lovely if it wasn't for that third drop and ran Cyclotron which is hole punching at its finest and ends with a sweet mushroom rock boof. Which I of course missed.

We came up to Boneyard next a long and technical rapid involving serious amounts of skill and bravery just to comprehend the complexities of its nature. Once again styled by all.

We then entered the mini gorge which is just a collection of boofs and holes to punch. So good once it hits your lips. We did run into some trouble here as a boater (I don't like using names of people who have bad days) went for quite the hole ride in the entrance of the gorge. It just so happened that this was his first swim in about 5 years, his last being on Double Trouble.

The rest of the run went smoothly and we went back up for round two.

Right now I am furious because I had some awesome video of all of us stomping Rocket Launcher and then routing Cyclotron and Boneyard on our second lap. I recorded over it by accident with some SSV stuff. I hate myself right now and will try to get some more footy later.

Sorry to the crew that you can't be world famous on my blog, and thanks for the donations and support. You all rock.

Steamboat to Fort Collins

Finally, too bad it wasn't the only summit

On Saturday I left Steamboat and had to make it to the summit of Cameron's Pass in order to meet some boaters to run the Little North early in the morning.

I was on the road by 6:00am and spent the next few hours of the morn climbing Rabbit Ears Pass. It was about a 7 mile ride at a 7% grade to reach the West summit. I had forgotten that Rabbit Ears had two summits and so I had to continue with more up and down riding to reach the East Summit. It was then down hill for only about 2 miles and then a 50 mile ride to Walden.

I can't think of too many places that are prettier to take a bike ride through. Once in the valley I was surrounded by green meadows which were boxed in by the Zircles and Rawahs. Absolutely stunning.

I got to Walden around lunch time and stopped to eat and rest. My knee had begun to act up and felt like it needed to pop. It felt like it could pop and relieve all the pressure or pop and tear my quad so I was a little worried. My Achilles were starting to tighten up again.

A cow and two of her calves, probably last year's offspring

I left Walden and headed for Cameron Pass and around Gould the rain hit and it was freezing cold. It was however still beautiful out and the mountains were awesome. I also can't think of a time that I am on the west side of Cameron's and don't see a moose. I saw 7 moose that night.

Same moose as the above picture, but if you look into the background there is another cow and she had three first year calves, I only saw one.

I was starting to get dizzy and bonk and had to pedal hard to Gould. I stopped and had some homemade ice-cream at the Drifter's Cookhouse. Blackberry White chocolate Cheesecake and it was probably some of, if not the best ice-cream I have ever eaten. Thanks again for the ice-cream.Typical Cameron's scenery

My bike and the Crags

I was feeling exhausted and the owners not only gave me the ice-cream, but offered me a cabin for the night. i politely declined because I needed to be at the meeting point by 8am. So I kept trucking and by 8pm I had reached the summit of Cameron's and was at the designated campsite. I was freezing cold and completely wiped, but it felt good to have gotten to point B.
I put in about 100 miles that day and summited two passes.

We still got snow here on the Front Range

Skunked at Slater

My Latvian friend and myself drove for about six hours and did some exploring in the area and found a cool drop that needs some cleaning, but when we arrived at Slater, it looked as though A.C. had cut a little too much weight and wasn't going to be putting the double chicken wing on anyone.
It was really kind of a bummer cause we had planned to put the Kelly Kapowski boof on him.


We probably would have ran it if we hadn't run into some boaters who told us it was shallow and had seen people piton hard when there was way more water right before we got there. I still contemplated it for about ten minutes when we got there. It could be done, but if you missed your boof, ouch.

#6 Lower Fish Creek

Marty on Lower Fish

Nothing really needs to be written here as it was pretty much summed up in the upper Fish Creek Section.Marty again on Lower Fish. Notice the two drops of water coming off the paddle, pretty cool.

All of these pictures were taken on the fly while I was moving so I apologize, but there isn't really a great place to stop and take pictures.

#5 Upper Fish Creek

Fish Creek Falls. Beautiful.

On Thursday, Marty Smith and myself went and ran Upper and Lower Fish Creek. You can put in right below Fish Creek Falls where the NF of the Fish comes in but there was some wood and we put in below the bridge. (I guess there was wood in the NF so I couldn't run it) Please clean Steamboaters, please.

Another view right below the falls

The Fish is super fun and fast boating. It is like boating big water in a shallow creek bed if that makes sense. You definitely do not want to go upside down on this run. Mostly just heads up read and run.The put in view from the bridge

You don't have to get out of your boat, but there is a weir that Marty said had caused some damage to a very good boater so we walked around that and that begins the lower section. It starts out much like the upper and then begins to mellow out, however around the golf course it picks up again before mellowing all the way to the take out.

The best part is that it is right in Steamboat, you take out at the Safeway parking lot. I would love to do this run before and after work everyday.

On Friday a certain Ft. Collins boater showed up to boat with me and we ran Fish again with Marty. This time was much more fun for myself since I knew what to expect I just looked for good rock boofs and there are plenty of them, including right at the put in.

For the certain boater things did not go as well as you can see below:

That boy must have been a real tease.
Can you guess whose boat this belongs to?
Hint: He's Latvian

Wolcott to Steamboat

So after Jace and I finished with Homestake and Gilman we headed back to Eagle Vail. I packed up and biked about 15 miles back to Wolcott and spent the night in a rainstorm. It seriously felt like I had been living in the PacNW.

The next morning I got up and started to climb up Highway 131 towards Steamboat. The climb wasn't too bad. I was eyeing Akali Creek, but I would have had to bike back up to it and I didn't know how long it was going to take to get to the Boat so I passed. Once I desceneded to state bridge it was pretty much all up hill to Toponas. Not easy.

Along the way I passed an older gentleman who I had seen at Wolcott the first time I camped there. I caught him because his motor that helped him had spun a gear and he was walking his bike a good portion of the up hill. He was riding his bike to Steamboat cause he had hear there was work. It reminded me of the old days when people heard there was gold in them thar hills, but it was sad that this man has so poor he had to bike with all his belongings to find work. Puts life in perspective for you without having to visit Africa. I do give him mad props for not being one of those people that just collects unemployment and doesn't try to find work, even in this economy. A historical landmark in Routt County

The plaque to prove it in case you don't believe me

Toponas is amazing!!! I was out of water and dying when out of know where in the freezing cold comes the town of Toponas. The little store had some heat and beef jerky while I filled my water bottles. (They also have a large assortment of girl scout cookies, and if you are like me and love Somoas than it is up your alley)
I have been on a little Cormac McCarthy binge, but this store reminded me of the little one in "No Country for Old Men"

From Toponas I found that it was all pretty much downhill (slightly) with some rolling hills to Steamboat. I got in around 5:30 and went to the library to use the computers and find some boaters. There were none to be had as I went to both kayak shops, called random boaters I didn't know and hung out at the playpark. No one wanted to boat with me. I spent all day Wed. waiting and no one offered. I did get some reading done and finished "The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz I highly recommend it. I have also been reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy also good.

Finally, on Thurs. Marty came to the rescue and we went and boated Upper and Lower Fish Creek.

I put in about 80miles on this leg.

#4 Gilman Gorge

Andrew and Brent running Falls Creek Rapid

After our first lap on Homestake we went and ran Gilman. It was pumping in at around 750cfs which is pretty big. The water was definitely moving and is was super fun boogie water with big wave trains and some fun drops in between. Falls Creek rapid came up soon and Jace and myself got out and scouted it. There were some big holes on the way down to a boof over a hole while driving right just off of a large rock and over a log. Everyone did fine, while my line was interesting. I thought that I was going to ride over the log and boof but as I came up to the log I must have been a little to far left and I board slided the log away from the direction I was heading. I twas kinda weird that I did that because all of my momentum and the flow was heading right, but I went left. Go figure.

Brent running Slurry Pipe. You can just make out Andrew stuck in the sleeper hole. Sorry for the white out.

After some more boogie we got to Slurry Pipe. It looked big and Jace and I contemplated walking, especially after we saw Andrew get throttled in the sleeper hole at the end. Jace went first and had a clean line. I followed and was not able to cut back left after passing under the bridge so I dropped into the curler instead of boofing towards it. It is deep in there and for an instant I was just in a white room. I then got spat out and ran the rest of the rapid on the right and it was actually pretty easy going. I couldn't tell if I just missed the final hole or paddled through it.

All in all it was a great day and we went back for three more laps on Homestake afterwards.

#3 Homestake

The next day on Monday, Jace and myself met up with Brent and Andrew and went to run Homestake and Gilman.

What can I say about Homestake? It is so fun and boats better than it looks. High quality Colorado mank with some fun boofs in between. Its just too bad it is over so quickly. I ran it four times once before Gilman and three times after. The pool section is great and is pretty mellow until you have to get left of the F-U rock for Leap of Faith.

On my last run I ran into Brad who started First Descents and Thatcher who is a cancer survivor and learned how to kayak through 1st D a few years ago. It was pretty amazing to meet someone who beat cancer and obviously continues to love kayaking. Props to you Thatcher.

Homestake 1 from Kevin J on Vimeo.

Yeah I know the videos aren't the greatest and the soundtrack doesn't match up, but that takes way more time than I have. Just enjoy the boating and quality music.

Homestake 2 from Kevin J on Vimeo.

#2 Bailey*

Schools out for Summer!
I survived my first year of teaching and wasted no time trying to get to the rivers. On Sat I woke up and hit the road. I got to G-wood and was heading up the bike path when my plans were foiled. the high water closes the bike path and bikes are not allowed to go on I-70 at this point. I rode back down to Grizzly Creek and had to wait for a little over an hour to hitch a ride with some nice Craig fellers who were Cat rafting all day. They took me a few miles over to Bair Ranch were I picked up my bike ride. I had gone about 100 yards before I came to another "Trail closed" sign. This time I didn't want to waste the time waiting so I kept going and only found one spot where the trail had water and I rode through it with no problems.

It was slow going getting to Eagle-Vail where I was hopefully going to meet Lauren and crash on her Futon. It was so slow that i got caught in an awesome rainstorm and decided to camp at Wolcott for the night.

The next morning I was biking into Edwards when I saw a lady with a blue Burn at the EMT station, I yelled "Lauren" and low and behold it was she. Five minutes later, her man Jace showed up and invited me to go run Bailey. How could I refuse such an offer (I was never going to get that close to Bailey on a bike during my trip) so we headed out after picking up Romeo.

Once we got to Bailey we met up with Darren and put on. Flows were about 700 which is a fun level for most of the run.

We all portaged 1st falls and ran the rest in style. The boogie is so good at this level. The next major rapid is Supermax. Jace, Romeo, and Darren decided to walk and I decided to giver er a shot and probably should have given her a little harder. I got rolled in the entrance hole and proceeded to come up in time to roll into the next hole. As I rolled up I saw I could either head for the safety eddy or keep going. I kept going and drove up perfectly like I was supposed to and landed in the next eddy downstream. Things should have gone fine here, but as i was trying to line up to exit the eddy and ferry across the creek I got sucked out the back and went down the rest of the rapid backwards. Don't worry mom everything was fine, besides my disgust at having such a bad line.

The last major rapid comes near the end and that is Deer Creek. This rapid is so much fun and I still don't know what it looks like after running it at least ten times, as I have never scouted it. All I know is there is a hole at the top that can mess your line up and then it is just big fast whitewater that usually is just a white out.

The day ended with some Hog Heaven BBQ which was tasty, but I have to recommend Piggin Out BBQ in Morrison for future Bailey boaters.

I put in about 60 miles on the bike for this stretch.

I will hopefully get some pics up soon.

#1 Escalante Creek

There is a creek somewhere in them hills

So I took Thurs and Fri off and decided to head on down to Delta, CO to hit up Escalante Creek. The creek is awesome for numerous reasons, but I personally like it because you are in the middle of the desert and all of a sudden you have this creek coming out of nowhere.

Thursday I left New Castle at 7:00 and got to Grand Junction by 1:30. It was a perfect day for a bike ride, 70 degrees and no wind. I camped at a KOA after deciding that I was too tired to do much more that day. I logged about 85 miles on my bike Thurs. A nice little old lady named Jane gave me five bucks for the cause at the Subway in Parachute. Her husband looked at me like I was a dirty hippy stealing their 401k.

Stopping during the Windy ride

Friday I woke late and got on the road by 8:00 hoping to make it to the Escalante Canyon entrance by noon. I did get there by noon but it was slow going. The wind was none to kind and I averaged about 5mph the whole way.
About 2:00 Ian, Tom, and DK showed up and I hitched a ride into the canyon ( I didn't want to take my trailer through the bounciness of the dirt road). We met up with Jace (hope I am spelling this right), Lauren, Crystal, and Adam and hit the Creek.

Ian at Rib Ripper

The fin at 57' Chevy was covered so we had medium flow and it was good. Every one had great lines and Adam from S.C., Tom, and Myself fired up the Falls. It definitely wasn't near as big as when I ran it last year, when every rock was under water but it was so good. I felt like I boofed the chocolate out of the water my first run.

After the run we set up camp and enjoyed some frosty beverages (thank you Ian and Crystal) and sang happy birthday to crystal who turned 23 that night. Camped under the stars below some gorgeous red sandstone cliffs. What more can you ask for?

Woke up Sat. Morning and hoped Uldis the Latvian would be at the inner gorge area where we picked our boats up. No dice!, but we had to get going and I needed to bike back to Cameo that day so I didn't want to wait around. We put on again with a little more flow which was evident at Waterslide with more water going over the rock in the middle and at the Falls where the left guard rock water covered, previously it was above waterline. Another great run was had by all, this time the creek looked like the Royal Gorge with a constant train of boaters. Adam and myself again ran the falls and it went great. I did roll a few times in the gorge, including the Magnetic wall but managed to roll quick enough to avoid the swim.

Adam stomping the Falls

At this point I would like to give my condolences to WY Austin's AT paddle that slipped off the shore below the falls and broke somewhere along the way to the takeout. Sorry buddy.

Adam gave me a ride to the entrance and I packed up and made it to the J. Robb State Park in record time. The wind was blowing so hard that I seriously averaged about 26mph on the same stretch that I went 5mph the day before. (Lance Armstrong AVERAGES 26mph during the WHOLE Tour de France, in case anyone cared). The scariest part of the trip was going down this hill at 44mph and the wind at that point was a straight cross wind.

The bummer of the trip was my Achilles tendons were so tight the whole time from being an armchair quarterback that they hurt really bad and just when I got outside of Rifle today, my right one popped and I was done for. Had to call my roomie to come get me. Right now I can barely walk but hopefully I will be better to go hit Barrel Springs this Weekend.
All in all though it was a great test run and I logged about 200 miles with over a hundred lbs of gear. Not bad for a lazy bum.

Escalante Creek from Kevin J on Vimeo.

Sorry for missing you Uldis, and thanks to Micheal for donating money to First Descents. thanks to Ian, Tom, DK, Adam, Crystal, Jace, Lauren, and Mariah for a good weekend.
Tom it was STOUT wasn't it?