Well last second decision. Woody gave me the call, "Shane I need you to come out to Colorado for a week". Okay I said and Yonton and I loaded up the "Goldstar" (his gold Saturn Sedan) at 5:30am and started the drive out to Colorado. First we dropped Whitney off at the Airport because she was flying out to Montana to see the graduation of the World Class Kayak Academy in Missoula, Montana and then we started the mission that is driving to Colorado.
If you are driving to Colorado you shouldn't end up in Mississippi. I will tell you that much about our drive out. We took the low road, I-40 across the country, because we were headed for Southern Colorado. Somewhere in Tennessee we started listening to a book on tape and at some point in Memphis we turned south and headed for the Delta. Unfortunately it took an hour for the book to end and us to figure out we were headed the wrong way. If you take the southern road through Amarillo and then turn north through the corner of New Mexico you can be in Salida in 25 hours fairly easily. Potential good stops are Graceland of course, the Cadilac Ranch in Amarillo and the Big Texan Steak House, Where you can get a free 72 oz. steak if you can eat it all in one sitting and the Pac a' Sac gas station in Dumas, Texas (how do you pronounce that?),
The drive was silly and incredible. I put together a video of the drive. You can check it out here.
Colorado Video Link
We rolled into Salida 25 driving hours later and it was freezing and raining. I wasn't sure that this whole trip was a good idea since I had just gotten off the Greeen at 200% the day before we left. There was no water and things were looking pretty bleak. We had a little bonfire, video, and brew party with our buds Lisa and Dave. Woody rolled up in the big rig so we could show movies on the side of the truck, and wheeled out the fire barrel so we could stay warm. A bunch of the local crew and CKS staff showed up and it was a good time even though it was cold and drizzly. Luckily the next day the sun came out and it got pretty warm, but the river still wasn't running so we decided to go Skateboarding.
Maya was in town teaching some paddling classes and he could actually skate. He loned me a board and gave me a little coaching. I hadn't been on a board in close to 15 years but I had a great time picking myself up off the ground. Here is the video from the ripping session at the Salida Bowl. I was sore for a couple days after one crash in particular.
What a cool place. Playspot right in town, skate park next to the river, wireless coffee shop next to both, and great riverruns upstream and downstream of town. Its well worth a trip to Salida. Just make sure there is water when you go. Here is a link to a video from the skating session.
Salida Skate Video Link
More updates from Colorado Coming.
Actual paddling coming next week.
Grand Opening of the Pueblo Colorado Playpark
High Water Run on the Embudo
Bottom Box of the Animas River near Durango.
Later
Shane
