I had planned to head out to Colorado to do some paddling this spring all winter and a week before I was set to leave. Jennifer Cribbs called and said she wanted to go. I was psyched I didn't have to do he drive by myself. So she jumped on board with me and Biscuit, my dog.
It was the crack of 5:00 pm when we left Ashevegas headed for Colorado. We didn't know where in Colorado but we were headed to Colorado. We started calling all our friends trying to find out what was going to go first and the closer we got the worse the prognosis for water. "Its cloudy and cold today, stuff is dropping".
"The only stuff that is running is in Durango" So Durnago was the destination.
Woody rung us up while we were driving the low route, I-40 all the way into New Mexico then up to Durango. He said we should have a warm up run on the Piedra first and then stuff was going to start running because a warm spell was on the way.
Day 1 in Colorado was a nice mellow paddle on the Piedra River just outside of Pagosa Springs. The level was low but the section was just what the doctor ordered after a straight through the night drive. The Piedra was a technical class 3+4ish run with a handful of fun drops. Of note the rapid Woody called Eye of the Needle had changed quite a bit. He said that a rock used to sit right in the middle of the rapid and now it is a good 30 feet downstream and a little left of center so this rapid has gotten a lot easier according to Woody and the locals we have talked to.
Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of that.
It was a beautiful run. We had bluebird skies, and cold beers at the take out. We did the lower half of the run. I guess there are a few more miles upstream that we didn't do. I could see this being a fun overnight trip.
All in all it was a sweet warm up and a great place to chuck it with Biscuit.
Time to go drink a margarita!
I will try to post everyday of the Colorado experience.
Shane
