Raft Trip
I ran the Royal Gorge today with Evan and this other guy, Rob. According to the usgs data site, the flow was at 2200 Cubic Feet per Second, which is my exact cutoff flow for the gorge. Somehow in my memory that's the number above which things get scary. So.. good thing it was only at 1800 when I checked this morning, or I might have bailed.
The run was actually great. We got through the technical type rapids with no problem. (And when I say we, I mean Evan.) The scariest rapid, to me, is Wallslammer (mostly because the swim is really nasty)- and we didn't even get wall slammed.
There are two "big big hole" rapids that we had some trouble with. As we approached Sunshine, I said, "I'm pretty sure that the sneak is on the right, and the meat is on the left." Evan yelled out to some guys on the bank to ask which way to go. They said, "Right. No, go left!" So... we went left. And, I was right. We went right through the biggest holes. The other rapid is called Grateful Dead (I'm like 75 percent sure). Evan tried the sneak on this one, but we hit a pretty big hole sideways. Didn't flip, but Evan and Rob fell out and it was... exciting for a minute or two.
Oh, then later we ran into an AT boat, and it was actually one of my friends guiding it, which was pretty cool.
All in all, it was a really great day. Fairly big water, exciting for sure.
The run was actually great. We got through the technical type rapids with no problem. (And when I say we, I mean Evan.) The scariest rapid, to me, is Wallslammer (mostly because the swim is really nasty)- and we didn't even get wall slammed.
There are two "big big hole" rapids that we had some trouble with. As we approached Sunshine, I said, "I'm pretty sure that the sneak is on the right, and the meat is on the left." Evan yelled out to some guys on the bank to ask which way to go. They said, "Right. No, go left!" So... we went left. And, I was right. We went right through the biggest holes. The other rapid is called Grateful Dead (I'm like 75 percent sure). Evan tried the sneak on this one, but we hit a pretty big hole sideways. Didn't flip, but Evan and Rob fell out and it was... exciting for a minute or two.
Oh, then later we ran into an AT boat, and it was actually one of my friends guiding it, which was pretty cool.
All in all, it was a really great day. Fairly big water, exciting for sure.