Whitewater Rafting and Kayaking in Colorado, Summer 2019
By Dom Nozzi
The snowfall for the 2018/2019 ski season in Colorado is so epic that it leaves a snowpack that is 529 percent of normal. And as several media sources and whitewater vendors trumpeted several times in the spring, that epic, enormous snowpack means there will be an epic season for whitewater rafting and kayaking as well.
And that gives me a golden opportunity to sample some of the wild-eyed whitewater that rages in Colorado.
On June 7, 2019, Maggie and I ride the 12-mile Mishawaka Falls section of the Upper Poudre River with Wanderlust Adventures. The river on this day is relatively high. Which allows us to be rewarded with turbulent, churning, chaotic, hair-raising fun, at about 1500 cfs.
The Poudre is the only designated National Wild and Scenic River in Colorado, and flows through a beautiful canyon. We were fortunate to spot a group of longhorn sheep along the way.
The big surprise: I am prematurely flung out of the raft at a notorious rapid called "Guide Hole," where the raft guide – as suggested by the name of the rapid -- often falls out. This angry maneater is just a short distance upstream from another demanding rapid called "Customer Hole," which is where you would think I would be falling out.
I blame Maggie for not grabbing my arm to keep me in the raft. :^)
In any event, it is the first time in my storied, infamous rafting career that I am the only occupant in the raft to fall out. I've fallen out a number of times in the past on whitewater trips, but only when the entire boat flips. On this unfortunate day, I’m ashamed to say, others in the boat have to rescue me by pulling me back in. Because falling out in a big rapid is so exhilarating, that one event makes my entire rafting trip worthwhile.
Still, the overall trip was a lot of fun.
In fact, Maggie was surprised by how much she enjoyed it, after initially thinking that Dom was going to once again lead her into something too scary and way over her head.
Tragically, the photographer -- who had shot many photos of our day on the raging Poudre -- learns when he gets back to the shop that all of his photos and videos are corrupted, so we don’t get any pictures or video of the rafting. It was the first time that had happened to him in his three years of being the company photographer.
Our next Living-on-the-Edge ride is battling Browns Canyon on the Arkansas River in Central Colorado. It is a warm-up for taking on the roaring, churning, ferocious Clear Creek whitewater in a few days. Browns Canyon is at a very high water level (3720 cfs), but we avoid casualties and no one “goes swimming.”
This short video shot with my helmet-mounted camera shows us early on at Browns. https://youtu.be/kh8fFvQyux8
Next up a few days later finds Maggie and me rafting the "Advanced Express" run on Clear Creek just west of Denver with the Clear Creek Rafting Co. The Creek, which is quite demanding at high water levels due to the large boulders and narrow channel, is running at a relatively high level of 700 cfs. We conquer the following rapids: Upper Beaver Falls, Lower Beaver Falls, The Nixon Rapids. We then paddle hard as we drop into Guide Ejector, Double Knife (particularly nasty), Hells Corner and Terminator.
I shot this video with a chest-mounted camera. https://youtu.be/mafm77QAoUU. And here is a photo montage I assembled with photos shot by the Rafting Company during our wild-eyed ride. https://youtu.be/pGThwtp6tB0
Before we even have a chance to catch our breath, we storm down the rampaging Boulder Creek, which is running at about 235 cfs. It is the maiden voyage for the 2-person Inex inflatable raft we have recently purchased.
It takes us a while to get our whitewater skills honed, as Maggie has never whitewater kayaked, and my whitewater kayaking skills are very much at the beginner stage, as my 25 years of kayaking experience includes 20 years of flatwater kayaking in Florida -- which is nothing like whitewater kayaking -- and a few very short and very tame whitewater kayaking forays in Colorado in recent years.
It was truly a trial-by-fire experience.
Adding to the difficulty is that Maggie is sitting in front of me. This means that most of my view of approaching rapids is obscured by her back. In addition, at 235 cfs, Boulder Creek is rather swift, and as a very narrow creek, there is very little margin for error. In ski difficulty terms, it was running as a black diamond.
Our Inex raft, fortunately, behaves well for us in the swift wave trains and drops on Boulder Creek. Its upturned head and tail make the kayak ride successfully over and through each of the rapids we encounter.
I shot this video of our kayaking starting at the kayak playpark just upstream from Ebon Fine Park to the Justice Center. https://youtu.be/GReOZNZejHk
This video shows us kayaking from the Justice Center to the Library: https://youtu.be/xvFRF1PMkbY
The swift, narrow creek finally catches up with us near the end of our ride. Seconds before our Whitewater Waterloo, I am boasting to Maggie about my superior kayaking navigational skills and how the most fun to be had is when the boat flips in the rapids.
Maggie has never been in a flipped boat and does not believe me.
Sure enough, soon after my well-timed comments, we approached a drop that is creating a powerful rapid and I am unable to keep the nose pointed downstream. Instead, I commit the cardinal sin at a hydraulic of entering this churning water with our kayak sideways. As we hit the hydraulic, our kayak quickly and somewhat unexpectedly flips, sending us into a “swim” mode. I come up under and inside the upside-down kayak, and Maggie is alarmingly floating downstream out of the kayak.
Overall, though, we have enough fun that we plan to saddle up again for another kayaking ride down Boulder Creek in a few days.
We had planned to kayak again on July 1st, but the cfs was at 565 (!!), which is the highest, fastest water level all year.
Insane, death-zone conditions on the Creek.
Not even Dangerous Dom is willing to take such a plunge.