Shaneslogic

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Fearless Leader Dunbar

All you ever hear about Lime Creek is “adrenaline falls”. I have heard about, and seen video of people crashing, scraping paddles, getting worked up against the wall, going deep, and all that stuff for years. I haven’t heard about another rapid in that first gorge before.

The other thing that I had heard is that the run is kind of boney at the top of the run. That you have to get through a little gravely bumpy stuff to get down into the gorge where the river narrows up and gets good. There was one problem there was no boney part. We put in on very very fast moving water with almost no eddies. Dunbar gave us the appearance that all was good but I wasn’t convinced. Jennifer was gung ho but anxious, and Dunbar wasn’t showing any signs that he was nervous so I just went with it. It all seemed good.
The first sign that the water was higher than Dunbar was used to was that he didn’t exactly know where each rapid was coming up. “Okay so the next rapid is a couple turns down there should be an eddie on the left no worries”. We would then float around a couple turns and then a couple more and then we would all scramble for a tree to grab onto, get the beta, and then run the drop it was all going smoothly but it just seemed not quite 100% right.
As we approached Adrenaline Jenn was getting nervous. The tree branch eddies were working but it just wasn’t normal. The approach went great and we got the eddie and started to go scout the drop and I was feeling pretty good and excited about it so I was looking closely Jenn and Dunbar had decided to carry, and I was walking up to run it when a guy comes walking down the hill from above yelling at Dunbar, “Dude, I ran that yesterday and pretty much saw god. My friends said that I went deep in my kayak like 10 seconds got pushed against he wall, then I swam and then I went 35-40 seconds deep. I saw god, dude, I wouldn’t do it. So that kind of blew my voodoo to run it. Can’t say I wasn’t glad to have some of that pressure off. As it turned out the guy had lost his boat and we found it in the next drop downstream. We dumped it out and pulled it up on shore, and then headed downstream.

Jennifer S-Turn

The only two that were of concern left were S-Turn and Dragons Back. We caught the eddies above S-Turn and I scouted from river left. Looking down in there all I could see was super boily water pushing through against a big pillow and then forcing through a slot to the left of the boil. It was a messy cauldron but it all went through so the beta was go left through the pillow and hang on. Dunbar went first and made the move left of the pillow and then the boils sunk him down almost to the armpits and then spit him through the next slot and into the eddie below. All good signal came from behind the rock and Jenn and I followed no problem, but pretty much it was a hang on type rapid, and roll up at the bottom. It was really fun.
Next came Dragons Back. The hole looked okay but if you messed it up at all you were going to typewriter back into a gnarly pit and definitely swim and the swim didn’t really look like you would come out of the hole for sure so we did the Huck and Jump technique.

Ancient Huck, Jump, and Swim Technique

After that it was a run out to the take out. Super fun but a little high to take advantage of the runs potential.
The video is a little big. 22MB
but pretty funny.

Peaks at the Takeout

Lime Creek, Click It

I don’t really know what to say about this trip. It really was indescribable. The Black Canyon is one of those places that you just have to see to believe. It has Grand Canyon grandeur, hard rapids, scary sieves, portages that make you grunt and sweat, and we had perfect weather yet again. We also had a secret weapon….Milo.

The Put In

It was a very spur of the moment deal. Woody gave me a call and said that he had gotten a call and there was a group headed up to do the Black Canyon. This is a run that Woody and I had both wanted to do. Its a very strange feeling. Immediately after Chuck’s accident I didn’t want to ever see this place but now nearly 10 years after I was immediately excited about the idea. I wanted to see it all for myself. It was made even better by the company into the gorge that we were going to have.

Lunch High Above The River

Woody, Jennifer, and I were joined again by Billy and Aaron. We were invited by Brian from CKS. The six of us were signed up for the overnight experience. We were also joined by one of the Black Canyon homeys. His name is Milo, and from what I am learning as I travel around Colorado, everyone knows Milo. We also had Tommy, and Jules along for the ride. They drove in late in the evening for the full on experience with Milo of the one day Black Canyon trip.

Jennifer (chickodini) and Milo on his 38th trip

The Painted Wall

I had traveled to the gorge and looked over the edge once. And it had blown me away. The Canyon itself is so impressive it rivals any gorge, or canyon I have ever be in or seen. As we drifted through we all found ourselves constantly leaving our mouths hanging wide open. The cliffs seemed to over hang the river from a couple thousand feet up. Birds surfed the thermals and drafts from the bottom of the gorge. It was very cool to be in there. Brian kept saying he wouldn’t be surprised if a Pterydactil came flying around the corner. Someone else said it was serious Lord of the Rings land. Yes all weak analogies compared to what the place really was. So we just keep trying but you just can’t do it justice.

Desert Camp

Our trip started with meeting at the take out in the evening before we were to get on the water. We all camped in a desert pullout on the Chukar Trail road. We woke up with a very bright high desert sun 30 minutes from hitting camp. It would go from a cool mellow morning to a hot breakfast in the sun.

The shuttle itself is pretty full on. An hour on a fairly brutal dirt road, and then 45 minutes back up to the park. Then the precipitous road down to the East Portal access to the river. Once we were down at the put in a quick overnight packing session took place. Lots of debate on what to take. Some took pads no sleeping bag. Some took bags no pads. I went without the bag but a good pad and a shell jacket to sleep in. I loved my decision except I forgot something for my legs. It was fine but next time I will have some tights and paddle pants. Weight is a serious issue because the portages are pretty hard because you are going up and over quite a bit of rock. By the end of the trip my arms and legs would be tired from the portages not the paddling.

A Couple Pretty Sieves

We had a mellow paddle into the gorge and then the first rapid we hit was a tell tale sign of what was to come. Sweet tight moves, with nasty sieves awaiting a missed line. We all walked. The whitewater in the Black Canyon is great but there are a lot of sieves, and undercuts, but I don’t think that I would ever consider this to be an incredible whitewater trip. Just like the Colorado book says, its an adventure. You just have to make up your mind that you are cool with the experience. Lots of fun rapids, lots of walking and lugging boats. But the payback is being able to pass through one of the coolest enviorments in the world.

Brian and Milo gave us great lines on rapids and good paths for the portages. Thanks for that. Let me just tell you that very good beta or someone on your trip that knows the gorge will save you alot of grief on this trip. They even clued us into the poison ivy tactic that worked wonders for Woody and I. They told us to put dishwashing soap on before the hike like lotion and then just wash it all away when you get to the end of the hike.

We camped at the end of the long portage down river right in a very cool campsite under a big overhanging rock. Miles, Tommy, and Jules carried on trying to finish their one day trip. The goal was to be at the take out before dark and up to the car by midnight. They all made it but it sounded epic.

Hanging at Cave Camp

We cooked up a fine tuna and rice meal under the rock, passed a flask, and told stories. I scrambled around in the rocks and found another rock for my collection. We also found a huge perch rock that stuck out into the air of the gorge probably 50 feet off the ground with a perfect flat area for us to look over the stuff we were portaging and look further upstream and downstream. That was a cool place.

A Few of the Cool Places in the Canyon

Here are two videos from the trip. They are around 10mb.
Black Canyon Part 1
Black Canyon Part 2

It is a trip I will always remember and I consider a must do.
Shane