Shaneslogic

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Vallecito

Earning Our Turns

This is one of my favorite runs anywhere in the world. I hadn’t done it in years. In fact the last time I was up there was 1998 I think. Once again we had the crew we had been traveling with. Billy, Aaron, Jennifer, and I were joined by Luke from the
Durango area, and at the take out we ran into an adventure waiting to happen.

Looking At The Rock Shift In No Way Out

There was a small group of folks at the take out trying to get all set up to actually do the first RAFT descent of Vallecito. We were a little skeptical to say the least. I had been skeptical before when the fellas ran the Green a year ago, so I tried to stay open minded as I watched them heft the raft and head up the trail. If you don’t know Vallecito it is a tight tight technical run with a couple spots in it that exiting the river is nearly impossible. The potential of those guys for swims and flips was very high.
We headed up the trail with the intention of helping those guys out if they needed it, but we also had a first timer with us and some nerves about the new shift in the rocks at “No Way Out” that we had heard about. It was a great first time level, and I was psyched to be back after so long.

Nice Line Jennifer

The very first drop is a sweet 6 foot boof, then a sketchy little log dodge, and then a little warm up and get ready for Entrance falls which is a beautiful drop. One of my favorite boofs around.

Trash Can Rapid

We waited a long time at the bottom of the drop for the raft as well as scouting out Trach Can which just below Entrance falls. The raft didn’t show for a long time so I started wondering if they had second thoughts and the group including the other potential safety boater started downstream thinking that maybe they had bailed.

Fuzzy Bunny One of the Softest Boof Around

The fun thing I remember about Vallecito is that most of the directions for the rapids are “just follow the water”, or “give it down the middle”. We were doing pretty well for the most part. There is this one funky rapid call Pick Up Sticks that pretty much tumped everyone over but no issues. The video footage of that is pretty funny cause no one really made it look smooth.

We got a ways down there and got to a two rapid series. Very small eddies between the two rapids and both are fairly substantial drops. It was taking us a while to get all scouted and lined up when around the corner came, the RAFT. We had all our group down except Jennifer who was scouting and getting in her boat when the raft came down and that is when all hell broke loose. One guy falls out in the first rapid and doesn’t get back in the boat until the end of the first drop. The other guy in the raft didn’t see his buddy get in the raft and he must have thought he was in an eddie or something because the next thing I know is I see this guy jumps out to try to stop I guess but doesn’t stop the raft pretty much at the same time as the first guy is climbing in. So there he is just getting it together to drop into the next rapid by himself. He actually ended up styling the drop, but the other guy was in an eddie where he couldn’t walk upstream, downstream, or out of the river. So he had to buck up and swim across the river between the two drops. Luckily he made it and after a bit we had them back together.

The Jump From The Raft

Going Solo Through Paddle Bitch

This all took about an hour to get sorted out so our whole group had gotten a little disconbobulated. So peoples rythms were off and bad lines ensued for the rest of the run. Makes for good video but a slightly nerve racking finish to the run. The raft flipped in No Way Out and some wall banging happened with the kayakers, but it seemed to me that the new rock shift was good to go. Luckily the run ends with a super smooth little 6-7 foot boof so everyone could get the good feel back.

Everyone got out safe and sound and we were all happy to have dry clothes on and a cold beer in hand.

Here is the video footage. I broke it into two segments so the videos aren’t quite so large.
Vallecito Part 1
Vallecito Part 2

Upper Animas

The Put In Is A Stunning Setting

This all started at a bar the night before. I think that many things good and bad have started with a discussion at a bar. Over Margaritas we were trying to decide what to paddle next and it came up that almost none of us had run the Upper Animas before. Others in the crowd decided that that was a travesty and that it needed to happen.

Paddling Into The Gorge

So that is how we ended up putting on the Upper Animas at 1:00 pm. If you don’t know the Upper Animas it is 26+ miles of continuous class 2-3 most of the way with some continuous class 3-4 thrown in there and couple drops that you should scout. This drop called No Name is the hardest drop on the run. Not a major major rapid but super fun with some funky twisty stuff in the middle.

Woody In No Name, Styled It

Jennifer In No Name

We stopped for a quick peanut butter sandwich after No Name. We still had a long way to go. Luckily the day was classic Colorado Blue Bird so we had good sun almost the entire trip.

The sceneary is really unbelievable on this run. I constantly found myself saying wow. This was a pretty typical scene. Big peaks, or tight little canyon, small tucked in valleys, all kinds of awesome sceneary.

This run would be an awesome overnighter. From what I understand people use the train to drop gear off mid way down the run and they will leave it for you and then pick it up if you arrange it at the train station in Durango.

The sun went behind the mountains while we were still on the river and that was when we noticed how cold the river was. With just a couple miles and the Rockwood box left to paddle we jumped out at the last spot of sunshine up on the side of a hill. Soaked it in and jumped back in the boats for a very cool romp through another box canyon. The Rockwood Box is alot like the Bakers Box. This section is super tight, a little pushy, and few fun rapids but not as hard as the Bakers Box.

Hiking Out At Rockwood Box

By the time we finished the semi epic shuttle for the run the sun had gone down but we were treated to the full moon coming up over the peaks near Silverton.

Moon Rise Over Molas Pass