Shaneslogic

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Bottom Box Again

We woke up on our second day the water hadn’t started to rise yet so we needed to find another run that would work with less water. So its back to the Bakers Box. I had done this run last year with Dunbar Hardy at pretty high water. It was incredible and a little fiesty.

Here is the Video from last years run. Bakers Box 2005

This year the water was a little lower and more managable for a larger group. We called up Billy and Aaron, a couple of transient kayaker types who had been sleeping on the couches of all the Liquidlogic staff. We also got old schooler Andy Corra who had run this years and years and years ago to join us, and that put the pressure on Woody to join us for the run. So with Jenn and I that made 6 people in the gorge. Which worked great especially at this slightly lower water level. It was a perfect level for taking first timers in.

The whole thing starts with a mile walk in across private property. Very sketchy access so please please please make sure that you talk to a local before you get on this run.

After the walk its a 100 foot climb, lower, down to the river. The climb is a little sketchy especially if you aren’t a rock person. Most folks put in below the first rapid and then jump in. The first drop is a slide over the middle of a large rock filling most of the river with holes on either side. No problem but sketchy looking.

After that the rapids get a little pushy but are mostly broken with good pools at this level. One that stands out is called the Plunge I think. About a 8- 10 foot sloper into super boily water.

This is the Long Rapid. The only really long extended rapid. For the most part this section is drop pool and can take a fair amount of water but if something goes wrong your boat is going a long way. We ran into a guy who had lost a boat on his trip and had to paddle an extra 10 miles or so to catch it. The Box is only 3 miles I think so dude got a little extra training in.

There are a couple places where the river is no wider than the boat is long and it is truly a stunning place.

The run went great no issues. The old school styled it. The new school styled it. Jen styled it and I didn’t swim.

Here is the video from this year.
Bakers Box 2006

Day 3 coming soon.
Shane

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