Shaneslogic

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After bruising and battering our bodies at the Salida Bowl trying to skate we headed out to Pueblo, Colorado for the Grand Opening of the Pueblo, Whitewater play park. There was much fanfare and hoopla by the politicians that decided they did a lot for the play park to happen but actually Bob from Edge Ski and Paddle Shop in Pueblo and a big group of local paddlers spent 8 years trying to get the playpark started, funded, and finished. Finally after all that time the park is complete and really fun. It is different from paddling experience than anywhere I have ever been before. The river is actually a big concrete viaduct that has been modified, and landscaped. As a matter of fact the locals even put in the trees and did much of the landscaping for the project. Bob was out early the morning of the grand opening chasing off Beavers that were trying to get to his precious trees he had just planted.

The first thing you notice is the huge mural that covers the river left wall. The wall itself is, I don’t, 40 feet high? The mural goes from top to bottom and for as far as you can see. It actually is the worlds longest mural and is in the Guinness Book of Records. There have been artists from all over in to add to the mural as well as locals and even the local paddlers have put in a mural as well. Some of the artwork is amazing. Each of the rapids is named after one of the paintings near it.

We were there at close to the minimum flow for the summer which was 600 cfs more or less. The holes were mostly pretty shallow at that level but still deep enough to throw plenty of ends, blast, and spin. The last big hole was deeper and pretty powerful and you could throw as many ends as you wanted and I did get a huge loop with a little impact as I initiated. I think with 1000 cfs or more this thing is going to rock. There is also some potential I think for some of the holes to become waves at really high water. The local guys said they thought the river should get up over a couple grand and that should be great down there. There are several holes that two people could play at the same time. A couple of the holes were great for learning to cartwheel and learning the more advanced hole tricks. There were also a couple holes perfect for just learning how to side surf and spin, and like I said the last hole was pretty rowdy we saw a couple swims out of there but the way the park is set up its a nice pool right below so its easy rescues and actuallly pretty fun to body surf.
Here is some footage from the park as well as a harrowing extreme/ freestyle tubing trip that Kyle Scarbrough and I did down the Pueblo play park.
PuebloPlayPark
Freestyle Tubing


All in all a great time was had by all. We went out in downtown Pueblo a few times and had a blast.
Thanks again to Bob from Edge Ski/Paddle/Pack for taking care of us and the whole Pueblo Paddling Crew for making the park happen.
Shane

Well last second decision. Woody gave me the call, “Shane I need you to come out to Colorado for a week”. Okay I said and Yonton and I loaded up the “Goldstar” (his gold Saturn Sedan) at 5:30am and started the drive out to Colorado. First we dropped Whitney off at the Airport because she was flying out to Montana to see the graduation of the World Class Kayak Academy in Missoula, Montana and then we started the mission that is driving to Colorado.


If you are driving to Colorado you shouldn’t end up in Mississippi. I will tell you that much about our drive out. We took the low road, I-40 across the country, because we were headed for Southern Colorado. Somewhere in Tennessee we started listening to a book on tape and at some point in Memphis we turned south and headed for the Delta. Unfortunately it took an hour for the book to end and us to figure out we were headed the wrong way. If you take the southern road through Amarillo and then turn north through the corner of New Mexico you can be in Salida in 25 hours fairly easily. Potential good stops are Graceland of course, the Cadilac Ranch in Amarillo and the Big Texan Steak House, Where you can get a free 72 oz. steak if you can eat it all in one sitting and the Pac a’ Sac gas station in Dumas, Texas (how do you pronounce that?),
The drive was silly and incredible. I put together a video of the drive. You can check it out here.
Colorado Video Link

We rolled into Salida 25 driving hours later and it was freezing and raining. I wasn’t sure that this whole trip was a good idea since I had just gotten off the Greeen at 200% the day before we left. There was no water and things were looking pretty bleak. We had a little bonfire, video, and brew party with our buds Lisa and Dave. Woody rolled up in the big rig so we could show movies on the side of the truck, and wheeled out the fire barrel so we could stay warm. A bunch of the local crew and CKS staff showed up and it was a good time even though it was cold and drizzly. Luckily the next day the sun came out and it got pretty warm, but the river still wasn’t running so we decided to go Skateboarding.


Maya was in town teaching some paddling classes and he could actually skate. He loned me a board and gave me a little coaching. I hadn’t been on a board in close to 15 years but I had a great time picking myself up off the ground. Here is the video from the ripping session at the Salida Bowl. I was sore for a couple days after one crash in particular.

What a cool place. Playspot right in town, skate park next to the river, wireless coffee shop next to both, and great riverruns upstream and downstream of town. Its well worth a trip to Salida. Just make sure there is water when you go. Here is a link to a video from the skating session.
Salida Skate Video Link

More updates from Colorado Coming.
Actual paddling coming next week.
Grand Opening of the Pueblo Colorado Playpark
High Water Run on the Embudo
Bottom Box of the Animas River near Durango.
Later
Shane