Surfing Clear Creek
This weekend was a blast! We left Golden around 9:00am on June 3 after rounding up some supplies and headed west on I-70 to Idaho Springs. Once past Evergreen, it takes almost no time at all to get down the hill and through the first tunnel into the heart of Clear Creek County. We were meeting some friends at the Clear Creek Rafting Company Headquarters for the order of the day, an 8-10 mile river run down Clear Creek. After a short introduction from our lead river guide, Jeff, we all grabbed websuits, splash jackets, helmets and PFD’s, loaded up on a big yellow school bus for a short drive upstream to our put-in.
Jeff ran through the obligatory safety instructions for the beginners’ benefit and we split up into four groups of 6. Maverick, our river guide, gave us a few pointers on paddling properly and we started downstream. The high-runoff season has just started to peak since it’s been so hot so the conditions were just about perfect for great river rafting.
The first few minutes gave us a chance to get used to the scenery and the frequent Class III’s before hitting our first Class IV, Nomad. Anticipation was high for Phoenix, our second set of Class IV’s, but we powered through that section without losing any paddlers. The same couldn’t be said for our fourth boat. They lost a couple paddlers in the rapids and they were quickly scooped up by Josh and Joe in one of the other boats. According to the river guides, the rescue went by the book, which is good to know after the fact.
We also saw a guy that had lost his kayak and was running along the bank trying to keep up with it. He was pretty distraught. Another guide in our group grabbed his boat and ferried it back across the river to him.
Our last set of big rapids was the Outer Limits, a stretch of 50-60 yards of pure Class IV’s, which turned out to be the most fun. I was in front and my biggest concern was just merely staying in the boat which I accomplished with a little effort.
I think I can safely say after my first rafting expedition that I’ll be back on the water very soon. Hopefully, in the next few weeks. I’ll post pictures once the film gets developed. (Yeah, I know, stone-age.)
Peace,
Dwight