To Salida and then Climbing at Hartmans Rock

My last weekend in Colorado, unless I return, consisted of going over to Salida for the Fibark Kayak Festival where we went rafting down Browns Canyon, watched an all girl cover bad of AC/DC who were amazing, rafted Browns Canyon the morning after the party and then I rode with Chris to drop off his sisters dog, 3 extra hours of driving but it was all good. Going to Salida we crossed Cottonwood pass which had just opened and was beautiful.

The view from Cottonwood Pass

Freshly cleared road

The crowd loving the band at Fibark

Making sure we, five guys and two dogs, only needed only vehicle to get to the get it

The road to drop off the dog... its a long one

Arther, Tessa and I crashed one more night at Chris' house, thanks AGAIN Chris and Erin, before we decided we should go climbing at Hartmans Reserve. Here we set up a top rope for Tessa, which turned out to be a very challenging climb, and I went Bouldering while Arthur checked out the biking trails.

Arthur setting up the ropes

Tessa working things out in the crack

Me getting to the Crux

At full reach

Bouldering a V2-3

Sweet slab

Trying to find a route

Quite and impressive area is Hartmans

Oh Be Joyful is one of the classic, if not THE classic, steep creeks of Colorado. It starts wit an 18footer, has big slides, a 25footer and is all pretty manageable. Alex Kilyk, Tom Janey, Christian and myself done a couple of laps in the morning and I ran a lap in the afternoon with my buddy Chris who got roped into having up stay at his house for a few days. Here is some shots of the action.

Me hitting the line on the entrance 18 footer

Tom getting it done

The mini-gorge before the 25 footer

Myself in the 25 footer

Alex styling the shit out of it

My second go at the 25footer

Christian getting the line of the day in my opinion

Myself on the Avalanche Slide

Me running the second last big slide

Christian, Myself, Alex and Tom happy with a day on OBJ.

Some more photos of OBJ on a trip with Chris Goodnough, Tom Axe and Shaun

Tom Axe in the 18footer

Me of the S-slide to 10 footer

Tom Axe on the same drop

Chris on the 25 footer

Me in the 25 footer

The Team

More photos to come soon...

Crested Bute - My second home

From Gunnison we decided that we would paddle the Taylor Canyon on the way to Crested Bute. Moderate class III-IV the whole was it was just nice to be on the water. At the take out I ran into a crazy guy called Josh who happened to know some NZ kayakers I know. Not an hour later we were in Crested Bute at the bars together with locals Chris and Andy. Next day Chris, Josh, Arthur and Myself done some laps on the Upper East, class IV-IV+ fun slides/drops. This is a great warm up to Oh Be Joyful.

Chris and I getting ready for the Upper East

Me on Midget Wrestler

Chris on Midget Wrestler

Josh 'dont follow my line' Morris on Midget Wrestler

Me running the 15 foot slide/drop blind

Chris giving Arthur the line on the 3rd sister.

Me trying out a large burn, boofing the 3rd sister.

Chris on the last drop/slide

The team with Mt Gothic in the background

Andy and me playing around while the guys pack up

It was really great to paddle with Chris Goodnough and Josh Morris who showed us down the Upper East. Also, a big thanks to Chris and Erin for putting up with the 'Road Tripppers' parking on the back lawn and just suffering our general, and repeated, nuisance.

Police, Canyons and Kayaking

When leaving Denver we had no idea of the troublesome journey it would be to get to Glenwood Spring. About on hour into our drive we were clipped by a car was we tried to merge into the fast lane in order to pass a slow moving Semi. The police arrived, I took some photos, the officer made a dubious conclusion to the incident and we were on our way again. A couple of hour pass, Tessa is now driving, and she thinks she hears a faint pop. Dismissing it, we continue to charge along a full-speed. Tessa then notices that another vehicle is indicating to us to pull over, so we do. Upon inspection of our rig we notice a tire on the trailer is completely shredded. After working out issues with the jack the tire was replaced and we were, again, on and the road again and this time we made it all the way to camp.

Well it didnt take 3 weeks before my first run in with the cops

US cops have a good brand of cop car

The scenery from where we were pulled over

That is a blow out if I have ever seen one

When driving to Glenwood Springs you have to drive through Glenwood Canyon. This is the most impressive stretch of road I have ever been on, a highway that has been threaded through such a tight and beautiful Canyon. Not even photos can illustrate how beautiful this place really is. This highway covers an impressive rapid called the Upper Death, at the flow we scouted it it is surely a portage for all as it crashed straight into rock debris as the river turns left.

Glenwood Canyon

The tunnel

Glenwood again

Once in Glenwood Springs we headed to the local play wave to check it out. Arthur, always keen to ride a big wave, Davis took his gear straight to the river and got amongst it with some world class play boaters. I just chilled in the sun and relaxed for most of the day.

Getting in the sponsors...Yeah Right

Its a wide wave

Dan the werner rep

The next day we weighed up the options of either going to the Teva Mountain Games in Vail or head towards Gunnison/Crested Bute for some creeking. Since we had been to Vail twice already, and the call of creeking was so strong, we decided to go to Gunnison. On the way I got a chance to paddle the Narrows section of the Crystal, a class V section of big water (for Colorado) that was road side. Arthur who was not feeling it opted to do safety by means of bicycle by which he could only just keep pace with me. After this we looked at an old mining town called Red Stone, ran into a young moose which I managed to keep interested by attempting to roar at it and seen a beautiful water fall.

Little bit of road-side whitewater

Redstone mining relics

A moose

Some US scenery

We stopped for gas at a little town called Crawford where I was told that we must go look at the Northern Rim of the Black Canyon. I knew Black Canyon was a kayak run so we figured we should check it out. This was the best decision ever made. This canyon is deeper then the Grand Canyon at 2250 feet at its deepest point, has absolutely amazing rock formations and is definitely the most breathtaking thing I have ever seen. I cannot really say any thing else about it apart from these photos do not nearly do the canyon any justice. After camping at the Black Canyon camping ground and sneaking away at 4.30am so avoid ridiculous fees, we got to Gunnison and went out for dinner and had few (or more) drinks at a sweet little bar called The Gunnison Brewery.

Panoramic view from the Northern Rim
One deep canyon
Getting one for the family

Panoramic view of inside the canyon

The following day we spent a good amount of time at the Gunnison Play Park where the two features kept Arthur and I coming back for more and Tessa entertained to say the least.

Gunnison Play-Park