Take me down to beat down city

I've run Upper Clear Creek 50 times or more. While it is not a tremendously difficult river, it is not forgiving. Last night I was punished. In the middle of the run are a series of 4-6' ledges all blind from above. I was leading and picked door #2. Bad choice. I thought I boofed clear of the hole...guess not. I was back endered into the hole followed by a series of unintendo lefty cartwheels. I kept up pretty good rolling a couple of times but I knew I was in for a thrashing. Then somehow a wound up getting surfed on my tail with my body in the green. I thought for sure that with my body and paddle in the current I'd flush. Wrong. Just as I rolled up again I got window shaded back onto my right side. I'm assuming this is when my paddle broke. I tried to roll but I was about done. I whiffed, got a half breath and went for the eject. I flushed pretty easy but I was worked. My partner was 10ft away in the eddy but there was nothing he could do. I swam one drop and then managed to grab some rock on the bank.

Swimming sucks.
Breaking brand new paddles sucks.
Loosing confidence sucks.

Looks like playboating only for me this weekend.

Scary shite, if you ask me! I've found you can just reach down and turn the confidence back up, in certain situations. Ain't always easy, but I'm sure you'll be back at 'er in no time.

Sorry to hear about your paddle.

Where is Upper Clear Creek? I am just not sure of the dividing line. Is that up stream of Idaho Springs? Either way, unforgiving is putting it mildly. Especially at this water level, things are pumping pretty fast and finding anything bigger than a micro eddy is tough. I feel for you about the broken paddle too. The first paddle I ever bought I broke (along with my hand) 45 minutes later.

Upper = Above Idaho Springs. This actually happened between the pipe and the rodeo ground (roughly by the weigh station on I-70). I talked to lightning and it looks like I'll be getting my paddle replaced.

this one didnt leave ya all googly eyed and slurrring like last summer did it?
that scared me and baby jesus

there are few thinks in life like getting worked by the river. gettign worked by the ocean can be sort of like it, but its still feels different.

boating a fair amount in my feerless pubecent years led me to running fours before my brain caught up. havent been back at it for a good ten or eleven years (did some meager playboating in school on the clack but never ran anything serious), and i still have bad dreams about two of the worst sitchmos i had.
i hope to get back at it next spring.

+luck with getting that confidence back fogger.

need to step into the saddle big on a different sport to get the confy back dude.

:FIREdevil :FIREdevil :FIREdevil :FIREdevil :FIREdevil

Hey I can relate Foggy. We were running lower on Tuesday night and I took my first swim in awhile. I'm in my Transformer with no float bags because, hey, it's only lower cc, I'm not going to swim.

Well, I'm the first in our group as I head over Elbow Falls and stupidly think I can boof the center line- bad mistake. I go right into the meat, get worked for a few seconds and then thoughts of my buddies boofing on me enter my head. Well, next thing I know I'm flipped again and then my skirt implodes forcing a swim. It took them a couple miles to corral my boat sans bulkhead and foot block. Guess we never know when it's going to happen.

I'd recommend getting right back out there though, screw playboating when stuff is going off like it is. syotr,
-Dave

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Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles

I've run Upper Clear Creek 50 times or more. While it is not a tremendously difficult river, it is not forgiving. Last night I was punished. In the middle of the run are a series of 4-6' ledges all blind from above. I was leading and picked door #2. Bad choice. I thought I boofed clear of the hole...guess not. I was back endered into the hole followed by a series of unintendo lefty cartwheels. I kept up pretty good rolling a couple of times but I knew I was in for a thrashing. Then somehow a wound up getting surfed on my tail with my body in the green. I thought for sure that with my body and paddle in the current I'd flush. Wrong. Just as I rolled up again I got window shaded back onto my right side. I'm assuming this is when my paddle broke. I tried to roll but I was about done. I whiffed, got a half breath and went for the eject. I flushed pretty easy but I was worked. My partner was 10ft away in the eddy but there was nothing he could do. I swam one drop and then managed to grab some rock on the bank.

Swimming sucks.
Breaking brand new paddles sucks.
Loosing confidence sucks.

Looks like playboating only for me this weekend.

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Nice recount! Sends shivers down the spine. I am gripped just reading it. Way to work it and get out.

Foggy, that also got my heart racing. Great recount in a short amount of space. Glad you are okay- but I gotta ask... Did ya drink from the bootie :wink:

I'm just a noob kayaker from last year, but I had unfortunate luck of breaking my paddle on the Sky just a few days after I bought it. BakerBoy was kind enough to trade turns with Luker doing the one paddle trick the rest of the way down the river. Fortunately, Werner sent me a brand new paddle at no charge. That rocked!

Keep up the kayaking TR's, I'm hoping to get back in the water again this week. And yes, I agree- nothing like being worked by the River.

We're all just between swims. I'm glad you came out of it OK. I've never been fond of out of boat experiences.