# Rustic Poudre New Bridge



## debster48pagosa (Apr 17, 2006)

I would like to paddle up that way in June. Do you have a sense of when levels will be ideal?


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## El-Butcher (Feb 22, 2018)

almortal said:


> I was up the canyon and noticed they are finally replacing the bridge at Crown Point drive on the Rustic stretch of the Poudre (it was a nasty hazard last season). The new bridge seems pretty low. At 3 feet on Pineview there is enough clearance but at higher water it might be low. Heads up.


Damn, I hope they didnt blow the run.


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## almortal (Jun 22, 2014)

debster48pagosa said:


> I would like to paddle up that way in June. Do you have a sense of when levels will be ideal?


For rubber above 4 ft on Pineview is ideal and hardhats can get away with less, but it is definitely boatable now. Hopefully in June we will still have enough water. That stretch does have a shorter season. 



El-Butcher said:


> Damn, I hope they didnt blow the run.


Unclear now. At this level the clearance appeared about the same as the HW14 bridge that crosses the river above Indian Meadows, however the river is much wider there so with rising flows it might be different. Its an easy scout from the road if you are driving up, but I don't think there are any good portage eddies.


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## debster48pagosa (Apr 17, 2006)

Thanks for that info. I would want to kayak Mishawaka, do you have a sense for when it will be about 3.5 ft.?


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## almortal (Jun 22, 2014)

debster48pagosa said:


> Thanks for that info. I would want to kayak Mishawaka, do you have a sense for when it will be about 3.5 ft.?


Now.
Poudre Rock Report


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## debster48pagosa (Apr 17, 2006)

Thanks! I would not be able to get up there until June 8th or so. Do you think flows will still be holding?


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## jaffy (Feb 4, 2004)

Yes.

6/8/2014 5.2'
6/8/2015 4.7'
6/8/2016 4.4'
6/8/2017 4.8'

We have less snowpack this year than any of those, but I'd still hope we'll be at 4'+.

Just noticed you said you want to kayak Mishawaka - upper and lower Mish are both boatable at much lower flows. Maybe 2' in a raft? 1.5' in a kayak? I'm not sure. Upper and lower Rustic runs are the ones you need 3.5' to 4' or more.


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## jtnc (Aug 9, 2004)

Jeff and I looked at it yesterday and boated under it. River left is the deeper side. At 4ft should be no issue for rafts. At 5ft I bet it will be an issue, probably not for kayaks. At 3.8ish feet yesterday, I'd say there was 5ish feet between water and bridge on river left. there are 2 small eddies upstream you could hit with a raft, but portaging on the road isn't. The greatest. lining the raft might be easiest, I know we've. Done that at the highway bridge. I think Jeff has a pic or two he was talking about posting.

Sent from my SM-P600 using Mountain Buzz mobile app


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## jaffy (Feb 4, 2004)

I should have take the pic from upstream. It drops pretty quickly right above the bridge, so floating down the clearance looks a lot less than when looking upstream.










Here's the link. I can never seem to get the IMG tags to work.

https://ibb.co/gpMOty

As John said, this was at about 3.8' on the rock.


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## Paul the Kayaker (Nov 7, 2004)

5 ft is when rustic is in, that sucks idiots put a bridge in and didn't consider the river. At the higher flows commercial trips are running up there. Where is this, in town? Above the commercial run at Dadds gultch put in? Only affects private boaters I guess if it's in town, still frustrating since really the only time that section is really good is at really high flows.


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## jtnc (Aug 9, 2004)

I agree Paul, more water equals more fun on Rustic. At +5', it's by far my favorite run on the Poudre. The bridge in question is Crown Point Drive, which is the the first bridge downstream of Archers, or the 2nd bridge after Chapel bridge. So it is on the upstream side of the town of Rustic. This has no impact on Lower Rustic.

You can see the old bridge in google maps here: https://goo.gl/maps/3boHVzLs7Ts.

I'm definitely not a hydrology expert, but we did talk a bit about the bridge with one of the construction crew (supervisor or engineer I'd guess). My take away was the bridge was designed with 100 year floods in mind such that at extremely high water, it will direct water to the river right side away from the highway. The concern was setting up a standing wave that could eat away at the river left (highway) bank. This was a concern of Larimer Counter & CDOT based on what was seen in Big T and St. Vrain canyons.

If they built the bridge higher, doing this would have been more difficult as the river right footing would needed to be moved back increasing the span and cost. Simply arcing the bridge more wouldn't have helped prevent this case either. Assuming the engineering is right, I can understand the decision as it ends up with a cheaper bridge to install that can last. Though from a river user perspective and aesthetics viewpoint I don't care for it (the old bridge was much more visually pleasing to me).

On the plus side, it did remove a bridge pylon that used to collect wood. The left channel was blocked some the last couple years due to wood. This will not be the case anymore. It'll be interesting to see what happens at high water (5' or more). I just can't recall how high up on the bank the water got when it was at 5' (or even 6' a few years back).

John


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## jaffy (Feb 4, 2004)

You know, looking at the old bridge from Streetview, the new bridge doesn't look that much thicker.


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## Rich (Sep 14, 2006)

Room on the left side at 4.2' in a small cat.
Will be a problem at 5'.
I want to run Upper & lower Rustic at +5'!!!


Isn't there permit requirements to build a new bridge?
I guess if CDOT can ruin a run with a highway bridge, private home owners can too?


Does anyone know how much dynamite it would take to remove these bridges?
Asking for a friend.


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## Paul the Kayaker (Nov 7, 2004)

Well it's not an issue this year, we wont be seeing 5', its a problem for another day....

Also it on the upper run, which is not run as much, but even more so to know that people only really run that section at high flows. too bad, at 5' I assume an eddy right above it will be difficult, may have to do a longer walk from somewhere further upstream.


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