# Lyons - Drop below Black Bear?



## co_bjread (Oct 26, 2004)

Does anyone know what happened to the drop below Black Bear hole. The newer one, downstream of the foot bridge, just to the right of the diversion. I was there last summer/fall, at roughly 120 cfs, and I think at that level, it was a smooth shot down the center channel. I was there today around 150 cfs...I think, and the center channel was a a vertical drop of 1-2 feet maybe, onto a bunch of rough rocks. I was expecting it to be smooth, but the drop was quite abrupt. At the bottom, the flow was coming down the sides, and there wasn't really much of a surf wave at the bottom, which I distintctly remember from last year.

Does anyone know what happened there? Are they working on it again, or did something move over the winter? I think it was more than just a flow level issue. Just wondering if it will get fixed, or if maybe I am just not as observant as I think, and missed sometihng else that is causing it to be so different.


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## Dave Frank (Oct 14, 2003)

I haven't seen it recent;y, but hopefully they fixed it. That thing was an evil sticky thing at higher flows. That how is one of the only places I've seen my kid swim! Guessing that was 2014, maybe 15.


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## Chief Niwot (Oct 13, 2003)

Are you referring to the A-hole or the drop that was below the a-hole. As Dave mentioned, the drop below the A hole was huge a couple years ago at higher water. I noticed last year that it was changed.


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## co_bjread (Oct 26, 2004)

I am referring to the drop below a-hole, a-hole is gone these days, right? There are some rocks on the sides of where it used to be, but the center channel there just flows through without dropping. Maybe it will be different at higher flows. 

The drop i am referring to is adjacent to the head of the diversion channel. It has the rock benches on either side for spectators, and seems like a nice/newer feature. I played on it with my kids last summer over July 4th weekend, and they did fine in a youth ducky, and I swam it several times. I thought it was a really nice feature. I took my son back to practice crossing the eddies bekow it last fall at 120 cfs, and I surfed it a bit, and it seemed nice then. I then took my wife back at 40 cfs, it was too low to run, but I had her practice crossing the eddy lines and rolling, and i surfed the way, which seemed fine then too. Which, is why i was so surprised to find it so different this past weekend. It was 150 cfs. I ran the center the 1st time down, and wished I hadn't because it felt like it just dropped onto rocks. I was again teaching a friend to get comfortable crossing the eddy lines (his 1st time on moving water), which it was fine for, but there weren't any waves worth surfing. I appreciate your responses, and hope they get it ironed out soon, I have been unjoying that feature.

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## Nathan (Aug 7, 2004)

The local hooligans, aka slalom paddlers, place boards and sandbags on the crest of the structure in the winter to make the pool upstream marginally deep enough to paddle in. Once runoff starts they'll remove the boards and the center chute will be more pronounced. 

We put a couple boulders downstream of it last year to keep it from being as sticky as it was when Riley swam in it. We hoped to do more, but it wasn't our part of the project and our recommendations weren't really taken into account.


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## co_bjread (Oct 26, 2004)

Thanks Nathan, that totally explains it. It did feel like there was some sort of a dam just across the top of the center channel. The water seemed to be flowing around the sides of the center as much as it was flowing over it, but I didn't see any logs or wood sticking out.

If you know when the boards and sand bags get removed, that would be nice to pass along.


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## co_bjread (Oct 26, 2004)

Went by again a couple weeks ago, and there were definately 2x8s or something similar damning the center channel of the drop. I also looked tonight, and they are still there, and with 700+ cfs going through, I don't see them getting removed soon. It is basically pushing most of thr water around the center channel. Pretty uncool, and selfish if you ask me. I can see that being a big downer on summer fun for lots of folks, not just the kayakers. Be warry and use caution.

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