# OK--Little bored



## Gary E (Oct 27, 2003)

Just wondering what folks thought about the runs in Co...If you could have any 3 and no others what's your pick?

1-Bailey----it's constant and reliable with good ww...Pretty place and close

2-Upper NSV---My personal favorite in the state..Difficult,pretty,and pretty remote for Co standards...You can paddle as hard as it gets if you want it...

3-Clear Creek---Never had a bad day there...Great rapids and can be ran at any level..Long season and includes parts for your car...

Next,what is your favorite river/creek outside of Colorado?

1-Upper cherry creek--Ca Paddling on the moon,clean granite drops

2-clear fork of the cowlitz--Wa 500 ft gorge with aqua blue water and trees that create a roof over the river..Unreal place

3-linville gorge--NC No way you think you're in the east...Good rapids in an amazing place.Always keeps you focused on what's at hand...


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## BigLoco (Jan 5, 2005)

in no particular order:

Animas....need one big water run! Wish it was on the front range...Hmm, whats the name of my local congressman? maybe we can have them move it!

The Ark...Need to have a play run and the Ark has plenty of down river play stuff.

Bailey! One of the nicest, prettiest runs in the state and it holds a special place in my heart since some of CO's finest boaters drug me down that after I'd been boating for 6 months...and it still had Ice bridges!

Honorable mention: Clear Creek...from creeking (black rock/upper part above dumont) to cool after work runs like kermit's or lower. I'd choose this over the Ark but by cracky, it sucks to roll in most of it.

With those 3, who needs out of state stuff?


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## jennifer (Oct 14, 2003)

1. The Arkansas (especially the Numbers). bonus - great free camping.
2. Bailey. bonus - prettiest run in the state, as far as I'm concerned.
3. Clear Creek (really like Kermit's over 500 cfs). bonus - only minutes from home.


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## stinginrivers (Oct 18, 2003)

In no particular order.

1. Arkansas, just so many options on that one

2. Clear creek, super close quality boating especially black rock section

3. Green river (gates of ladore) one of the most beautiful rivers 

out of state

1. Upper yough in maryland that place is just silly fun

2. Tully river Australia (sort of a combo between the upper yough and upper gauley but full of a bunch of crazy ausies)

3. Salt river in Arizona, another fantastic desert canyon


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## yetigonecrazy (May 23, 2005)

i dont know about the rest, but i would put oh-b-joyful on my list, not only is it one of the prettiest settings ever, but the creek is awesome...short season is the only complaint


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## casy76 (Apr 13, 2005)

my two cents...

in-state...the piedra
out of state...bull's bridge in ct....check it out if in the area...


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## Caspian (Oct 14, 2003)

Three In-State:

1. Bailey Canyon - long season, mostly wilderness, some fun drops, serious enough, but not full-on as to get you gripped

2. The Numbers - nice warm-up, great entry rapid (#1) and consistent past #4.5, good lazy fun

3. Westwater (ok let's pretend it's CO) - almost year-round, real wilderness, real beautiful, wavewheels

Honorable Mentions: Clear Creek and OBJ


Three Outta-State:

1. Watauga River Gorge, NC - one thousand boofs, pretty valley with clean water, low-stress creeking with two class Vs thrown in; Stateline Falls is a hoot and you can lap it

2. Upper Gauley, WV - best all-around big water in the USA, fun drops, alternate creek lines, awesome play, beautiful gorge

3. Narrows of the Green, NC - twelve months of water, uber-classic rapids, non-stop fun with nice eddies in between every drop, for average class V creekers and hair-heads alike

Honorable Mentions: Ocoee, TN; Tallulah Gorge, GA; Big Creek, TN; Chattooga Sec. IV, GA/SC


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## gonzobreck (Jun 11, 2004)

My list would include Gore Canyon.


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## badkins (Oct 30, 2003)

1. South Saint Vrain Creek The best after work run ever. mile after mile of continuous Class V, nothing too sick but it always has your attention. There are at least a dozen tricky but pretty much consequence free 5-6 foot boofs to refine your technique on. Perfect training ground for improving your creeking skills. And it's ugly looking enough that it will never be crowded.

2. Bailey I'm always reminded of the description of Granite on this run, where crc quotes the california guide book. "it has what every class iv run needs, a great class V right in the middle" or something to that effect. Ditto what everyone else has said about it.

3. The Source Super continuous rapids and super cold water, each eddy I catch my hands are burning in pain from the cold despite wearing pogies. No eddies combined with the high altitude makes it an aerobic workout. Gun Shy, way at the top and Dead Hiker Falls at the bottom are two of my favorite drops period.

out of state: Embudo It's pretty much the perfect Class V river, all it's missing is a clean waterfall. Everyone who paddles it agrees it is world class.


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## steven (Apr 2, 2004)

upper a
vallecito
ark
dolores [stoner section]

out of state:
n fk payette
n fk american
chattooga


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## yetigonecrazy (May 23, 2005)

^ i was wondering how long it was going to be until someone said valliceto....


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## paulh (Mar 12, 2004)

1. Spencer Heights
2. Bailey
3. Escalante Creek

Out of State
1. Rio Embudo
2. Six Mile Creek
3. South Fork Payette


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## tboner (Oct 13, 2003)

in-
1. the source- never a dull moment
2. br of cc- a slice of heaven so close to home
3. granite through the numbers- just classic colorado

out-
1. embudo- "i would drink her bath water"
2. embudo- again...
3. embudo- and again...


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## Gary E (Oct 27, 2003)

Can't believe I forgot the Embudo...I would make nsv go away for that one,just cause of the longer season...I would not change any of my out of state for it though...

Casp-watauga?Hmm,I got my ass handed to me this year in hydro at around 1200...All those damn eastern boaters taking sneak routes,I was like right up the gut baby..They smiled and said give er,and I almost made it look good,lol missed one damn stroke...Green is great also...Love the east...

Brian-ssv,source?Come on,are you kidding?7 minutes on one and 30 on the other...

Nice choices from everyone,I wouldn't mind any of the runs mentioned above...
Gary


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## JJH (Oct 14, 2003)

Colorado:
1. Poudre Drainage. (Narrows, Spencer, Joe & Big South) hard to beat, super long season for them individually and all so different. Sweet access except, Big South could open sooner.
2. Steeps of Southern Co. (short but sweet)
3. Bailey, fun, long and chill.

Out of State:
1. South Fork of American (Silver Fork, South Silver, Lovers leap and Golden Gate. Almost better than the Poudre, for options in one drainage)
2. NF Payette
3. Moose, NY


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## sward (Dec 14, 2003)

Bailey: you FRs don't know how good you got it in the late season.
Vallecito: short but gets the pucker on
Treasure=pleasure

Steve.


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## tboner (Oct 13, 2003)

..yeah we do.

and what's up Ward? you don't get outa state??


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## COUNT (Jul 5, 2005)

The Ark
The Blue-when it's high: so close to home
The Colorado-All of it; and I agree with Caspian: Westwater counts

Out of State:
The Petawawa (ON)-especially the Upper; warm water!
The Ottowa-It's got everything: big water and great play spots at every level
The Green and the Gatineau (Quebec) are awesome, too.


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## badkins (Oct 30, 2003)

Hey talk as much shit as you want about them Gary, fer chrissakes you were the one who put Clear Creek in there! SSV whups Clear Creeks ass any day by any measure. That is unless you count play parks and class III and we know how much time you spend on that!


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## sward (Dec 14, 2003)

I am lucky to get out of my yard.

out of state:
Embudo
The Grand
Westwater


Steve.


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## J Rock (May 19, 2005)

I don't know about you guys, but I would put Confluence in Denver up there around number 1... hell, anything on the Platte should be in the top 3. On top of that I would also say anything rasdoggy is running is going to be in the top 5. Oh yeah, what about lakes and resevoirs? Chatfield should get some mention, right???


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## stinginrivers (Oct 18, 2003)

Count you been on the Rouge(sp) north of montreal? That place is sweet warm big water, maybe not as big as the ottowa since this is a tributary of it but fun nonetheless.

Plus when I was up there we used to see the local girls sunbating naked next to the class 6 portage.


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## blutzski (Mar 31, 2004)

In State:
1: Big South (whattya people thinking?)
2: Vallecito (assuming I don't get my ass kicked again next time)
3: Treasure (If the 25 footer onto the rock shelf was runable, and therfore the 6 or so drops above it, this would be number one. Anyone got some dynamite?)
Honorable Mention: Upper Animas because of the scenery and train-supported camping in addition to fun whitewater.


Out of state:
1: Grand Canyon (whoever says it's not about the whitewater is sneaking everything)
2:Upper Cherry Creek (haven't even run it yet and it makes my list just from the pictures!)
3: Embudo (early season kicks)


edit: but reading Gar's post again... if I could only have three runs and no others, meaning that is all I could run all season long, I would have to go with Bailey, Black Rock and Gore - all awesome runs and with longer seasons. The ones I picked above would get me on my mountain bike more.


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## Marco (Oct 16, 2003)

I can't believe 2 of these 3 in state runs haven't been mentioned:

1) Slaughterhouse- fun eddy hopping through boulders, cheep thrills @ falls, fun surf wave near the end;
2) Encampment- fantastic wilderness run with a rapid named "Damnation Alley"- how can you beat that?!
3) Ark from Clear Cr. confluence to #5- the steepest section of the Ark, and the rapids below Pine Cr. are a blast.

Out of State:
1) Forks of the Kern, CA- classic IV+ wilderness run tons of really fun eddy hopping through big round granite boulders
2) Cherry Cr. run on the Toulumne- back in the day it was the tespiece for class V boaters- OK- I'm dating myself... 
3) The Grand- best boating vacation ever.

Out of Country:
1) Fuy, Chile; some of the funnest class IV on the planet punctuated by 10-30 foot waterfalls.
2) Upper Paquare, Costa Rica; slept on the rocks at the take out after 3 class IV/V gorges in 10+ miles.
3) Hollin, Equador; After running the first rapid in this 2 day jungle run you are locked in for the next 35 miles of class III/IV with one portage in there somewhere.


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## JimmyMcG (Jun 3, 2004)

in Colorado:
1) Bailey
2) CC
3) Poudre - Spencer, mish, lower half of big south

out of state:
1)upper/lower blackwater, WV
2)Lower Moose, NY
3)Big Sandy, WV


nice post Gary. Sorry to hear about your shoulder.

Jim G


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## mike a (Dec 16, 2003)

no particular order here...

In CO (these are runs I really have come to miss):

Bailey
OBJ
Gore

Out:
Big Timber
Clark's Fork of Yellowstone (has it all, cl III & IV, ultra-wilderness run, big clV, overnighter, amazing setting, all practically back-to-back--yikes, I probably shoudn't be pointing this out).
SF of American (don't have that much CA experience, but this river has a broad spectrum (tons of sick water).


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## ToddG (Nov 29, 2003)

CO
1. big south 
2. lake cr 
3. NFCrystal vs. vallecito

Outta state essentials that haven't been mentioned:
mann's cr
lower meadow into gauley 
ashlu, eh...
NFBlackwater
S.yuba
kaweah
ravens fork
west prong 
toxaway
little white
and, i gotta give it up to christopher cr in AZ too ... 

((sorry for all the outta state spew, but i couldn't narrow it down any better.))


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## Frogger (Oct 13, 2003)

*Oh Ya*

In State:
Cheeseman
NFCrystal
SFClear Creek- Z gourge


Out of state:
SFYuba 
Upper yough 
Clarks Fork

There are so many more and the more I think about it the more the list changes.

Lyle


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## slee (May 19, 2005)

CO:
OBJ
Source
Crystal Gorge

Out of State:
Upper Cherry
South Silver
Green


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## will rawstron (May 20, 2004)

In state: 
1. Big South? Crystal? 
2.Oh be - CO's answer to Disneyland. At good flows no need to get out of your cockpit and fun drops. 
3. Gore - its not the biggest, but an all meat playboat run is always fun and between 2,000 and 2,500 its a totally different animal - fast and pushy 15' waves. So fun! 

Out of state 
1. Palguin upper/middle/lower rapids and waterfalls 15' to 75', as big as you want and plentiful.
2. Embudo - laps are fun 
3. California granite - haven't done enough to know whats best; love the Love's Falls.


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## El Flaco (Nov 5, 2003)

Gary E's Favorite in-state:

1. Grape Creek
2. Fraser
:lol: :lol: :lol: 

I'd have to throw in Bald Rock Canyon on the Middle Feather in CA, and the Santa Maria in Mexico as two world class runs I've been lucky enough to experience in a boat. The Selway also ranks up there as a raft-supported wilderness run.


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## kurfothich (Feb 28, 2005)

In state:
1. Yule
2.NF crystal
3. OBJ

Out of state
1. Ashlu(box and Mine)
2. Ravensfork, NC
3. Toxicaway, NC
4. Green, NC ( a classic)

Must dos
1. Devils Postpile
2. Roayal Gorge of the AMerican
3, Fantsey falls
4. Upper Cherry


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## COUNT (Jul 5, 2005)

Stinginrivers,
I have not made it up to the Rouge. Although it's on my list, I haven't been in the area when it's been running. Now I definitely have to go, though.

COUNT


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## Cutch (Nov 4, 2003)

In-state

1. Vallecito
2. NF Crystal
3. Big South
4. Yule
5. Lake Creek
(My Colorado dream list.)
Honorable Mentions
*SSV
*Escalante
*South Mineral

Out

1. Christopher Creek, AZ (totally biased)
2. Clear Fork Cowlitz, WA (good call Gary)
3. Big Timber, MT
4. Embudo, NM
5. Clark's Fork Box, WY/MT (A better ending to my trip and this could easily be number one.)

Huckers List
1. Little White Salmon, WA
2. OBJ


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## badkins (Oct 30, 2003)

Hey Cutch, when you did the embudo at 3.7 this spring was it only the 2nd time you had been down it? If it was that was an entirely different river than your first trip! That was the one good part of my season, getting on the embudo with some water in it. :roll:


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## cutthroat (Jun 27, 2005)

Since all of the responses so far are Class IV and V, I'll throw in perspective from a Class III/IV boater:

In Colorado:

The Numbers on the Ark
Upper and Lower Mish on the Poudre
Foxton on the North Fork of the South Platte


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## CGM (Jun 18, 2004)

In state:
Crystal Gorge
Big South
Escalante
Out of State:
Selway
Upper Cherry Creek (haven't paddled it, but from what I've heard.....)
Big Timber


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## Cutch (Nov 4, 2003)

Yeah Brian, that was my second time at 3.7. The year before we paddled it at about 2.6, and my wrist was still recovering from being broken, so I couldn't even get my skirt on by myself. Needless to say it was an entirely different experience at 3.7. I didn't recognize all that much...


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## 217 (Oct 27, 2003)

In-State

Animas
Gore
OBJ

Out-of-State

Middle Piru, CA - 18 miles of continuous class IV and V. Amazing geology.Scary wood.

Forks of the Kern, CA - Tea cups combined with continuous. 

Santa Margarita, CA - SoCal's only fun. Runs once a Decade.


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## Hartje (Oct 16, 2003)

In state:

Big South
Cheeseman Canyon
NSV

Out of state:

East Fork Kaweah River (CA)
Upper Blackwater River (WV)
South Yuba River (CA)

Honorable mentions: 

Big Sandy Creek (WV), Morgan's Creek (PA), Gauley, Dry Fork of the Cheat River (WV), Decker's Creek (WV), Lachine Rapids, Cherry Creek (Toulumne), Cal Salmon, Union Street Boat Chutes, Upper Dolores, Poudre Narrows, Top, Upper, and Lower Youghs' (PA), and of course Ocean Beach in San Francisco, the best whitewater simulator I've come across.


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## mountainbuns (Feb 19, 2004)

Good thread Gary!

CO:
-Bailey
-Gore

ID (still tons to check out but so far):
-EFSF Salmon River
-NFPayette... the "easy" parts only! :shock: ... and WARM water!

Other:
-Middle Sauk, WA (not hard but gorgeous and 20 minutes from friends homestead)
-Upper Gauley, WV
-Futaleufu - without a doubt my top pick ever


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## J (Nov 6, 2003)

1) Deckers
2) C470 to Union
3) Grizzly Creek


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## sj (Aug 13, 2004)

Now that i am old and have slowed down(or just started boating like a wimp)

1. Granite thru #5
2. Upper mish thru Bridges if it's above 4'
3. Pump House to rancho becuse the kids will boat that with me

Out of state
1 The Grand
2 Cat becuse it's my wife's fav boating is my second favorite thing that dosen't make me shallow now does it?
3. the Bio Bio before the dam


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## Camiona (Apr 8, 2005)

all right J, (you ARE Dr J that I paddled with last week right?) SOMEONE starts posting stuff I've done! 

My top rivers (as a class 3 kayaker):

1: Foxton
2: Lower CC (just above tunnel 1 to the play park)
3: lower Blue

Out-of-state (as a class 5 rafter )

1: Tutshi river, extreme north BC almost in the Yukon- the best class 5 river in the world! (well, I wanna do the futaleufu, I think that may be even better... so, the best river in north america )
2: Thompson River, southern BC (big water class 4 with one 15 ft high glassy river wide surfing wave that is the best I've ever seen... maybe this is what big sur is like?)
3: upper yough MD, chattooga, GA tie for 3rd 

Lauren


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## RiverWrangler (Oct 14, 2003)

Little late but f$&% it...

COlorado
1. BIG SOUTH (the best)
2. Bailey (duh, going when you need her)
3. Full Poudre Narrows (after work FC special)

Out of CO
1. Clarks Fork BOX, WY (the deepest, and I mean spiritual place)
2. Christopher Creek, AZ (hmmm... waterfalls)
3. Arahura, NZ (the Jade river)


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