Upper Taylor In The Fall

As the season has been winding down slowly, it's been a challenge to find people to go boating with. Last Wednesday I called Vito, the friendly head guide at Three Rivers Resort and he was kind enough to let me know Taylor Dam would be spewing 250 cubic feet per second into the river below it until October 1st. With this information in hand I attempted to find paddling partners for this weekend, hoping to pull off at least one, but hopefully two (or more) trips.


My plans were clearly shot after calling through my phonebook. Between people leaving town, not "feeling" paddling anymore, people out with injuries, and others just too lazy to go, it was soon looking grim for even going at all. I had resigned myself to a couple of solo missions on the Gunny until I was saved by my buddy Paul "Studmuffin" Muirhead, who I boat with on the Taylor every once in a while. We met up in Gunny with blue skies and found our way north to the Taylor, where dark blue clouds and the occasional rain shower greeted us.


The Taylor at this level is a blast. Everything is fun and defined, and the drops tend to be large with more vertical to them, but nothing on the river is too pushy at this level. Sneaks are everywhere and it is hard not to have a great time. Unfortunately it was raining off and on so we were making progress downstream and not worrying much about video. Still, I managed to fire off some jerky, out of breath clips here and there. Enjoy.







It's hard to tell in this picture but at this moment it was raining really hard. Two minutes later it just quit. Welcome to Colorado!



Paul in the Slot from Whorefish Productions on Vimeo.


Paul in the Slot





Initiation, the first drop on the commerical Upper. Its a fun mess of rocks and holes and waves oh my!



Paul in Initiation from Whorefish Productions on Vimeo.


I was too jerky with the camera to effectively get the top half of the rapid. Still, he does the lower half nicely I feel.



Paul in Upper Tombstone from Whorefish Productions on Vimeo.


Paul in the upper half of Tombstone, running through Toilet Bowl, No Parking, and the Goalposts.



Paul in Boogie Water from Whorefish Productions on Vimeo.


Paul in some typical Taylor boogie water. Check out Paul's fresh freestyle action in the end of the clip. Normally he's much better than that.



Paul in Lower Deadmans from Whorefish Productions on Vimeo.


Paul in the lower half of Deadman's Rapid.





Some more leaf-peepin' on the way back to town. With the rain and wind this weekend I think the leaves are pretty much done, so I hope ya saw em when ya had the chance!