+ General Updates
+ Plateau Creek
+ Gunny Boating
+ Quartz Creek Scout
+ Upcoming Plans
- General Updates -
While it may seem like little is going on due to the lack of posts in the past couple of weeks, the truth has been quite the opposite. The water has started to rise and spring is here in full force, and times are a changin'. Here's a recap of what's been going on.
First I had to go through an exhausting ordeal to get my new video camera. I got my tax refund in early April, did a whole bunch of research regarding camcorders and bought a Panasonic camera from BestBuy.com. The one feature I was unable to research from a 3rd party perspective was whether or not the camera would be compatible with my system and programs. Unfortunately the only way to tell this was to use the camera and then try to interface it. Long story short, it didn't work, and I had to go through the run around from Panasonic only to discover that my new camera was indeed incompatibile. After getting into a heated discussion with the woman on BestBuy's phone line, I learned I couldn't return my camera to a BestBuy without a major restock fee, and my only hope lie in the store manager. Well, after all that, the return and purchase of a new one took about 10 minutes, no penalties. Easily the best Best Buy experience I've ever had.
That was Wednesday. I was planning on returning to Junction over the weekend, but learned on Friday that I had to be out of my house by Sunday, and with no place to go I ended up stuffing my life into a storage unit while shacking up on my parents extra bed for a week. Sounds bad, but there is lots of free food, and the end result has been way more boating opportunities for me this week, which what I've been doing lately. I move into my new place in a matter of days, so hopefully some balance will return to the chaos that is life around here right now.
- Plateau Creek -
My dad just happened to be going to a service school in Grand Junction on April 29th, a mere day after the events described above, and I used this opportunity to go and get on Plateau Creek, a fun little creek that drains the north slope of Grand Mesa. It was a dirty little stream, with a lot of sleepers and a fairly continuous gradient, and the last half mile or so was near continuous rapids, all roadside. After picking up my cousin Luke, we headed east and found the put in. The run is a blast, I scraped numerous rocks and bounced off the same number as well, and it was fun as hell. The crux involved squirting between two large pourovers, and then shooting off a small boof immediately below. One shitty rapid right above the takeout drop could have used a little bit more water but I was surprised how the clean the rest of the run was at 419 cfs. I took two laps with my pops running shuttle, who was also kind enough to shoot this video for me while I used the headcam. The first lap took 8 and half minutes and the second one was just over that. I hear they run this thing up to 1000 cfs or more, that sounds like a really fun time!
I put together a few choice clips for now; as well as some images, but I will post the raw headcam footage down the road a little later on.
the first pic ever with my camera- patterson road in Junction
friendly looking sign at the bottom of plateau creek. the dam is actually gone now
me on plateau creek
me on plateau again
grand river
greenery in the grand valley
more grand valley green
Plateau Creek from Whorefish Productions on Vimeo.
- Gunny Boating -
The past week I have been boating a whole bunch. After boating Friday, and then failing to find people to go boating with all day Sunday, I more than made up for it by going the next three days with different folks. On Monday it was Aaron and Hooper, on Tuesday it was Paul and Dave, and Wednesday it was Jess. I had my camera on the Friday before, and then Monday as well, so I was able to get a few random shots in. The Gunny is really starting to come up big too, so be prepared for high water soon....
Gunny Boating from Whorefish Productions on Vimeo.
- Quartz Creek Scout -
Quartz Creek flows from the mountains south of Taylor Park, through Pitkin, and into a flat bottomed valley that eventually joins with the Tomichi Creek Valley and ultimately the Gunnison Valley. The creek is small, manky, and classic Rocky Mountain. While I am sure someone has boated this creek before, it hasn't been talked about and there is no information regarding it at all. So I've had to go and scout a lot of it, and based on what I've looked at, it looks like it good be a fun adventure.
The upper section would entail putting in at the road to the Middle Fork of Quartz Creek, and boating down to a pull off just above the town of Pitkin. This would be mostly class III, likely with a spice of III+ or IV- thrown in, and always shallow. There are also several log jams in this section, a couple of which could likely be cut beforehand to ensure safe passage. I'll be checking back in later this year after trying to get down it.
The only run through Pitkin itself would be to put in at Fourth Street, and boat down to the last eddy that has the road on river left, right above a fun looking irrigation drop. This would be more channelized but still manky and continuous.
A few miles below the fish hatchery, the canyon noticeably tightens up and the creek becomes fairly channelized. While narrow and confining, the creek is most certainly boatable, and near continuous low flow class III would be the standard through here. The only danger here would be log jams, as the creek has relatively no eddies and it would be a nightmare to stop in time in front of one. The put in is vague on this one, simply look for the best pull out, but the takeout is noticeable as it is the first private property that you will see after multiple miles of public land. In addition to this we will be scouting the upper forks on Quartz Creek in a (likely vain) attempt to find anything fun as well.
- Upcoming Plans -
In the immediate future is a trip to Lake City on Sunday to do the run from town down to the Pre-Box put in, and potentially something on Saturday as well, although that is undecided right now. In a week or two hopefully Saguache Creek will come into a runnable window and we can finally get down there and have a look. After that the only thing on the horizon is multiple Taylor laps, potentially Quartz Creek, and just waiting for Anthracite Creek to come into a runnable level. Stay tuned and I'll keep posting the shit as it happens!
