I'm planning a trip to CO this summer from Missouri and have a few questions about the Black Canyon. I apologize if these questions are redundant.
I know that that area has a lot of snow on the ground right now. Anyone care to hypothosize about a good time to run it would be? If there was an early warm up, would it be likely to be at a moderate level by the first part of July? If the warm up was late, any guesses on what time of the summer would be good to shoot for?
I know this is all speculation, but I'm trying to at least get a 1-month window on when we might be able to run it. This will be the centerpiece of our trip, but we hope to do some creekin' in the Gunnison/Crested Butte area as well. For those interested, yes, I do own the bible.
Like I said, I'm not looking for definative answers, because they aren't available. But, if someone said "you'd be crazy to try it before July 4th", that's what the kind of beta I'm looking for.
Ok, let me rephrase my question a bit. Given a normal snowpack and normal warm up, what's a good time of the summer to find moderate levels in the Black Canyon?
....flows are usually high in the spring, good thru summer and then high in the fall again.....when i say "usually" i mean under normal snow years... due to the lack of good snow fall for the last 3-5 years, the flows in the BLACK have been in the "low but good to go" range...with an occasional bump for this or that...this spring they have been normal...hitting nearly 2,000cfs! the BLACK runs everyday...and is not affected directly from snow melt....it gets its water from 3 upstream resevoirs.....i'd say below 600cfs, it's boney creeking with audible sieves and "shit"....650-900ishcfs, its creeking style with some river-style rapids.......900-1200cfs, river style with some push....1200cfs-up, the "real deal"......it has been hard to "forecast" what may happen...the authorities are in court right now because they have not withheld their promise to have flows mimic nature.....another story! keep up with flows and when you think you are on your way we'll figure something out...like to carry a boat? as i see it....it paddles pretty well, but "offline action" is not tolerated.....by the river or your buddies!!! you should find "moderate" flows thru this summer.....970-275-1890 for any other ?'s.....ps...i know the canyon well..and feel that a one day will take anywhere from 9(fast)-13(slow)....just to get to the take-out(no major epics) the hike out chukar trail(this is where you might feel light headed!)....takes a bit...maybe 30mins-2hours....rad place!
Thanks for the beta. I'll hang onto your number in case I have more questions as the summer nears. I've got at least one top notch boater already on board and hopefully will round up a couple more. We paddle a lot of sieved out stuff out East, so I have tremendous respect for these type of runs. We're planning on doing it over two days and enjoying camping along the river. Given all of the portaging required by the run, we may opt for contining down the Gunni Gorge instead of taking the Chukar Trail. I've heard it can be bombed in 3-4 hours, so that migh not be a bad option.
I'll keep an eye on the flows and try to get more info on the political situation. Thanks again.
Like Milo said, Its kind of hard to figure out what is going on this year. The flows have been real high lately. Hopefully they don't empty the res. and shut the spigot off for the second half of the summer. Flows around 600 to 1000 are real good for a first assault. The run is still real good below 600 but water stops flowing over the waterfall (one of the highlights). Camping in there is great if you have the time. I highly recommend it. As far a Chukar vs. Gunny gorge, I keep flip flopping. When I'm in the Gunny gorge I'm thinking, "I can't believe how long this mother ****ing gorge is. We should have just carried out Chukar." When I'm carrying up Chukar and my own sweat is making the trail slick, I'm thinking "Jesus ****ing Christ, I could just be floating right now. One thing to consider is that Chukar takes a while to get from a vehicle and you need high ground clearance. July would probably be my guess for this year (and I mean guess). Check out my description on AWA for more details.
when are we gonna go get it BIGBOATER? i've got a couple of buddies who are ususally game.... high flows and lack of kayaks(buddies) have kept me from going in.....no solos planned for the big flows unless my bros blow me off!!!!lots of shit runnin' right now anyhow!!...i think a great weekend would be... hittin' the BIG SWIMMERON(big C.) and then the black the next day....
Hey Milo, I'd love to get it with you. I'm kind of conflicted right now though. So much else is running. It would be nice to see what's going on in there at this level. Have you done it this high before? If there is a weekend when all my partners bail and I'm looking for something to do.
you can see historic flows for up to 730 days, use the "recent daily" data listing and "fixed width table" for output format. This gives you the average flow each day for the past 2 yrs. +
I can't get that link to work. It tells me that I don't have access to view the page. I played around with the USGS page for this site, but couldn't get to what you were talking about. If you have another link, it would be very useful. Thanks.
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