You have got be be kidding me. What a bunch of idiots. If they had started 2 weeks earlier they would not have messed with kayaking but those guys are probably too stupid to complicate their scheduling process with an extra requirement. Dumb motherfuckers never went to school and worked their way up to project management in CDOT after paving roads for 20 years. Fuck em'. The project manager that deepsouthpaddler talked to sounds like a real dicksucker.
That really sucks. Its hard enough to watch it at runnable flows and have prime after work runs shut down. It was made bearable because bear and union were running. Its going to be hot this weekend and clear creek is going to start ripping.
They need to get their asses in gear. I wish they would have planned it for september....
I also talked with the CDOT supervisor. I told him we had a competition scheduled and people needed to get on the river to practice. He said he was willing to be flexible for Thursday and Friday of next week if I told him what times we needed the creek open. Can someone from CWWA or AWWA follow up? PM me for the supervisor name and number.
When I first called, I talked to the project manager, and he was not the right guy to talk to. Didn't even want to listen. He was a jerk about it.
I just talked to a public relations guy and he gave me the number of the public relations guy that heads up region 1. Waiting on a call back from him.
What I thought would be a good dialog is that if either the upper end or lower end is clear, we could access lower or black rock.
I'm sure boaters would be willing to pack shuttle vehicles to minimize traffic, and if we asked for access after 5PM or something like that they might be willing to listen.
Just got off the phone with Bob Wilson, region 1 public relations. He's the guy who writes the press releases.
He was sympathetic, but noted that the engineers and the state troopers all feel that the canyon should be closed.
I noted that the kayaking community would appreciate even limited access to certain sections, and would be willing to work within time limits (like between 5-9 pm etc), could work together to share vehicles for shuttles etc. Again he was sympathetic and said he would pass it on, but he did not sound like it would happen.
I asked about timing and noted that this is prime kayaking time. He noted that they really wanted to get the project done before memorial day as traffic goes up quite a bit in the summer.
I asked how to be a part of future planning so that kayakers as a recreational group could have input in future planning. He didn't really have an answer, but said he would put me on his email distribution list for stuff like this.
I did ask about floating the river from 119 down into golden, and he said that he didn't see why not, even though the other guys said no. I asked him to clarify and get back to me. Its not a whole lot of use to a lot of us, as its too long to do afterwork.
Well, it was worth a shot. I have a hard time seeing how 10-20 kayaking vehicles would impact trucks heading up the highway for paving operations. I'm a bit bummed that there isn't some sort of compromise that could be reached.
It was worth a try...
I guess I'll have to go get my ass kicked on bear next week... Again.
I knew this was going to happen, remember two years ago when they closed 6 for two weeks to due rock control, or whatever, and it went for a full month.
Unfortunately as Kayakers there is little to nothing we can do. Flexing our muscles would require lots of dinero. Lots of Dinero. Eventhough this totally sucks, we are just wasting our time. At least Ian, got us on their radar but I'm afraid there's not much we can do. . . except hit the Bear!!!
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