Stoke with some pics from last year....
Supermax!

Bottom of Supermax

Bailey Scenery on the paddle out with the crew

 

Ah, god quit posting such bright and sunny sweet pics! Ol Flowtorch is movin to the PNW and going to miss these days. This will be one of my last hootenanny's. And Big South.

Yo Ian, how am I getting back to the campsite after getting wicked pisser @ the takeout party?

 

Getting back to the campground... Good question. Its going to be a bit of a shuttle clusterfuck. We can leave up to 20 vehicles at the takeout overnight to have shuttle set for sun AM. Plan is to shuttle back up to the campground after the takeout BBQ. I'm hoping that folks can manage their own drinking and shuttles to make it to the campground safely. Bailey Fest has a strict ethic of leaving no drunk boaters behind, so we will find a way to get you up to the campground.

Camping Overview Pic

Camping Closeup

 

Ian... fuckin-a you are the man with this fest. If it is half as good as last year it will kick major ass.

Can I get an AMEN!?

 

Hallelujah!

Amen brotha, Amen!

 

AMEN!

29 days and counting! Hoping the Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico folks will make it this year too.

I've gotten a couple questions and offers about help for this year's event. I do need some help.

Last year I kept it pretty loose and got help from folks at the BBQ as needed. Key to success was getting one guy to man the grill, and getting a several folks to help prep food. If you want to help out at the BBQ party, PM me or show up around 2PM ish and offer to give a hand.

Also, we will have some free beer at the campground party, but otherwise it will be bring your own party. Bring a little extra to share and we will have a great time.

There will be a bathroom at the campground, but it will be leave no trace camping. If you have a firepan, bring it (PM me if you are going to bring it). I'd like to rig up a couple of fire pans side by side to have a good campfire unless someone has a better idea for a big firepan.

Come to Bailey Fest and have a great time and share your 2011 high water stories!

 

25 days and counting...

Last year, lots of boaters got on Bailey for the first time. I'd love to see that happen again. I won't have anything specifically planned to take new boaters down, but I'm hoping the boating community takes care of it like they did last year.

Looking forward to Bailey Fest!

Aug 13/14, 2011

 

At least 1 Will be coming down from the good ol 307. Cant wait Ian! You're the man for getting this all set up!

 

Cool! Bring the WY crew down!

Hoping we get critical mass for an inspired camp party sat night.

 

I'll be there, also coming from the 307.

 

thought for the day...

What is Bailey Fest?

Bailey Fest is a gathering to celebrate the whitewater on the North Fork of the South Platte River. Last year I brokered a deal with Denver Water to coordinate Denver Water deliveries on the north fork on a scheduled weekend so that boaters could plan out a time to come to the river. I think the North Fork is a great river as its got good runs for class III, IV, and V boaters alike and has a variety of options. You can go as easy or hard as you want.

After the deal was made, my next thought was that this called for a PARTY! I thought about what makes a good river party... a classic river, good flows, a great takeout party with free food and beer, a nice group campsite for boaters to congregate. With those thoughts in mind, the ideas for Bailey Fest started to gel. 2010 was a good kickoff year, and I'm looking to take things up a notch for this year. As I contemplated a party, I realized I needed help. AW, Jackson kayak, Confluence Kayaks, Whitewater Tube Co., and Oskar Blues Brewery all stepped in to help with planning and funding. All are big assets to the boating community! Thanks!

What Bailey Fest is not... Bailey Fest is not a race, it is not a competition, it is not a contest. There are already a ton of these types of events in CO that are big crowd favorites. I wanted to do something with a different slant.

What Bailey Fest is... Bailey Fest is a Party that celebrates collaboration, coordination, and comradarie, and mostly a good time on the river. I wanted Bailey Fest to stand out as a fun event that focused on having fun on an off the river in a community setting. I wanted Bailey Fest to be something that everyone could enjoy and participate in. My mental model for Bailey Fest was Gauley Fest (although I have never been, only read about it). What really struck me about Gauley Fest was the combo of a classic river with a huge party... sounds like a great recipe to me.

The key to success of Bailey Fest is attendance... Good attendance shows user demand to denver water, shows value to sponsors, and shows the viability of the event for the future. If we want Bailey Fest to be around for years to come... show up this year and make it happen!

Thanks to the folks who came last year, and to those that have offered thanks and encouragement for this year.

Looking forward to another great event!

 

T-minus 23 days... Getting pumped!

Does anyone know if you can access any of the major rapids on bailey by foot or motorbike without any serious tresspassing? The guy with the helicopter camera called me up and wanted to shoot bailey fest. I think the heli-cam is pretty awesome and it sounded like a great idea.

Main issue is getting the camera into the river. Its too big for a kayak (guy doesn't kayak anyway). If the guy could find a reasonable motor bike or potentially a hike in, it may work. Thoughts?

 

Hike to Crossons

One possibility is to hike to the ghost town of Crossons. These are the old buildings at the bridge below Deer Creek. To get there take the road east from Bailey, past the old put-in. It winds around and turns into a dirt road. At the top of a hill there is a forest service dirt road that says "Miller Gulch trail head" and "Buck Gulch trail head". My gazeteer shows this as FR532, but I think it had a different # last time I was there. After about 1 mile you will see these 2 trail heads with a forest service sign and a couple of parking spots. There is a road that goes left at this point (back to the west), it's labeled as FR139. You can follow it a little bit further and it ends with a forest service gate. Walk around the gate and continue following the road and you'll hit the S. Platte at Crossons in about 15-20 minutes (maybe a little longer?). When you cross the bridge at Crossons you can walk up the old railroad grade and be at Deer Creek quickly. You can follow the grade past Deer Creek as well.
I know that the hike is on a forest service road and I've talked to fishermen down there who told me it's public.

 

Is Foxton doable in a small cat?
I like steep and tight.
What flows do you predict?

Sounds like a great party!

 

Thanks for the info on the crossons hike in! That sounds perfect.

Flows should be med/low or closer to med if we are lucky. Expecting 350-375ish.

Not sure if you could take a cat down foxton. Shredder, maybe. Its a bit rocky, the put in boulder garden is too tight for most inflatables probably. Most of the rest of the river would probably go I guess, but its a fairly small creekbed. I'd say its tighter than clear creek, maybe about the size of boulder creek? Maybe someone else can chime in.

 

Rich,
I'd say you could definitely run Foxton in a Shredder or Mini Me at 500 and have fun.You could probably bang down it in a slightly larger craft at 375 but it would be real bony in spots and maybe not so fun.Foxton is a wider streambed
than Boulder Creek [1 1/2 x ?] a little smaller than Clear Creek and a lot rockier than BC Town run but way less mank than the canyon/lower/Buttress. I don't know how long your cat is ,but a guy I know that duckies' Gore and everything on Bailey except 1st falls,got pinned once in the Boulder garden in a two man 13' Aire Lynx. There are some pretty narrow slots in there low also.

At higher flows it would probably be a blast in a cat.

 

Love the banner ad!
Be there for sure.

 

thanks Ian & cayo.

Sounds like I will need to bring a smaller boat!

 

Thanks for running the show Ian

Last year was a great time, looking forward to this year's event. Will probably stick to one run, two runs last year was a bit rough.

Big South next weekend? If not I'll see you at the fest! Happy to help out again as well.

 

Right on Dan. Would like to get up to big south, but can probably only rally a single day trip due to family stuff. I'll give you a ring.

Looking forward to some full moon drunken kung fu at the campsite! My stumbling donkey style can not be beat!

T minus 19 days and counting. Full moon bailey fest to top off a classic water year in colorado.

 

Bailey Fest! Can't wait thanks again Ian.

 

Bailey Fest poster! Thanks to David Finney for the pro bono graphic design work.

Also, DanOrion is making bailey fest bumper stickers. Keeping our fingers crossed that they will be here in time for the fest. Thanks for the great idea Dan!

 

I've had a couple of folks ask me when the campground will be open for arrivals. Tenatively, I will be showing up at the campground around 10 to noon on friday before the fest. Folks wanting to show up friday could plan on being at the campground around then or later. I'll do a friday afternoon run, and get the camp set up fri night. We will have the camp spot through sunday afternoon. I plan on doing a final walk through for trash etc late sunday afternoon and would ask that folks are packed up and ready to head out sunday afternoon. If you need / want to stay later sunday afternoon come talk to me sat night or sun morning to plan it out.

Also, I'm asking for a donation of $10 per head for camping. I really wanted to keep everything at bailey fest free, but to get this camp spot I need to get ACA insurance to cover liability for the landowner and I had the property sprayed for weeds by a weed management company (my part of the deal with the landowner). The $10 camping donation will hopefully cover the costs to get the camp site, but in my mind its well worth it. Its a great campsite, and we can put on the river sunday AM without running shuttle.

 

Nice poster, but don't you think a picture of Tom Janney swimming in first falls would have been better?

 

Ha! Tom swimming on the poster would be classic. Maybe next year!

In other bailey fest news...

Beth is bringing a massage chair (table?) to bailey fest. Bring some cash with you if you'd like to get a massage. I know my arms will be sore from slamming beers. Beth will charge a fee, part of which will go to Bailey Fest to help fund the event (thanks), and part of which will fund gas money for her to go kayaking. Sounds like a positive for everyone.

Thanks to Beth for the great idea.

This is a great example of how Bailey Fest can become a better event with community initiated ideas. If you have a good idea, or something you feel you could bring to the fest to add to the fun, let me know.

Also, Bailey Fest is a non-profit event. I'm not making any money off of the event, and in the future I'd like to figure out ways to make it a fund raiser for AW to help keep up the good fight for river issues in CO and across the US.

 

aw fundraiser

Ian,
For Budo fest I always have a raffle to benefit AW. $5.00 a ticket or 3 for $10.00
I found that everyone I approached for gear to raffle off was super helpful. Usually made between $200.00-$300.00 for AW that way. I think you still have time to reach out to kayak gear companies to get stuff together for that. Folks that helped out the Budo Fest Raffle in the past were Shred Ready, WRSI, Astral, CKS, Keen, Cutch and River Wrangler (guidebooks), River Gypsies (Guidebooks), and some local NM stores. I think it is possible to go that route for Bailey Fest. Hope I can make it for Sunday. Beers, Atom..