Royal Gorge question.

[ChrisKelly]

My friend and I ran the Gorge late Sunday afternoon; level was 330.
First, it is very boney but certainly runnable. I am glad we did it. Those drops near the end of the Gorge near some big pipe over the river were pretty bumpy.
Second, those of you in charge need to snip a few miles off the end. The end is always interesting because of the sense of paddling from the montains out onto the great plains but I could enjoy that for about a quarter mile rather than the current 5,000 miles which it seems to be.
Third, someone said here recently that they never had a bad day in the Gorge and I can understand that. Even at this level it was stunning and fun paddling.

My question is about Sunshine. Having only run the Gorge twice before, once at about 750 and once about 1,000, both several years ago, I had the sense that the rapid was easier at those slightly higher levels. Do you agree?
I ran it on the right side of the crux drop, having eddied out on the right above it. My friend ran the far left side of the hole. Both seemed to work fine. In the middle the hole looked to have a boil pretty far downstream but maybe not much holding power at this level.
The next rapid (Sledgehammer?) was certainly creeky at 330.

Anyway, ya'll got a real nice river there. Get that last part fixed up for me will ya. Chris Kelly

[BastrdSonOfElvis]

Did you take out at the park? There's a takeout way upstream of that. You'll see a pink house on river right...that's called "pink house" oddly enough and is a popular take out for at least one raft company. Across the river from that is kind of a parking lot...I'm not sure if it's really legal to park there but we've never had a problem. You get there on a little road that's a left turn off of 50 as you're going west. I can't remember the road name but if you're really interested I'll check a map and let you know.

[ChrisKelly]

Yes, I know about Pink Howse. We put on at 4:30 pm and were more worried about daylight than about shuttle. We saw nobody at PH so hustled a ride at the park. thanks, Chris K

[PhilBob]

Sunshine has changed a lot from a falls type rapid into a regular rapid. Ever since space command wrapped a boat and moved the rock on river left that used to hold the falls in. This change resulted in the creation of "El Diente", the hole river right at low water, and a bonying of the lower section. 1000 cfs is about the easiest level in the gorge I think, with anything below 500 getting bony. However it is notable that it remains runnable year round except when the ice closes in on extremely cold winters. I have run (in a raft) the RG at 175 on new years day. We didnt want to kayak actually with all the ice floating in the water. Can you say Ice Cream Headache?

And yes the paddle out sucks, unless you have beer and the time is 4:20.


Philbob