Hwy 7 between Lyons and Raymond opened up yesterday. I drove up today to check out SSV to see what happened to it in the floods. The creek is unrecognizable in many places. The high water scoured the hell out of the creekbed with the power to move huge 10ft+ diameter rocks. Much of SSV used to be made up of piles of blast mank with rocks in the 5-10 ft diameter range creating cascading steep drops. The river washed those mank piles out and pushed the rocks way up on the sides of the river or downstream. The net effect is that many of the abrupt ledge drop mank piles (ie most of the class V drops) have been gutted with a continuous gradient V shaped river channel. Most of the big rocks that made signature drops are moved or gone.
The change in the narrows is huge. The eddy a the top of the narrows where you either take out to portage or scout (where the Adam Barron memmorial is) is now a 5ft boof ledge. The upstream pool is higher due to chock rocks and inill, but the pool level where the eddy used to be is way lower. Looks to me like the high water completely washed out the huge rocks that made up the entrance drop of the narrows. The distinc drops of the narrows all look way different with the exception of jihad, which looks about the same, and still like crap. The rest of the upper narrows looks more like continuous steep single track in a V shaped channel. Whats really noticeable is that the bank along the road is now a huge scree slope that encroaches way more on the river than it used to due to the highway. This pinches the lead in to the narrows into a narrow slot like intro.
Looks like the bottom mank piles of bed springs rapid are gone. I would expect this drop to be way easier now. The reach around drop / sign post drop changed pretty huge. Looks like the flow wants to go left more instead of the old right lead in to the 5 ft ledge. The final exit swim hole looks really different. Looks like rocks chocked upstream of where the final hole used to be and changed the exit.
The first drop of the after work run looks completely washed out. One big straight sluice.
The good news is that most of the river is scoured and looks that the vast majority of the run will be boatable. Bad news is that there are at least 10 riverwide tress down in various sections that need to come out to be able to paddle the run. The ugly is that many of the signature drops have been completely gutted. Of course the gradient is still there overall, but I suspect that many of the drops will be significantly less challenging and steep.
there is also a bridge in the river at some point in the run. Small metal truss bridge that is right in the bottom of the channel. Will probably need serious hep getting that out. CDOT?
The water is really low right now and the snow is pretty light. Would be good to do a big clean up to get the logs out before the snow and cold really kick in for the winter.
I'd highly recommend driving up the canyon and hiking around to check it out if you paddle SSV. Its abolutely incredible how much the river bed has changed.
The change in the narrows is huge. The eddy a the top of the narrows where you either take out to portage or scout (where the Adam Barron memmorial is) is now a 5ft boof ledge. The upstream pool is higher due to chock rocks and inill, but the pool level where the eddy used to be is way lower. Looks to me like the high water completely washed out the huge rocks that made up the entrance drop of the narrows. The distinc drops of the narrows all look way different with the exception of jihad, which looks about the same, and still like crap. The rest of the upper narrows looks more like continuous steep single track in a V shaped channel. Whats really noticeable is that the bank along the road is now a huge scree slope that encroaches way more on the river than it used to due to the highway. This pinches the lead in to the narrows into a narrow slot like intro.
Looks like the bottom mank piles of bed springs rapid are gone. I would expect this drop to be way easier now. The reach around drop / sign post drop changed pretty huge. Looks like the flow wants to go left more instead of the old right lead in to the 5 ft ledge. The final exit swim hole looks really different. Looks like rocks chocked upstream of where the final hole used to be and changed the exit.
The first drop of the after work run looks completely washed out. One big straight sluice.
The good news is that most of the river is scoured and looks that the vast majority of the run will be boatable. Bad news is that there are at least 10 riverwide tress down in various sections that need to come out to be able to paddle the run. The ugly is that many of the signature drops have been completely gutted. Of course the gradient is still there overall, but I suspect that many of the drops will be significantly less challenging and steep.
there is also a bridge in the river at some point in the run. Small metal truss bridge that is right in the bottom of the channel. Will probably need serious hep getting that out. CDOT?
The water is really low right now and the snow is pretty light. Would be good to do a big clean up to get the logs out before the snow and cold really kick in for the winter.
I'd highly recommend driving up the canyon and hiking around to check it out if you paddle SSV. Its abolutely incredible how much the river bed has changed.