The Snake River. Keystone.Co

DeLiSh · 05-20-2005

For those of you that don't know about it the Snake River is a small creek that flows into Dillon Res on the Keystone side of the lake. This creek has 2 good sections. Class(III)section. Turn right at the Texaco in Keystone and park behind the Keystone lodge(parking limmited). This is a mellow class III section that has a few small surfspots. One of wich is inside the river left tunnel under highway 6 kinda cool! There are 2 river wide logs in this section the first of wich can be run far river left. Take out(small park off Swan Mt. Rd at lake). The real gem of this river is upstream closer to the old mining town Montazuma. This fun Class(IV) section starts where The Snake flows under the road about 4 or so miles up Montazuma road(east of Keystone) There are 4 good rapids on this section. The first of wich is a longer bouldergarden style rapid with a bony exit. Another I call Log Jammin Falls and the last one is road side. There are a few pieces of wood around this creek and at least one portage over a large tree.Take out (small pullout about 1.5 miles up Montazuma Rd)
These two sections are short and local for us in Summit and really worth hitting if this gage reads 200 or more but 150 is runnable. I think it has more caracter than 10 mile creek by a long shot. If you are passing through this area it is worth a look. You may be suprised what you find!
Here is the gage!!
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/co/nwis/uv?09047500

Gloryhorse · 05-21-2005

Have you ever ran blue river from the town of blue river into breck, I put in right below the blue river tarn and take out at the river walk in breck. Good class four, excect for going under neeth village road, thru the culvert which I would deem class v.

cayo · 05-21-2005

Good posts ,thanks for sharing the info.We ran the lower Snake years ago I remember it as real continuous easy 3 with one harder drop and the culvert with a klnk at the end . How could you catch that wave,as I recall the culverts pretty tight?Running it backwards to catch it on the fly seems real sketchy.We'll definitely check out the upper,and maybe the upr. upr. blue.
Since you know these parts any beta on the Williams Fork I've run some woody class 2-3 parts in the middle.Know anything about the upr. or the class 4 canyon mentioned in FLOATERS GUIDE TO COLO.?
Thanks Jay

ToddG · 05-21-2005

hey summit crew -- just outside the county there is a short stout creek run with significantly more "character" than both the snake & 10-mile. it's not everyone's cup of tea, & as far as i know it hasn't been run in a couple years. middle fk. south platte near hoosier pass. coming from breck, go over hoosier & take a right on a dirt road just past the summit. follow it to montgomery reservoir & then drive to the back of the lake, park, & hike your boat up past the old mining bldgs. cross the creek in the flats above the first waterfall, then situate for put-in in an eddy on river-right. peel out & boof the first 15-footer. it's super steep & non-stop from there. 4 long-ish rapids: "lapdance", "double anal", "luv u long time", & "dirty sanchez". dirty sanchez, the last little mini-gorge, hasn't been run as far as i know -- we never saw it w/ enough flow to cover up some skanky rock. the rest of the creek is surprisingly clean with nice granite & you can run laps on it. it's kind of "novelty boating", but summit county is kinda "novelty livin'", ain't it? makes for a nice sidetrip on the way to the ark ..

the gauge can be found online on the DWR site under upper middle south platte near alma. you'll want around a hundred to make it worthwhile ...

DeLiSh · 05-21-2005

Thanks Todd and friends!
I Live in Blue River Co not too far away. I remember hearing something about that section of the Platte before I moved up here(The White Stripe?). I will have my eye on it. Last time I drove the pass it looked snowed in. The upper blue above Breck is next on my list of local shit to clean out. It is not high enough yet. The snake however is starting to crank(given it's past few years history of low snowpack) I hope it will reach 400! It would be a sweet run at that level. I ran two laps on the upper between work today. It was Great! The creek had come up a bit on my second lap and things were padding out and most of the F'U was cleaning up. There are 2 things to watch for. A River wide tree in the runout of Log Jammin Falls(I will try and cut this bastard out tomorrow). Also a really stupid low bridge to some dudes house(you can eddy out on the right next to the bridge). The rest is obvious. I will be on this tomorrow from 3pm to 5:30pm then back to work

As for the culvert wave on the lower you catch it on the fly(not sketchy unless you have a 12 foot dancer).

cheers
Mike Hagadorn

tony · 05-23-2005

Thanks Mike and the others for some local info. My roomate and I were staring at Uppper Upper Ten mile Creek in the moonlight on the drive home from the Ark last night and it looked like it could be done. Does anyone know about this run? It is the stretch by 91 upstream from copper mountian.
thanks
tony

riojedi · 05-23-2005

Ran it in a raft (12') in '96 we put in right at the culvert as you start up the pass. It was kinda (not very) fun, some continous class 3 creekin (1st 1/2) and then it just gets flat and dull, except for the surging cable across the river. We took out near the Conoco as there aren't any eddys we thought we could catch above the bridge in Officers Gulch.

farmer · 05-23-2005

I looked at the same thing sunday evening in the daylight. It does look 4ish on the top half, then lots of three, then flat. I think it would be worth trying but I did see at least two river wide logs/trees. Looks like you would have time to grab an eddy but who knows. If someone is going up there let me know, I am game. I get off work around 4 everyday, it would take me 15 minutes to make it over there.