Hey, Goddammit- This is a Colorado Boater's forum!! If you're from some other state, or God Forbid
Canada- Stay Off my Forum!!!
ok- so it's clear - I'm totally kidding, since sarcasm seems to get lost in posts around here.
I was talking to a climber friend about this, and she brought up some interesting correlations. When a climber or a group puts up a new sport route, the first bolt is usually marked with a red ribbon to signify that this is a "Project" - a visual reminder that asks other climbers to respect the author's intent to be the first to finish the climb, since they did all the work to get it ready for completion. Generally, the climbing community respects that intent and waits for the ribbon to come off.
Now, that's of course a little tougher in our (kayaker's) case, because who's to know if this creek or that drainage is a "Project"- other than on Forums such as this? I have a couple of spots in mind that I'm checking out, but I have no idea if other paddlers are looking at or have already starting cleaning that same stretch.
Further- what constitutes a project? If I spend a few hours on a topo map and see something that might go, is that now
my project? To what extent do I need to commit my time and resources to getting that stretch ready / clean for boating?
In my opinion, we (as a community) should be able to recognize that, given all the information that Todd et al have given us, this is a project that we should respect as such until it's completed. It's pretty obvious that they put a great deal of work into it, and they intend to post all descriptions, hazards, and directions as soon as it's finished. I can understand why they don't want to post all the details first; there's a very gratifying feeling to being the first person to complete a new run- much like being the first person to complete an ascent in Nepal, or the first team to explore a certain cave system in Mexico.
Folks, we're not the only community that's faced this issue- we're simply just a little undeveloped in terms of our methods of dealing with it.
Question: If the Treasure guys were to post all the details in a "Projects" section of Mountainbuzz, would everyone here respect their wishes to be allowed to complete it before going to explore it ourselves? Or would those beautiful pictures get the better of us, and would we drive down to get on the creek while it flows this year to get it while it's good? My hope would be they would get the opportunity to finish it without having to keep things a secret, but I suspect there might be one or two folks out there that would unfortunately say, "Screw that, I'm going anyway". That, my friends, could unfortuately lead to localism.
Localism (especially in the way that it's harmed the surfing community) has no place in kayaking- none. Imagine if the infamously aggressive Delores boating community "closed" the Stoner section to anyone outside the valley? (Again-sarcasm, folks)
For lack of a red ribbon at every put-in, I think we have to respect the fact that the hard work of some will benefit the community as a whole because eventually we will all be made aware of these paddling opportunities. This isn't localism - it's respect among folks who are passionate about their sport. Given Todd's write-up, it's clear that they intend to give the details in time- let's be patient and wait for them to finish this project- using their posts as a "virtual" red ribbon.
In this case, and I suspect in most cases going forward, the runs in question are going to be on the upper limits of navigability (gradient, flow, etc) and only attempted only by those who've been paddling a long time & know this community well. We're probably talking less than a hundred paddlers in the state (a guess) that can tackle runs of 400+ feet per mile, and those people I'm sure understand that the Treasure crowd deserves the chance to complete this run and the other feeder creek without a horde of other boaters trying to "send" it first. We wouldn't know about it had they not spent some serious time and energy pioneering it.
Besides- I suspect that many of the folks that are squawking to get the details of Treasure probably aren't paddlers that could handle the run anyway- curiosity is a powerful emotion. Most of the paddlers I've talked to that are capable of this type of run a) know where it is already, and b) know the paddlers that involved and respect them too much to try and trump their work for the sake of getting down that run first.
I'm going to test my own theory this week and post a potential "Project" that I've found while looking at topo maps- I'd to see if anyone's already completed a descent, scouted the run, or is looking at the same area by coincidence. I'm not claiming it's "mine" at all- I haven't been able to walk the creek I'm looking at yet- but I'll at least get the info out there to see if anyone else is seeing the same thing I have.
If so, or if someone wants to help put in the work to complete the run, you can PM me and let's plan a reconnaissance mission.
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