Bailey Wood

danger · 05-21-2009

there's a very large riverwide tree in the flatwater just before the dream house. plenty of time and space to eddy out left and portage.
second tree of note is also nearly riverwide and found just after trashcan. this is in fast moving current and just under water. our consensus was run either far left or far right. this one could move as the level changes.
stay heads up as spring runoff changes things daily.

dan

funkins · 05-21-2009

Thanks Dan,

I meant to post that earlier, didn't get home till midnight last night. Good boatin' with you.

deepsouthpaddler · 05-21-2009

Thanks for the heads up!

deepstroke · 05-22-2009

The tree near the dreamhouse, I believe downstream, broke off some on river right and is easily passable. The one after trashcan is harder to see now with the higher flows, but, now offers up a sweet 3-4 foot boof on the left. Things can still be shifting, so, be heads up.

Phillips · 05-23-2009

I think that the wood in question is well below deer creek above the boogie before mystery eddie/grand finale

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepstroke

The tree near the dreamhouse, I believe downstream, broke off some on river right and is easily passable. The one after trashcan is harder to see now with the higher flows, but, now offers up a sweet 3-4 foot boof on the left. Things can still be shifting, so, be heads up.

El Flaco · 05-23-2009

Saturday 5/23 Report:

First thing: There's a lot more water than what the gauge says right now (580) - felt a lot closer to 700. Looking that the waterton gauge @840, and the chutes gauge at 98, that made sense based on what we saw today.

CAUTION: There's definitely a lot of wood moving around. The main stretch of rapids are relatively clean, but that could change at these flows. There are three hazards just below Deer Creek -

one riverwide tree about a 1/4 down from DC- close to the squirrely slot that has the undercut rock on the right. Can be boofed at this level (600+) and it is a little difficult to see before you're on it. May be exposed and a portage at levels below 500.
a giant riverwide wood beam just above the grand finale rapid- it's a clean boof on the right at these flows but may also be a portage as the levels drop. This will be a bitch to cut out because it's about 3' thick and is probably treated lumber, because it's a milled beam.
One of the last slots before you leave the canyon, usually a V-wave, has a log in it - hard to see until you're on it. There's a boof on the far left (on the log), but again, lower water is going to make this more sketchy.

There could easily be more wood collecting in the canyon itself. We should have probably scouted Steeps 1 & 2, based on what we saw below Deer Creek.

Heads up, folks. It's SAUCY in there at these flows....

deepstroke · 05-23-2009

Someone else thought the level seemed higher than the guage reading, and I think that's cause everyone is used to the Colorado DWR guage of the North Fork of the South Platte River at Grant. Eddyflower uses a guage upstream at Bailey which will have less water, so, if your used to the old guage, you might want to check it. And yeah, it's saucy. The ferry from river right at the top of Tampax can be a bitch. It's a good idea for someone to set safety by ferrying across the bottom pool and climbing up to the right side of the big rock because that's where some of us hapless boaters end up when we slack off. A nice seal launch can be had at the top of the big rock, though.

El Flaco · 05-24-2009

Also- not sure if this has been mentioned before, but the gauge at Pine is now discontinued from what the DWR site says. Too bad; that was the one you could trust.

yourrealdad · 05-24-2009

Tree is downstream of dream house very passable on right. Beam is above the finale and was not an issue at todays flows ~700cfs. At lower water it is going to cause some problems.

BKC · 05-31-2009

Just got off Bailey. Tree near Dream house is clear to run on the right, between 2 rocks. Agree with El Flaco ... saw a good amount of wood near the banks that could shift, mostly below Supermax and Deer Creek. Steeps were clean and fun.

This spot El Flaco mentioned is exposed at the level today (guessing around 300-350 with the 2 tribs coming in) ... water going over on the left and under it on the right. At this level you can see the branches sticking up. We gave a quick rope effort to remove, but seems to need more. Still in there and a must portage. About 500 yds. down from there is another river wide log that was a portage at today's level. Burly log. This might be a new one since last week. You can easily portage both of them together.

"one riverwide tree about a 1/4 down from DC- close to the squirrely slot that has the undercut rock on the right. Can be boofed at this level (600+) and it is a little difficult to see before you're on it. May be exposed and a portage at levels below 500."

The treated lumber at the mystery eddie/grand finale is blocking the right channel, catching the eddy river left is IN and water was going over the left side of the log and under the right side.

Good times today ... be heads up in there.