I seem to remember running it around that level, but maybe I'm delusional. It was shallow but everything went. The bottom of the first chute supposedly has barb wire or something nasty if you are swimming. Maybe it got removed? I didn't see or feel it but was warned by someone who knew the run a little better.
You can almost certainly run the Chutes and do some rolls in the pools after them [ beats a swimming pool ] but the rest will be calm shallow pools or scrapey, especially lower Eagle rock rapid = extremely bony II .
We used to dive off the thumb shaped rock ,aptly named ' The Thumb ', on the river left cliff just past the first chute. Someone was killed there once in like the late seventies.There was something about a cable in the river. I was never clear if the cable caused the accident or was put there to prevent jumping.The Jeffco. Sheriff used to be real aggressive in hassling cliff jumpers but seems to have calmed down in recent years. There are still signs about not stopping on the road ,climbing the rocks, or jumping [ no one seems to do it much anymore] but they don't hassle kayakers. This [ Glenn's post ] is the first mention of the cable or barbed wire I've heard of in decades. Any body know more about it,if it even exists anymore?
The barb wire I was warned of was supposed be in the funny water in the micro gorge at the end of the rapid, stuck in the sand and only applicable at low water. Don't know much more than that. Certainly could be bogus.
If you mean around the end of the 1st chute just before the pool that's about where it was supposed to be. If it it so dangerous and it's been there for 40+ years why don't they just get rid of it ? Like I said one person died decades ago, we've jumped that cliff hundreds of times and I've kayaked and duckyed it dozens of times and never even seen the thing in the water ,i think i know where it is attached to land.People do it all the time . I've never heard of anyone being hurt. One boater on here ,who shall remain nameless ,was telling me of a rookie misadventure involving the undercut cliff,luckily parallel to the current.
187 Deckers certainly goes, but is pretty scrapy. Waterton below 300 is equally scrapy as Deckers is at 187. I find that Class II boater's tolerance for scrapy is much higher than a Class III boater's scrapy tolerance. I seem to recall 350 or 375 being a reasonable minimum for Waterton.
One note on both Deckers and Waterton: they are dam controlled. Check the gage right before you leave to be sure that the dam masters haven't just turned off the fun spigot.
Ran it today along with waterton. we put in just above the chutes. No issues of any kind. Waterton has one log in it, on the left side maybe 4 rapids in. But you'll be able to see it and run the right or maybe go over it. Its all good, take the playboats!
Did you run the chutes today? We are thinking about going up there tomorrow but we are still wondering howe much of the river we could run if we did. If we did Waterton how far would we have to pack the boats out?
If you do Waterton, you can choose how far you want to hike out. Even if you run all of it the hike out is a mile mile and a half. Ran it 4 times last week and it's not bad at all.
We ran Deckers down to the confluence. Good time, great weather, and no swims. We didn`t run waterton but others were up there. I think you boat in from the confluence then hike out about 1 mile.
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