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Deckers chutes at 187?

3K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  Swank 
#1 ·
A group of us are wanting to go hit the river Saturday. Is 187 too low for the chutes? Eddyflower says it is "low".

Thanks
 
#2 ·
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.
 
#3 ·
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?
 
#4 ·
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.
 
#5 ·
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.
 
#7 ·
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.

Happy scraping.
 
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