1/2" of rain at my place last night. That should provide a nice little bump today.

 

best comment was "bring your A game"

We ran a Green 13' Maravia Spider R5 sat & sunday.
It was the fastest, pushiest, surprising Browns Canyon I've seen since 4550ish 2010.
I swam Upper Widow Maker. Sucked out surprisingly fast...don't under estimate the 2 narrows of the canyon.

 

Cannot wait to run laps this weekend. WOOHOO

 

I was planning on running Browns this weekend in my 14' Oar raft, but I have a friend who is recommending we paddle boat. I feel very comfortable taking it down browns, although Ive never done it at this high of flow. Is there a reason why running the Oar rig would be a bad idea?

 

Paddle boat = weight + power + speed and likely successful navigation if skilled.
Solo Oar boat = lots of high siding.

Mass is your friend this week.

 

It aint over yet!

I just wanted to add a couple of comments since the last post. If your going down Browns with an oar rig bring some paddles and have your people use em. Your going to need all the help you can get that boat to move with this fast current. Also folks most of this high flow is from the unusual rains we have had all the month of May. There is a lot of snow still up high considering that the weather is supposed to break and give us a week of sunshine and 80 to 90 temps. We have not seen those temps yet this year so I predict the river will run high for a while and probably hit a all time high sometime next week. Be careful folks its not the friendly Ark right now!

Nothing like swimmin with half naked wimmin!

 

Where are you taking out? Sidels is harder for an an oar rig

Have you rub Browns set this level.

If not scout and be careful

 

People are totally underestimating the Ark right now. Anyone can end up being a swimmer and if you end up swimming it is s big cold water river right now. You better know a lot about self rescue, and you better dress for long cold swims.

Please leave kids and dogs at home.

 

The Ark definitely isn't family friendly, but its pretty dam incredible right now. If you have the skills you should get it while you can. Who knows when this will happen again...

 

We might see the record gang. 4830 right now and rising fast with the Twin Lakes and Clear Creek Res bumps. Brown's was awesome today at 4500! I bet it peaks tomorrow or Friday.

Why does everyone keep saying "there's still a lot of snow up there"? There is not. The stuff you can see is between 13,000 and 14,000 feet and accounts for a small amount of the actual snowpack and eventual river water. It also melts slowly up there and is "July water", not "peak water". The vast majority of snow just melted and the big water is now!

Be safe: scout bridges (no Stone Bridge OR Fisherman's Bridge tomorrow; Dress for a long swim; and bring your "A Game". Brown's Canyon is not the usual casual right now.

 

I think the Nathrop Gauge might be broken. It dropped over 1,000 since midnight, but no other gauges, including major tributaries are showing a dip. Be careful - it might not be under 4k like it says..

 

Agreed. No other gauges dropped. I wouldn't be surprised if it got knocked by wood. We saw a surge and a very large log jam/beaver dam making its way downstream yesterday...

 

PICTURES, PICTURES, PICTURES.
Show me the goods
We aint got shit for runoff up here this year.

 

Top of #4 last night:

 

Indeed, the gauge at Salida does not show a drop either, in fact it is indicating flow exceeds the Max value of the rating table. My eyes also confirm flows remain at or above where they were yesterday.


Detail Graph

 

Heres some pics of the upper hole on the Ark

This is the upper surf wave in Salida. Notice the trees and roots at the edge.

 

Nice pic Logan, you know what you are doing with a camera. Talented guy.

 

Wow, flow went from 4070 yesterday to only 1190 today?? I guess they turned off the faucet.

 

Broken guage. Reservoirs are full. There's no holding anything back right now.

 

thanks for the update on the broken gauge (apparently there was a thread buried here somewhere, sorry Logan, I didn't see it either). Was kinda bummed when I first saw the drastic drop, as I didn't have the chance to hit it the last couple weeks... but will finally get to it this Sunday!

 

Still going up up up!

Well the Ark went up a notch on the fun meter last night 5700 and still rising. I bet we see 6000 early next week or tomorrow. I believe that would be a new record flow. Does anyone know what the previous high was? I am hitting Salida East to Rincon tomorrow anyone know how it is getting under the Wellsville bridge at 6000 cfs? Be safe and have a blast out there folks!

 

Well the Ark went up a notch on the fun meter last night 5700 and still rising. I bet we see 6000 early next week or tomorrow. I believe that would be a new record flow. Does anyone know what the previous high was? I am hitting Salida East to Rincon tomorrow anyone know how it is getting under the Wellsville bridge at 6000 cfs? Be safe and have a blast out there folks!

I am almost positive we saw peak on the 18th. 4200 at Numbers and 6200 at Parkdale. Not the highest of all time, but the highest for that date. The hydrographs are starting to trend downward everywhere in the basin.

 

6380 has been the highest reading at Parkdale this year.

 

Fishemans Bridge

Thinking rafting Browns Canyon and putting in in BV.
Can rafts still fit under fishermans bridge?

 

Thinking rafting Browns Canyon and putting in in BV.
Can rafts still fit under fishermans bridge?

No. The portage is barbed wiry and might be a hard eddy to catch. Put in at Fisherman's or Ruby and know what you're doing. 5 grand is huge.

 

Here is some video of Brown's canyon yesterday. Officially they had it posted at 4970.

http://youtu.be/NNE-5Wxsc3Q (had bad language in songs FYI)

My buddy Sam was the lead boat at 58 sec that wanted to see if he could flip his 16' Aire Lion cataraft.

Upon review of my footage I'm really bummed I missed some of those waves. Gotta go back next week and hope it's still big. This was my first run with my rear mounted GoPro setup. Thoughts?

 

I like the rear-view. It's much better than on the helmet where the view keeps jerking around while the boater is looking around. Still, where ever it's mounted, it doesn't capture how huge those waves really are. We were in there today. So much fun!!!

 

That's for sure...In fact it's even bigger when you are IN the water Swam pinball and on our second run of the day and it was quite the experience.

 

Arkansas River Big Horn Sheep Canyon -Spike Buck @6000CFS

This photo was taken yesterday on the Ark at Spike Buck. Running 6000CFS at noon!

 

Another underdressed rafter. I bet those gloves would keep you warm if you swim...

 

We ran Browns this weekend. The water was very high. Sydels hole is HUGE right now. We tried to stay left and there was no where to go. we hit it in the center of the hole and instantly rolled. I got caught up in a rats nest of twine and had to cut my way out. Everyone was ok but it could have gone bad really quickly. STAY LEFT!!!! there are a ton of strainers and debris in the water. DO NOT ROW UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING

 

Interesting - the beta I heard on Sydels was stay far right....and you just said that you went left...or am I misunderstanding this?

 

I have always went left at high water....what kind of rigging do you have that you got tangled up in twine?!!