Well, I won't complain that there are folks that won't paddle the Platte. It translates to less time waiting in the eddy for me.
Seriously, though - as for health, I'll tell you straight up that I get a sinus cold for a couple days after the first few times I paddle Confluence. After the first few sessions, I seem to have built up an immunity to whatever that's about. This rarely happens on other rivers, and I wear noseclips and Proplugs, and rinse my ears with alcohol after every session. In the end, it's well worth it to me. Until I hear a substantiated claim of a serious illness, I'll be watching the gauge downtown. (I believe the diarhea stories, but I used to live in Cairo, so that doesn't faze me too much.)
As for Golden, that water is certainly more free of biological nasties, but it's far from clean. Remember all those tailing piles along I-70? That's a lot of heavy metals, arsenic, etc. leaching into Clear Creek. That's all bad for you, too. Maybe not as bad as Confluence, but my point is that Golden is not as clean as we'd like to imagine. Maybe someone who really knows something about this could weigh in. You out there Claire?
Regarding Golden's playspots, I can't say much. There's really only two decent ones, and the better of those was made by paddlers, not by the builders of the park. Look how much non-playable whitewater Golden has for the effort invested. Then consider Confluence - it was designed for slalom (I believe) not rodeo. The top hole was good for cartwheels and loops. The second from the bottom is a nice wide, fast and bouncy wave-hole good for spins, blunts and low-angle ends. The last hole is the best learning hole I've ever seen and is good for ends and blunts left and right. The skatepark wave is a great, fast surf and at higher levels gets stickier and easier to get on; you can even cartwheel on it over 1000. Finally, the Trestle Wave is a super-fun surf. It's tough to spin without washing, and even harder to stay on after a blunt, but that's not all bad. And it's the only wave I will actually front surf and call that a lot of fun. And - Confluence has the absolute best hole in the state every now and again when the Cherry Creek Hole forms. Too bad that one only seems to run about once year.
Ben, you might be throwing ends in 700 cfs earlier than some folks, but you're also doing it on eddylines. Most places have those most of the year. The play just isn't that hot in Shoshone. The one decent feature doesn't have good eddy access. I'd even wager you'd be a better playboater if you wuz one of us Eastsidaz.
My point here is that running water, while really nice, doesn't equal good play. Nor does dirty water, while kinda gross, exclude good play.
And when the @#$% are they gonna turn on the North Fork?
Steve
NOTE FOR OTHER DENVER-AREA FUNGUS-HEADS: The boards at the top of Confluence are gone and so is the top hole, forever, it would seem. Based on my estimates from the way the bottom hole changed when the water came up a few days ago, I'd say that the right side now has somewhere from 110 to 170 more cfs going through it than before. Though it doesn't look like that, that's my best guess based on how the bottom hole was washing out at around 425cfs, when it usually starts to wash over 560cfs. Although the top hole is no more, it looks like the other features will form with less water from now on, which is a good thing.
