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Stories from the last time (95) we had this much snow

5K views 27 replies 19 participants last post by  ptwood 
#1 ·
Who else was paddling in the epic season of 95 and is stoked for the epic season of 2019? Pretty sure the greatest day of paddling I have ever had was running the Royal Gorge at about 7000 in the morning then heading up and running Pine Creek at some ungodly level.

I just got a new to me Stubby so I'm ready for some throw back big water!
 
#7 ·
Cataract Canyon @ >70K. It has hit that level several times since, but that is an epic level. Not quite the summer in the early 80's where it ran over 100K, but still huge nonetheless. We may see record high flows on the Upper Ark this year, esp in the Gorge as the Sangres are still choked with an unusual amount of snow.
 
#8 ·
3d3,
Do you have a story about '95 or not? The thread isn't "lets start a pissing match about what rivers may or may not have been higher in 2011 than 95". You can start that thread if you want. The Ark was absolutely massive in '95.



I started rafting with a buddy's family in 94. The pic of two 14 y/o kids rowing an old Miwok in zoom flume is still one of my favorites. Oars were bigger than our arms. I still wonder what my buddys dad was thinking, but we did great. Then in 95 we ran browns again. I was young and dumb and didn't realize how much wore water there was or know what it meant. I about shit myself when we dropped into zoom flume at huge water and I got bucked what seemed like 10 feet in the air out the back of the boat. The little pics on the light board at the shop in Nathrop told a different tale through the eyeglass magnifier. If I wasn't hooked by then, I was after. That may have been the last time I portaged a raft around stone bridge. Good memories of those first years of rafting for sure. Looking forward to getting out on some good juice.

Good thread PT. Looking forward to some stories from guys getting after it a little harder than I did that year.
 
#9 ·
95 on the ark was awesome.

PT you might have been in the group running Pine Creek that we watched, forget who all was there but it was a crew from Rocky Mountain ?? river company in JV.

We were sitting on the top rock river right which was getting slammed by boulders rolling down the river, that huge rock was just vibrating.

Having Big Drop, Siedel's and Sunshine all change forever was pretty amazing.

I sure do miss the old Big Drop.

Coming through Canyon Door and Pinball to find entire trips ahead of us flipped or tied up and hiking out because entire 10 boat commercial trips were upside down in the first rapid, was pretty sobering.

Would love to see Browns above 6000 again but I would be super stoked to see 4700 for a month or more.
 
#13 ·
The way it’s going weatherwise, i thinks the 2019 snowpack will come down in the of the summer of 2020.

‘95 was the year I bought an ancient even then perception dancer for a couple hundred bucks and gave kayaking a try. There was a flood watch on the St. Vrain but I would not be deterred to try out this new to me boat. I sucked with weak sauce skills and I was upside down within 200 yards of launching. I swam for quite a ways with my swamped dancer and folks were pulling over yelling if I needed help because I looked so utterly shitshow. “No! Thanks though!” as I dragged myself up on the bank, eventually.

Fucking kayaking.

Fucking idiot.
 
#18 ·
I ran Shoshone in '95 at peak flow in a big 18' Aire Cougar. I can't say 100% but my memory is that it was 12k. Commercials stop running this section at 6k. Went vertical at one point but no flips. Second scariest whitewater run of my life. Did it again a week later and chased a buddy two miles before I could get him in the boat
 
#19 ·
I started to paddle in '95.

I remember Boulder Creek hitting 1200 and waiting for sub 400, and then putting in at the library, because the play park was too pushy.

My main memory was how late the season ran, as I wasn't good enough to have taken advantage of the high flows. I didn't even know at the time how special it was, and that fall boating wasn't a given part of the season...

I remember running Black Rock on Clear creek at 350 cfs in early if not mid September.

Bring it on!
 
#23 ·
1995 was a good one!

It was my second full season in Colorado. 1994 was a relatively low year, if I recall (lots of Gore Canyon and low water Pine Cr/Numbers trips). So, 1995 really opened my eyes to the fun of continuous big water Colorado paddling. After a great winter, a bunch of us headed out West to WA/OR/CA at the end of ski season to run some old and new classics (RIP Henry Filip, Paul Zirkelbach, and Dave Eckhardt). I got in my first (and only) run on the Little White out there, and got on the Wind, Cal Salmon, Deer Cr, Generation and Giant Gap, and more. But, when we returned to CO in mid-may expecting the rivers to be prime levels, we were shocked to see the rivers low and the snowpack still building (much like this year). When it finally stopped snowing and raining and warmed up, it was "game on". Pine Creek and Numbers at 4'+ on the old Scott's Br gauge. 6000+ cfs in Browns. Many after work runs on Dowd Chute at 8'. My first surf session on Big Sur followed by first runs on Escalante. First time in the Royal Gorge (4200 cfs). At the Parkdale put-in/takeout, the ranger tried to persuade us not to put on and asked us (Mongo and I) our names "so that he could identify the bodies". Paddled the "fish ladders" on Black Gore Cr along I-70. I think later in that season, I got my first Big South run in with Charlie Ebel, Pete Foster, and Dave (I can't remember his last name. But he was on the first descents of the BS). Such a fun season! ...1996 was pretty good too (Crystal Gorge, OBJ,...)
 
#25 ·
Had my first epic swim in entrance exam in Slaughter very big that year. Long gnarly, thread the strainer, type swim. Shouldn't have been there as a 2nd year boater.
Then decided not really ready for Slaughter and tried Jaffy down to Toothache section. Me and my buddy Doug both found ourselves swimming at the same time (it was only the 2 of us). Long swim. Doug never got his boat back. My paddle turned up on an island a couple weeks later.
Surprised I stuck with it after those two swims!
 
#27 ·
Started boating that year...great year for a beginner...got on the Dolores -Slickrock to Bedrock and the stretch from Snaggletooth to where the road gets too rough , in rented ducky not high but great flows...bought ducky did mostly So Platte stuff have paper pics of the friggin' Chutes at the highest i have ever seen or run it when it is 3+ and the camera angle makes it look like a sweet rapid,barefoot for some reason..we had a swimmer in Eagle Rock rapid one long 3 at that level (2000+?)..Union ran a hell of a lot more often ,and higher,back then.bottom hole before they changed it super trashy bucking bronco hole...Waterton ran high into Sept.(oct?) First time down ,I decided to scout Green Bridge and slipped getting out of boat and swam it at 1500+...seems like there were some other big years around then..we got talked out of duckying Westwater at 35,000 (97/98 ?)..ran the normally mellow Moab Daily at almost 40 k,another easy run that gets plenty exciting at those levels...should be a nice long season
 
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