Kayaking the Roaring Fork with Dennis and Barbara

Kayaking the Roaring Fork with Dennis and Barbara

After a wonderful peaceful evening at a campsite of our choosing above Sunlight outside of Glenwood Springs we headed up toward Carbondale to wait and hear from Dennis and Barbara.

They amazingly came down from where they were camped on the very road where we decided to sit and wait for them. Of course the nice views made the wait very easy.

We decided to kayak the Roaring Fork of the Colorado River. Now, of course, back down memory lane. We had done the Roaring Fork back in the late 70's in a large raft with some locals and had a wonderful time. (memory of course)
We finally found the place where you put in and got all our stuff set up and then they went to the takeout point. Glad someone from each boat made that part of the trip.

This was to be a Class I-II+ trip and so figured no problems. There are some real problems to be addressed right here. You need to have on the proper river running gear for this kind of river meaning II+ and cold water. We did not have the proper gear for cold water or the possibility of falling in the water.

The views were beautiful and the river was pretty much as they described it, Class I and II+. What it did not mention was it was pretty much constant, no stopping and floating and enjoying the pretty scenery. The river was running. Even worse, is the private property issue. So much of the riverfront is private property and YOU CANNOT GET OUT without the possibility of being arrested. Now of course if you have flipped your boat, you can land on one of those "middle of the river islands that is owned by someone who will yell at you to keep moving".

We discovered this when I just needed to stop and regroup; first place guy yelled at Dennis and the second, I'm not sure but I needed a restroom break and regroup stop.

The trip was beautiful but must say I like the float, rapid, float/paddle, float/paddle, rapid, type of ride. Funny thing about the end of this trip, Dennis had said "watch for red wall and the polar bear on lawn, this is end of ride." Of course Robert had been along for the leaving behind of one of the vehicles and knew about the wall but we never saw that polar bear.

All made it ashore. Dennis did talk to some people who had a person from one of those government agencies in Colorado(not sure which one) who said that yes we could have been arrested for stopping at that middle of the river islands. Do not like that. They should be very CLEAR about this when people ask for information at various agencies. Not everyone knows Colorado laws.

By the way, both our vehicles were at the takeout point because there was a woman who did shuttles at the takeout when they arrived and they all caught a ride back with her. It pays to find out who these people are.

After our float we camped where the shuttle driver said was a good place. Had a nice evening and the next day headed up the Colorado river off the Dotsera exit. Some of the river looks nice and some of it worries me. We stopped at a place that said they did river shuttles and the woman had a lot of information and her father's place she said would be a great place to take out on this portion of the river.

We continued upriver toward the area called the Pinball camp. The pinball section of the river made me a little nervous looking at it from the vehicle and Robert of course said we could portage it with our kayak trailer.

Nonetheless, we all had a good day exploring the area and its possibilities. That evening Robert fixed up a beautiful stir fry on our plow disc wok. One of the things we had been warned about camping in this area was the train that passed through.

They were not lying (if you were awake) 1:30 a.m., 3:30 a.m., 5:30 a.m. and maybe more.................

But it is a beautiful campsite