The story of Joe as told by David Brumbelow
Joe had only arrived the night before. But having slept on the plane a little on the way in, he wasn't that tired when he was awoken by David typing on his computer. Joe was looking forward to his first day of paddling in Colorado. Having heard about the different paddling days that David, Todd and Renee have been having, Joe was having second thoughts about using a WaveSport Fuse64. Joe figured that when Todd went into Confluence Kayaks that he could also get a larger boat.
Joe, with David driving, headed over to Ryan's to pick up Todd and Renee. When they arrived they found out that Renee was going to take the day off from paddling to get over her cold. Even though she wanted to sleep all day, she decided she wanted to help out the boys and be a shuttle bunny. She said she would sleep in the car at the takeout. Joe, Todd and David had decided to run the Dumont section of the Clear Creek. Renee had called Jon earlier and he had decided not to join the guys on the creek.
They all headed out for Confluence Kayaks to exchange both Todd's and Joe's boat for creek boats. Unfortunately, Confluence Kayaks had most of their boats out for a community program to help local delinquents learn to be productive and paddle instead of graffiti. When it was all said and done, Todd decided to paddle Renee's SuperHero, Joe traded in David's SuperStar for a Wavesport Diesel and David decided to paddle Joe's Fuse.
So they all headed out west to the put in for the Dumont section of the Clear Creek. Along the way the boys decided to also paddle a section that Renee and Kate had paddled the year before in addition to the Dumont section. Joe mentioned along the way to the put-in that he had brought his HD water proof video camera. Renee (with a little coaxing from Joe) decided she was feeling well enough to take video of the boys at different sections.
So Todd, Joe and David got dressed and gear up and lunched into the creek. At this point the creek was no wider than 20 feet. It started off with a bang; the rapids seemed to be continuous. Joe felt the creek reminded him of the Savage. Class 2-3 read and react continuous. They took turns leading through the curving stream. At one point Joe and David noticed Renee kneeling on the bank taking video as they passed by. Todd happened to be leading at this point and was concentration so hard on the creek that he didn't even notice her. Shortly after this, they came to a point when it seemed reasonable to get out and scout.
Joe climbed the 15 foot creek bank of rocks and when he got to the top, asked Todd and David to hold on second. Joe was feeling very dizzy. He decided to sit down for a second while he got some air. Now Joe was realizing what David had meant when he said it took a while to get used to the higher elevation.
They scouted the rapid and found a line through it. So they ran this rapid and many many more, occasionally seeing Renee on the side of the shore, but mostly it was just the three of them.
Then there came a point when they saw Renee downstream motioning for the boys to pull over on the left side of the creek. So Joe, Todd and David pulled over under a bridge. They got out and scouted the most significant rapid on the section of the creek. The line seemed clear, so they got back in and Renee set up to take video in a spot labeled Photos. Todd went first followed closely behind Joe. After the first slope, Joe found he was going way faster than expected. He ended up hitting the big hole at the bottom of the second slope and got flipped. He quickly rolled up and ran the rest of the rapid. It was exhilarating.
Later Joe looked back at David who was sweeping and saw that he was upside down. David appeared to be having a lot of difficulty getting his boat upright. Finally David managed to get it up. Joe asked David if he was alright. David started cursing Happy Feet. Apparently David hates Happy Feet. He told Joe that the footbag had deflated or moved and he had no foot purchase and his legs had fallen out of his thigh braces. David reinflated the Happy Feet and seemed to be alright now. So they continued downstream.
At one point they asked a raft guide when Kermit was coming up. Joe did not want to go past Kermit into the section of the Clear Creek called Black Rock. This section was mostly class 5's with one called Rigor Mortis. The guides said that they would see a big sign for Kermit’s Bar and Grill and that they had 5 more rapids to go before that. The guide also told Joe to run the next two drops that were fun and easy to take out after.
So the boys headed on down the creek. They laughed about the rapids that the guide had described. These rapids weren't even worth noting in Joe's book. Not compared to the rapids they had already run today.
Turns out Renee was waiting for them at the take out. Joe wanted to run at least the first drop. Todd was not interested in the second drop. David didn't care and said he'd do whatever. Todd caught an eddy on river left to get out and scout. Joe and David caught an eddy on river right, just above the drop. Joe could not see what the correct line was, but the guide had described what to do. Joe asked David if he wanted to get out and scout. David said no, he pulled out of the eddy and laughed, "You only live once" and vanished over the edge. Joe heard him cheering seconds later. So Joe pulled out and ran it himself. After Todd got back in his boat, he also ran the drop. It was definitely worth doing.
So they got out. Changed into clean clothing and loaded the minivan. Instead of driving back to Denver, they drove along the creek and looked at the rapids of the later sections. Todd pulled the van over later to look at one of the class 5+ sections of the Black Rock section. Joe and David could not see ways through certain sections of the rapid. The entire rapid was almost a half mile long and nightmarish. Joe never wanted to run a section like this, David agreed.
They just made it back in time to exchange Todd's 4Fun for a Remix which had been out earlier in the day. They all went back to Ryan's. David found a hotel for cheap down the street from Ryan's apartment for Joe and him. Todd went out for dinner with his sister. Joe, David, Renee, Ryan, and Check (Ryan's friend) went out for Mexican. Then they went back to Ryan's for a couple of round of Flux. Afterward, Joe and David walked down the street to the Hotel.
Overall, it had been a great first day for Joe in Colorado.
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