Big South, it's up North

The Big South, this creek is just good plane fun.

Gordon Klco about to slide into Weird Creek

The plan was for Casey Tango, Gordon Klco and myself to leave Buena Vista go to Denver pick up the rest of the posse and head to Fort Collins for the evening. We got to Denver and where immediately over taken by Hunter Pettit and Paul Siratovich, there idea was to hang out in the BIG city and having some beers. The next thing I knew I was waking up on the coach and we were pilling back in the van to head to the Big South. I always forget how long of a drive it is but it was kind of nice to let the hang over slowly fade as we made it further and further up the Poudre canyon. As we finally arrive at the take out we were greeted by  Taylor Brandt. We rearrange boats piled 6 deep into a toyota pickup and head to the put in. The damn was releasing a full 200 cfs and Weird Creek was a little intense with a solid flow and a good hangover. The constant splashes to the face quickly did there job and I was feeling good. The run starts off with a hand full of great boofs and some tight lines, as I watched the paddlers come through I new we had a solid crew and were going to have some great lines.

The group had a quick pace as we arrived to Cool World there was no hesitation every one had quick scouts and beautiful lines.



 Casey Tango stylin a Cool world line




 another good boof in Cool World



Gordon getting a nice boof

We continued to blast through the rapids and get to Peterson Lake in the middle of the run, my shoulder started to feel sore and my butt went totally to sleep as I paddled through the flats. As we arrived to the top of Prime Time Gorge  Taylor announced that his boat was leaking like a sieve. We spent a couple minutes getting out the bitchathane and patching up the crack. I ate some food, and got the blood supply back to my butt.

After the great calm it is kind of hard to get back in the class 5 mind set but after the first couple boofs of Prime Time I was right back on my game. Next up the always looming Double Trouble, this thing is just threatening. Some walked but the majority of us fired it up and with a bunch of clean lines.

A couple clean lines at Double Trouble

We cruised on down to Slideways where two front-range jackson kayakers had been left by there boats a quick chuckle and we were off. We finished off the run with a short walk back to the parking lot.

It was 7pm we had ran 12 miles of great white water in 4 hours what a great pace, and what a great place to spend an afternoon.



A random Moose sighting on the way out of Rockie Mountain National Park






Chris Baer signing off from the Big South