RMA Poudre Rock Report

The good ol’ days: tales of ’83

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While many are speculating on what is likely to be the biggest whitewater season any of us has ever seen on the Poudre, once thing’s become clear. 2011 is likely to be one for the record books. In the spirit of the upcoming high water season, check out this article by Poudre River kayaking veteran John Moran as he reflects on paddling the Poudre at peak flows back in 1983. This was passed on to me by Marty Bell a few minutes ago and we thought you’d enjoy reading it too!

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I was asked by Marty to see if I could dig back 28 years in to the depths of my memory to remember what the Poudre was like in that record year, 1983.
It was my 4th season on the Poudre. I just had just got done with a big water run of the Grand and got back to Colorado and it was raging. A run down Shoshone, by Glenwood, on the way home was like running Hermit. However it was still May and the best was yet to come: the highest recorded flows on the Poudre 6/21/1983 5970 cfs.

What that translated to was some of the greatest high water romps on the Poudre I have ever had. The Rustic Runs actually had eddies, while you couldn’t even run the Bridges because the Gray Rock bridge was under water. (They have since raised the bridge, it still may be tight at peak flows this year)

Below 3 way (Split rock) The high water mark was up to the middle of the lane. On the straight below you could look the passengers in car driving by right in the eye as you were bobbing along.

Upper Mish was stomping with nary an eddy and all the rocks in the entrance to Mish Falls were covered some of which where large nasty holes, followed by some river wide ledge wave holes.

We ran sections of Spencer Heights but we didn’t do the whole thing most of us put in at the picnic area where the Laramie River Tunnel comes in. A friend of mine put in a couple of drops above that and had the ride of his life.

I, being the wimp that I am, put in at the picnic area and immediately got stuck in a hole but managed to work my way out. Yes that’s a glass boat, designed by a guy in Boulder that use to have a kayak store. It incorporated the worst parts of several different designs all into one boat. The net result was I had no choice but to get better or give up boating. It was very hard to roll, liked to fall over backwards, couldn’t pass a hole without getting stuck, and was much happier upside down than right side up. He named it the Porpoise a friend of mine named it the Platypus, a much more accurate moniker.

There were even a few brave souls who ran the Lower Narrows. I remember looking at it and thinking “Ya there’s the line”! Then I saw a full size Ponderosa Pine go through and just disappear only to come rocketing out of the river about 30 yards downstream. I took a pass on the Narrows that day.

The South Fork was a series of micro eddies in the willows where the 1st person in to the eddy would grab hold and we’d stack up on them then someone would get out scout down and come back with a report something like this. “Well it’s clear for the next 30 yards then you have to move right to get around a tree then look for the next eddy.” That person had to climb back out over all the boats stacked up and got to go find the next eddy.

Even the Filter Plant was stomp’n. There were great big surfing waves and a couple of holes you could play in.

However the main thing I remember about 1983 was that the fun rock was covered for about 3 weeks, the boating seem to last until September and I had a great summer. So if this season measures up to even close to ’83 it will be an outstanding season for boating. Have fun, it may not come around for another 28 years.

Coming down the pipe

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After a remarkable snow year, it’s seems that we could witness a runoff for the ages in the Poudre Canyon this spring… here in your front yard… compare the snowpack water content at Joe Wright (live data), near Cameron Pass for this year to the best of the rest on record (1983).

Add to what we already have up there right now… the weather pattern is predicted to stay pretty wet, at least in to May. See it for yourself (go halfway down the page to the “GFS” and click “All” at the end of the row below… use the +/- keys to animate after the page loads).

Did you think last year big? This year should be Stellar! Talk to folk who were here in ’83. You will understand.

-Marty

Oh yeah… at some pre-season training at the Rio… a Longdraw plow driver was heard to report that, sure, “it is deeper than ever, but it is remarkably dense”.

… clear your calendar… SYOTR

Mountain Kayak Polo – Fall 2010

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Fall kayak polo season starts this coming Thursday, 10/21, and I’m looking forward seeing you all and having a great winter of polo this year!

Please check out the news section of the MKP website for all of the gory details, including dates, times, and payment info. Be sure to check out our new Paypal payment option and our fall season Paypal sale, going on through Thursday. Pay early and save some $$$!

http://mkp.kayakpolo.com/news.php

If you haven’t signed up yet and plan to play, drop me an email asap so that we know how many people to expect. If we get more people signed up, we can extend our pool time accordingly. If you’ve already signed up, your name should be listed on the following web page under “fall season registered” (let me know if it isn’t!):

http://mkp.kayakpolo.com/entries.php

New Players:

We will have a rules and reffing class before games on 10/21 at 7:30 pm in the upstairs area of the EPIC lobby.

For general information on the club and nightly duties, see: http://mkp.kayakpolo.com/main.php

For information on rules and referee signals, see: http://mkp.kayakpolo.com/about.php

For any questions that aren’t answered here or on the website, drop me a line any time.

Thanks!
Heather
heather@kayakpolo.com

Laporte Play Park Update

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Major stopper – for now …

What’s happened?

Although Larimer County representatives have expressed enthusiasm for the idea of building a kayak park, they do not see a way forward at this time – they have put the proposal in the “too hard” basket.

The main reasons given are – the County is broke (staff time and money), the Colorado Division of Wildlife has not supported the idea, one adjacent landowner is not enthusiastic, there is concern about the possible impact of the proposed Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP; including Glade Reservoir), and they seem to believe that getting FEMA approval would be very expensive (they estimate $150,000).

I don’t believe any of these issues need to be stoppers. With a “can do” mindset, we could generate solutions to each of them that would be acceptable to all parties involved.

Here is more information:

    1. The Colorado Division of Wildlife (a majority landowner of Lions Park) does not support the proposal to build a whitewater park and enhance the fish habitat. They are proffering the opinion that:
      • To build or support kayakable whitewater features would be inconsistent with their mission to support the fishing folks and hunters (whose license fees fund the CDOW). They assert: “more kayakers = fewer fishermen and women and reduced quality of fishing experience.” I don’t believe that everyone at the CDOW holds this view, but enough do at the moment to oppose out proposal.
      • In this particular instance, where they actually own the land, (which was purchased in support of their mission with money earmarked for that) it seems particularly inappropriate.
      • They have not yet embraced the reality that kayakers and fishing folks really want very similar things in terms of river flows and should be combining forces to protect rivers for kayaking AND fishing – i.e., what is good for kayakers is good for fish.
      • If it was to be built on land that DID NOT belong to the CDOW, they would still:
    2. Need to see a design that was genuinely fish friendly (we should all care about this)
    3. Be concerned about who was responsible to maintain it in the long term.

The CDOW fish biologist with whom I spoke acknowledges that this section of the Poudre River (at Lions Park) is degraded from a fish habitat perspective and could benefit from some improvements. Colorado State University professor, Boris Kondratieff, said that the best thing that could be done for the invertebrates and fish would be to move away from the “toilet flush hydrologic regime” back to a more natural regime with more persistent flows and proper peaks… i.e. stop turning the river on and off, especially in the fall. More consistently connected pools would be good for both fish food species and fish.

I have been told that the CDOW would like the County to purchase this land from them, but of course the County does not currently have the resources to try to make that happen (either staff time or funds). We might be able to help them with this.

    1. The Colorado Division of Wildlife does not own all of the land comprising Lions Park, the area downstream from the middle of the parking lot to the bridge is owned by two private landowners (both of whom have written letters of support for a whitewater play park) and the City of Fort Collins. The Larimer County Open Space Program leases the land from the CDOW (for a nominal fee) and manages it as a trailhead for Pleasant Valley Trail and the Poudre River Trail, which connect at the Park. I’ve heard that this lease is due for review in 2016, and so is the current management plan.
    2. Although the Larimer County Open Space Advisory Board did, somewhat halfheartedly, agree to review their management plan for the park earlier than scheduled to consider adding kayaking to the plan, I understand they are now backing away from this commitment.
    3. Greely is constructing a pipeline with which they intend to divert a large volume of water (through a pipe paralleling the river) from the Canyon mouth to Greeley. They have not completed construction of this pipe and, I understand, have not yet received permission from the Army Corps of Engineers to connect the pipeline to the river at their treatment plant at the Canyon mouth. They should not be allowed to do this. They should be required to minimize their impact on the river by extracting their deeded water at Greeley and treating it there, thereby allowing this significant volume of water to do all sorts of good things (like lubricate a kayak park) on its natural course to Greeley.
    4. NISP keeps rearing its ugly head as an obstacle to a kayak park, in Fort Collins, and now in LaPorte. There are considerable differences in opinions about the projected impacts of NISP, should it be approved and constructed.

Some people are of the opinion that peak flows would be considerably diminished (to the detriment of the river) and that the June rise would be shortened by up to 6 weeks by extraction of uncommitted ‘free’ flows. Even with this scenario, I believe we could design and build a whitewater park that was worth the effort. A more optimistic view is that the reduction in peak flows would be less ‘noticeable’ and that the duration of the June rise would not be reduced, and that a deal might be struck for higher base flows for the remainder of the year. A representative of NISP even suggested that they might be able to “help us build a kayak park” by channeling some of their “mitigation efforts” to that stretch of river. Go figure.

What can we do?

    1. Try not to get too disheartened.
    2. Form a recognizable group whose mission is to get whitewater play features on the Poudre River. At almost every meeting with public agencies, I am asked if there is a group spearheading this action – I try to explain that, with the exception of the Poudre Paddlers and the Colorado WhiteWater Association, kayakers are relatively solitary folks who paddle with a few friends at a time. I think this weakens our case. I think it would be of value to form a group dedicated to whitewater recreation on the Poudre River (its voice might be strengthened if it had members who were not only kayakers, but also canoeists, fishermen and women, etc. It might be called something like Poudre River Players – ideas welcome!!) And I will be out of the country for a block of time, so I will be out of action for a while.
    3. Figure out a way to help the CDOW transfer the Lions Park land ownership to Larimer County if both parties are willing.
    4. Use modeling to present a credible flow regime if NISP is constructed and the Greeley pipeline becomes a functioning reality.
    5. I think it would be of great value if we could formulate a design. It is very easy for people to reject an idea when we are talking in generalities. The County representative I spoke with was concerned that something designed for the current flow regime might not work in the presence of NISP – I was trying to explain that features designed for the current range of 0-4000 cfs or so would likely be optimized for lowish flows anyway. If we could get suitably skilled volunteers to survey the site, model the flows and generate an approximate design, this would help us all negotiate on the same page.

Sorry I don’t have better news.

Mandy
970-224-4549