Day 1: After a 6 hour drive we pulled in to Bradfield Bridge camp site by Cohone, Colorado. The site was practically empty at 4pm on Thursday. The weather was in the low 60 and overcast with minor rain. We picked one of the best camp sites for the night in the woods with a shore access to launch our boats. The rest of the crew arrived late that night.
We built our boats and had teryaki chicken with rice for dinner with all kinds of beers :2thumbs: Went to bed around 11ish.
Day 2: Had to run the shuttle to Slick Rock (took around 90 mins round trip). The weather was awesome, in the low 70s, sunny. Messed around the camp site and packed the boats. The campground and the ramp was a mob! Lucky for us, we had shore access and our private launch site. Our group consisted of 10 people and 5 boats.
We launched around noon, went to mile 17 or so, hit some minor rapids, but mostly flat water. It was fairly windy and cold at times.
We pulled in to an empty site, setup kitchen, groover and tents. The spirits were high for the day ahead (The Big Snagletooth!). We cooked salmon burgers with potato salad for the night...yummy!
Day 3: Everyone launched at 9ish with full excitement for what's to come. Two hours later and a couple of run ins with the sleepers (rocks under water, but harmful to boats) we made it to the big one. Everyone pulled over to the left bank and went to scout the Snagletooth. The river rose up to around 2200 cfs over night and the rapid was raging! There were a bunch of other people at the rapid scouting, talking, proclaiming the runs to take.
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Finally, everyone got quite in the anticipation of the first boat to come. The guy ran the line perfectly and eased everyone's worry. Soon after a couple of more boats followed with only a single incident (Driver was thrown out and his boat with his wife got surfed behind Snagltooth).
I came to this river about 12 years ago, for the first time rafting in my life. I remember horrible incident we had on Snagltooth, so I had an old score to settle with the rapid. My heart was pounding :eek2: and I put on the wet suit so my underwear wouldn't get wet from me wetting myself :lol8: . I rewatched the line about 10 times from the rock on the shore and finally got enough nerve to get into the boat and push off.
As I was coming up to the rapid and the point of no return, the Snagletooth raved and laughed at me. I knew I was in it for good. Finally, I see the marker rock, I am coming in good, I see the second marker rock, still good, then I see the roost of the wave and I know I am not making the path I picked and I am hitting the hole! I braced for the punch and pushed forward. My passenger drops down from my view, I see a big wave come up and then I see my passenger rise in front of me again. I am still going STRAIGHT!
The wave hasn't pushed me hard enough and I pulled with my left oar to keep my nose down.... just as I realize my oar is out of the oar lock. Doh! I pop the oar back in just as I am nearing the Snagletooth rock! I pull on the left oar again, just in time to swing left of the Snagle and drop into another hole. The rock behind Snagletooth bumps me, I turn around, but now I am yelling with joy of still being alive. :rockon:
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After we pulled over, we watched about 10 more boats go down. One of our guys had a little problem with Snagletooth and surfing the Snagletooth hole, but nothing he couldn't handle. Life was good!
After eating a short lunch, we pushed off past the Wall (a tricky spot to maneuver) and headed down towards Three Mile Rapid. This rapid doesn't have big waves, but it's quite technical due to huge boulders in the middle of the river and sharp turns. Of course I took the wrong turn a couple of times and had to bounce off rocks to keep going.
That night we pulled in to camp around mile 37, great looking spot. Had some yummy beer brats and beans for dinner, lots of beers and camp fire stories. Life was good... again! :haha: We stayed up until about midnight, telling rafting stories, getting to know each other and having a great time.
Day 4: My passengers and I got up early that morning, we were on the mission to get home now. Our trip was coming to the end, but the rest of our group were going down to Bedrock take out. We hailed our good byes to our new river friends and pushed off at 7:30am. By 9am we pulled in to Slick Rock take out and 6 hours later we were back home.
I don't know what it is about the river, but as soon as I get home, I want to be right back on the water. Thank the river gods, it's only a matter of a week and a half before I will be launching once again :rockon:
Sorry for the long confession there :five:
