The past three weeks have
absolutely flown by! I’ll give you
a rundown week by week…
The first week I was here we
had one goal: get Elise (the other one) certified to guide in the Royal
Gorge (class 4-5 rapids). However, the water did not
want to cooperate with that goal. By that I mean the water was around 280 CFS (aka: super
stinkin’ low!) making it nearly impossible for us to get down in the gorge
during the first part of the week.
But we made the most of it and got Amy and Ryan going on guide
training. Since they were just
learning the basics of guiding myself and the other returning guides navigated
the more technical rapids. Two
things: 1) Guiding a raft is a lot like riding a bike, it comes back quickly.
2) I never want to raft the Arkansas at 280 CFS ever again! Its just not fun. Later in the week the water started to
go up and we were able to finally get in the Gorge so Elise could get in some
training. By weeks end Elise was
qualified to take people down the Royal Gorge and the boathouse was beginning
to look more put together and ready for the season.
On May 19th, Cori
and Ben finally arrived which allowed us to finally start doing some “whole
staff” types of things. For
example, team building/low ropes initiatives and rock climb training. That second week involved those things
and more training for Ryan, Ben, and Amy.
They actually caught on to guiding really quickly! The rest of May was fairly
uneventful. A few things we did do
included a visit to Westcliffe and swiftwater rescue training. Thankfully it was not as cold as it was
last year so I did not experience hypothermia while doing swiftwater
training.
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| Journey Quest guides (Ryan, Ben, Elise, Elise, Amy, Cori, Josh) |
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| Elise climbing up a crack |
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| Concert in the park at Westcliffe |
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| Elise and Cori in the boat |
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| Throw bag practice during Swiftwater Rescue Training |
June 4th-6th
was our first multi-day trip. A
group from Albuquerque, NM came up to do some teambuilding and a full day on
the river. They were pretty
cool! I really enjoyed hanging out
with the group, however, the weather decided to be cold, windy and cloudy the
day we were on the river. But the
group made the most of it and we still had a great time! It’s hard not to have a good time on
the river this year because the water is so high! Seriously, last year we were happy to have a day over 400CFS
and this year we’ve been running at or above 1500CFS most days! If you don’t know… CFS stands for Cubic
Feet per Second. In other words, a
kitchen sink holds about 1 cubic foot.
If the river is running at 1000CFS that means that 1000 kitchen sinks
are running past any given point in the river ever second. If you want to track the CFS in our
area feel free to check out this website http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?site_no=07094500.
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| Our first multi-day group doing a team building activity |
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| More team building. ...really! |
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| Me hitting a hole in Spikebuck rapid |
On June 7th we
went up river to Brown’s Canyon which is in between Buena Vista and
Salida. Most of us had not guided
up there before and we were planning to raft that section with a group who is
coming next week. This was
significant to me because the very first rafting trip I’d ever been on was with
Noah’s Ark in Buena Vista back in 2004.
I don’t remember much about the rafting but I do remember loving it and
if you would have told me then that I would be back in that very spot 9 years
later as a guide I wouldn’t have believed you. But sure enough, its true! Brown’s Canyon is really pretty! It’s much more foresty and secluded. Big Horn Sheep Canyon (what we normally
run) is more deserty and runs right along a highway. I do still prefer the rapids in Bighorn Canyon, but it’s
nice to run a different section of the river once in awhile.
Earlier this week most of
our staff went on a backpack training trip in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains
near Westcliffe. Only Mark, Josh,
Amy and I were left to take care of things at the boathouse. We had a few day trips, but mostly did
work projects and cleaning/organizing around the boathouse. Amy and I also found some time to make
a highly informative video that you can check out here https://vimeo.com/68351180.
The past few days have been
insane! At least in reference to
the water levels. The water has
been between 2600 and 2900CFS! To
give you a little bit of an idea of how intense that is the Royal Gorge closes
to commercial vessels at 3200 because it’s just too dangerous to run at that
level! Seriously, the waves are
almost bigger than our rafts and our rafts are 13-14 feet long! I cannot say it enough, the rafting
this year is SOOOOO much different (and more fun/wet) than last year! I’m using a lot of explanation points
because it literally is that crazy!
Also, fires have hit the
state of Colorado in the past few days.
There is a giant fire in Colorado Springs, another fire in Rocky
Mountain National Park, and a few others have also started in Pagosa
Springs. However, the one that has
been most concerning to us is the one that is in Canon City. It started in the Royal Gorge and has
burnt many structures already. We
did have some rain showers this afternoon/evening so hopefully that helped out
the fires. It doesn’t seem like
the fire will come near where we are, but parts of the river are closed off
because of the fire so it’s effecting the rafting industry significantly.
Next week I’ll be on a week
long trip with a youth group. We’ll
be spending several days on the river and a day rock climbing. We are still without internet and phone
service so please be patient with me if you are trying to contact me. Hope you all are doing well! I’ve been having a great summer so far
and I know God is working in my life and through our staff this year and I’m
excited for the rest of the summer.
