IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Sunday, September 25, 2011

After spending Saturday at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and getting home later than normal again, Amanda and I woke just before sunrise so that we could watch the sun come up over the Grand Mesa from our hot tub. Once it was up, I had some breakfast and then met up with my friend Jackson so we could float a section of the Colorado River from the Palisade River Bend Park to Corn Lake. It’s a shorter section of the river, but we didn’t want to make an all-day trip out of it…..just spend a few hours on the river on a nice day. One of my main reasons for this trip was so that I could try out his new Aire Tributary Tomcat Tandem inflatable kayak since I am looking at buying one over the winter for next season. After spending the afternoon on his boat, I can safely say that I will probably be picking one of them up 🙂 It will make a great boat for day trips and overnight trips on easier stretches of river!

Relaxing

Relaxing in the front of the boat. Unfortunately, I guess I am too heavy to sit this far forward in the boat since I got wet from water coming up through the self-bailing floor. Jackson and I ended up switching seats a little ways down the river and we had no further issues with water coming up into the boat.

Riffles

Riffles in the river looking back towards the Little Book Cliffs.

Quick Stop

Stopped so that we could change seats.

Jackson and his Boat

Jackson in Front

View from the back seat.

Smoke and Mount Garfield

It’s open burn season in Mesa County.

Looking Back

A view back towards Mount Garfield and Mount Lincoln.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

On Sunday I met up with my friend Jackson and his wife Sarah to float a section of the Gunnison River from the North Fork to Colorado Highway 65 near Delta. It’s a pretty easy stretch of the river, which is a good thing since this was my first time in my own boat. Previously I have only ridden along in a larger raft, so this was a good learning experience for me. There were a few tricky sections that helped me work on my boating skills, but nothing dangerous.

Inflating

Inflating the boats.

Into the River

Ready to get on the river.

On the Gunnison

On the river.

Reflection

A reflection of Sarah and Jackson in their boat.

Besides spending a relaxing day on the river, I also had the goal of finding a rock art site along this stretch of the river. As we started hiking to the site, we noticed there was a group of people working up there. I had heard rumors that there was a group excavating the site, but I figured that no one would be working there on a Sunday. Guess I was wrong! As we approached the group, they welcomed us in and gave us the ‘grand tour.’ Apparently they have been excavating the site for about five years now and were ready to call it quits in the next few days. However, while we were there they managed to find part of a clovis point and decided they would now be staying at least another year. Pretty interesting stuff!

Lawhead Gulch Panel

The largest petroglyph panel at the site.

Elk Petroglyph

A faint elk petroglyph at the site.

Excavation

Digging and searching…

Documentation

Documenting their find.

Find

One of the arrowheads they found while we were there.

Back to the Boats

Getting back on the river after visiting the excavation.

Lunch on the River

Sarah & Jackson

Floating the Gunnison

It was a great day on the river!

We finally managed to get on the river for the first time this year! We were supposed to do this stretch of the Colorado a few weeks ago, but that trip was cancelled because of weather. Luckily we were able to find time this weekend to try it again. Here’s a few photos I took throughout the afternoon on my old Canon point & shoot…

Loaded up and ready to go

Weather was great, water was moving pretty fast.

Friends in the ducky

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For Labor Day Andrew, Amanda and I spent a few hours on the Colorado River near Moab. We put in at Hittle Bottom and took out at Takeout Beach. The water was pretty low and slow…plus there was a little wind up the canyon, so Andrew and I had to take turns rowing in order to keep moving at a reasonable speed. In the end, it took us about 6 hours to make it to Takeout Beach. It was a good workout and we had fun along the way, too.

Finished inflating the raft by hand…

On the river

Nice reflection

Amanda

Andrew

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Today I was invited by a friend at work to raft the Colorado River with him from Grizzly Creek to South Canyon near Glenwood Springs. Since Amanda and I had nothing planned for today, we decided to go with. Another guy I work with also had his boat with and a few passengers, too. While one the river, we even ran into two other boats belonging to other co-workers as well. It was like being at work today 😉

We both had a great time and managed to get thoroughly soaked 🙂 The Colorado was flowing pretty fast, so this section of river only took us a few hours to travel, even with a stop for lunch at Two Rivers Park in Glenwood Springs.

Here’s some photos from our day on the river.

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