Pikes Peak River Runners

Independence Day Weekend Celebration

By Christina King

Day 1: Sunday, July 2, 2006- Black Rocks (Ruby/Horsethief Canyons)

Our trip started with a fireban in Colorado but we were lucky to have cooling monsoon clouds all weekend.  The temperatures were very comfortable (in the 80's).  This weekend's Ruby/Horsethief/Westwater Colorado River trip is all about Bill.  Bill's birthday is July 4th and this year he turns the big 60!  Hard to believe and we're all excited to share the river with a fun group of boaters (some new and some old friends).  I've set up a game where people have to ask Bill about 1946, July 4th, Westwater info and personal questions during the next few days.  Bill's a good sport and we all have fun asking him questions for clues. 

Gary and Delma hosted a BBQ Saturday night at their home in Grand Junction- nice to have them back in Colorado.  We boated with them years ago, they moved to WA and now they are back.  I know we'll be sure to visit them more often now that they are back in Colorado.  Gary's joining us on the river this weekend.

The flows range from 4,700 to 5,100 cfs throughout the weekend.  We floated easily to Black Rocks and tried to camp in the campsite we signed up for at the put-in but it was taken.  We stayed at Black Rocks #7 instead of #9.  Black Rocks #7 camp has a nice swimming eddy and before dinner we enjoy a long swim playing water polo football and frisbee.  Chigger joins us and loves to chase the football.  We enjoyed an active game of dominoes after dinner and explored the camp's varied rock formations after a delicious cool dinner of Thai/curry chicken, noodles and salad, finished off with lemon parfaits for dessert.  Ralph and Gary do all the dishes with big smiles on their faces. 

Side Note:  It really helps to stick with the campsite plan you settle on at the Loma put-in (and write in the campsite register) because other floaters in the Ruby/Horsethief sections count on the plans you make (and write down) when they choose their campsites.  BLM has helped floaters to locate camps by placing campsite posts on the designated campsites (which really helps in the Black Rocks section). 

Last night I noticed 3 trains go by after we went to bed, many only heard one.   Guess most of the group slept hard last night.  Dale and Belinda have an interesting inflatable raft bed so they sleep really well.  We break camp early (by 8:15 am). 

We see bald eagles and wild turkeys numerous times today.  We stop at the Westwater Ranger station for a quick checkin/out and meet the rest of our group finishing up their shuttle.  We are ready to continue floating fairly quickly and row down to a lunch stop at Miner's Cabin.  We are assigned Bald Eagle- all upper camps were taken by other groups. 

The rapids are easy today with not too much excitement.  Bill runs the hole in Little Dee and gets stalled out.  Bill also runs the hole backwards in Skull.  The rest of us ran Skull to the left easily and don't follow Bill's example.  The corkscrew wave at Sock-it-to-Me is BIG but most of us run it on the right with no problems.  I see my usual sneak crease on the left but ran right today.  At this level, Sock is the hardest rapid.  Commercial outfitters were running their motors above the rapids today- strange- usually only see them do this below.  Everyone swims below the rapids for several miles below Last Chance.  The water temperature is perfect.  Our assigned camp, Bald Eagle, has had some improvements and is an okay camp.  Big Horn is nice but really only set up easily for 3 boats to tie up to shore.  Ken teased our palates with a beautiful tomato, basil, mozzarella cheese appetizer while Bryan prepared a delicious Basque stew and we play Bill's Independence Day crossword game. 

Everyone splits into teams and believe it or not - no one gets 100% correct.  A few groups get semi-valuable prizes for getting either the most correct and incorrect and we have a good laugh in the process. 

Bill is a great sport and enjoys his prizes and small birthday gifts.  I think he loves his 38 item survival kit the most!  Those Fourth of July shorts keep riding up higher and higher.  Pete swears that if they touch the ground at any point on this trip, we will have to burn them.

We enjoy red/white/blue and German Choc birthday cakes after dinner, thanks to Keith.

It sure was quiet last night and we sleep sweetly in our tent cots.  We awoke with the sun and floated easily to the takeout at Cisco.  Packed up by 10 am with only one scare.  One of the dogs choose to sleep in the shade under a trailer tire and wasn't noticed when the trailer started to pull out.  The dog yelped, Keith stopped and fortunately the tire didn't run over his leg and all was well but many of us got a bad scare.  Our safety trend at takeouts this year has not been great (read our Yampa trip- Glen's severely cut finger).  I know we'll always do a trailer spotter safety check next time we are traveling with dogs.  Thankfully Ollie (the dog) was fine and had no injuries, we on the other hand had mental anxiety over what could have happened in one small second.  Ken is calling Ollie his fluffy lucky wheel chock. 

We stopped at Colorado River State Park for a quick shower and headed home via Independence Pass for an easy ride home.  The traffic was almost non-existent, it seems like everyone was already where they wanted to be on  Fourth of July.