Thursday, May 26, 2011

Cache Le Poudre: Narrows.

Wing on the Lower.
Some people think it's not good to be stoked.  I am not one of those people.  I'll be in Colorado for 3 weeks, with Chris Wing, looking to get on a bunch of new runs.  Needless to say, I am very stoked. Brah.

Arriving in Denver on Saturday, we woke up and checked the gauges. The majority of Colorado is frozen right now, with many areas at 200% of average snow pack.  Basically, we need warm weather.  Not such a bad thing to hope for I suppose.  Anyway, we decided the best option was The Narrows section of The Cache Le Poudre, a section I had heard was ultra-classic.  Suh-weet.  North we go.

We figured this was a perfect warm up.  The Poudre Narrows is located west of Ft. Collins, in a tight, beautiful gorge.  The entire run is roadside, and, according to the New Testament, is made up of three sections: The Upper (V), Middle (IV), and Lower (V).  From where we put-in, the run is approximately 2.5 miles, and is considered the local "after work run."  This was an awesome intro to Colorado whitewater.

We caught this run on the low end of good, which I was very impressed with and would love to see it higher.  We put on just above the first rapid on the Upper: Supercollider.

Wing boofin' Supercollider.
Just below Supercollider is a super narrow steep rapid.  I dropped down and had a super clean line, but my friend Chris Wing wasn't quite as smooth.  He took a short beating in a hole right up against a wall, but kept his composure and rolled up just below, ran the next drop backwards (on purpose), and eddied out.  We hiked back up and ran the Upper again, and Wing got his redemption with a nice line on the 2nd rapid.

View from the top.
2nd rapid of the Upper.
That's me airin' out the boof at the bottom.
Photo: Chris Wing.
Some super fun class IV on the middle section lead us below a bridge to the Lower.  This is a steep, bouldery, holey section, with boofs of all shapes and sizes.

That's me boofin' the first drop of the Lower.
Photo: Chris Wing.
Cool angle.
Photo: Chris Wing.
Wing running the end of the Lower.
We took a few laps on this super fun section and called it a day.  Awesome first day of paddling in Colorado. Stoked.

Wing is stoked.
Next up: Some HUGE Class V+...

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