Gore Canyon

First time down Gore and probably the hardest whitewater I’ve ever run. My first season kayaking in CO is tough to describe but has only served to reinforce my love of the water.

Flows were relatively low (~790cfs) so stuff was bony but not pushy. I had mild nerves throughout the day but nothing that impacted boating performance. I walked Gore rapid but ran Tunnel (and swam in the pool below). The water was pretty aerated and I carped twice before pulling my skirt. Not my proudest moment but the swim was very benign and I was able to self rescue immediately. Feeling very motivated to get back and get redemption. River play by play is below.

Paddle in

4 miles of flat water is a mixed bag because it is a bit of a slog but also a nice arm warmup.

Applesauce

First big rapid of the day. Ran the right line down the tongue and held a right boat angle to avoid the hole and punch through the muck.

Gore

Half our group walked this (including me) - the other half all ran the meat line at the top and then went either right of Ginger (the hole) or the left-left line to the left of Ginger. The sneak line (far right slot) might have gone but would have been a bit tight. The Professor (center line) did not have much water flowing through it and would have been a very techy/high consequence move right above Ginger.

Scissors/Pyrite

Scissors hole looked nasty - ran the right line using the curler coming off the top of the rock to drive right and away from the muck.

Pyrite didn’t look too burly but would deliver some punishment if you went over sideways. I had kind of a shitty line through scissors so ended up taking the sneak line to the left which was slightly bony but not bad. A bit of the flake rock that forms the hole was visible at this level and people in our group tried to err on being closer to that than the right side of the rapid (and holding a slight right angle).

Lots o’ class IV

Generally a good time, nothing terribly memorable in here - just some enjoyable class IV boogie water.

Tunnel

My first class V ever - mixed feelings. My lead in was clean according to people watching. I did not take a boof stroke and just plugged into the hole. Melted out quickly and missed two rolls before pulling my skirt.

At this flow the meat line looked like the only thing that was going - the sneak on the far right did not appear to be in play and the left looked like a bad time.

Kirshbaum’s

Long and bony - a little stressful. The trade off between slow/bony (this level) and pushy/padded out is probably apparent here - I’d like to see how I feel about this rapid with the level of the latter. I was a little melancholy after Tunnel but the river gods gave my nomad a little stern squirt action at the top - I got a snappy combat roll which helped re-instill some confidence.