8/2/2011: N. Platte R., Routt access (CO) to Sixmile Gap access (WY)
| With: Mick Schlotfeldt, Willy Young, Dan Bertko | ||
| In the morning we continued east on US-40 and crossed the Continental Divide just southeast of Steamboat Springs before taking CO-14 and CO-125 to the Routt access to the North Platte. In the guidebook "Western Whitewater", the Northgate Canyon section is listed as Class III/IV. At the level we paddled it, there were only three rapids, the first one about 200 yards long, the second a mile long, and the third about a half mile long. No 100-yard stretch in these three rapids was more than Class III+, but taken each as a whole, I would rate these three rapids at this level as Class III, Class IV, and Class IV. Everything went well until the top of the last rapid, when one of us left his canoe in the middle of the river. Dan managed to get the swimmer to shore after about a quarter of a mile, and Mick and I chased the boat until I corralled it after another quarter of a mile, right at the bottom of the long rapid. We might have got Willy and his boat reunited a lot sooner, but it didn't seem like a good idea to risk having a second victim in a four-boat trip, particularly when none of us had ever run this river and we didn't know what else might be ahead of us. As it turned out, once Willy managed to make his way down to his boat and we got going again, afraid that Lois would be worried as she sat waiting at riverside at the takeout, it was only another 1/4-mile, around just one more riverbend, until we were done. Well, almost done; it is a long climb up to the parking area -- Chattooga-long, but hot and dry and unshaded. Fortunately, right at the Sixmile Gap access is the Sixmile Gap Campground of Medicine Bow NF, so we decided to stay right there. We were all so beat that we decided we were finished boating, even though our plans had included boating on the Cache la Poudre River in Colorado two days later, so we removed our airbags from our boats and loaded the boats in highway configuration. |
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| 1. Yampa River State Park | ||
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| 2. Yampa River State Park | ||
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| 3. Yampa River State Park | ||
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| 4. The view from US-40 | ||
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| 5. The view from US-40 | ||
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| 6. The view from US-40 | ||
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| 7. The view from US-40 | ||
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| 8. The view from highway CO-14 | ||
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| 9. The view from highway CO-14 | ||
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| 10. The view from highway CO-125 | ||
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| 11. The view from highway CO-125 | ||
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| 12. The view from highway CO-125 | ||
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| 13. At the Route access | ||
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| 14. Putting on The N. Platte R. at the Route access | ||
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| 15. Putting on The N. Platte R. at the Route access | ||
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| 16. Putting on The N. Platte R. at the Route access | ||
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| 17. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 18. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 19. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 20. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 21. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 22. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 23. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 24. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 25. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 26. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 27. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 28. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 29. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 30. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 31. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 32. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 33. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 34. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 35. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 36. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 37. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 38. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 39. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 40. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 41. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 42. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 43. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 44. Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 45. An eagle flying above the Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 46. Waiting for Willy to make the difficult hike downstream to his boat; Northgate Canyon | ||
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| 47. Still waiting for Willy; Northgate Canyon, N. Platte R. | ||
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| 48. I had corraled Willy's boat just one bend before the Northgate Canyon takeout | ||
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| 49. Grouse at Sixmile Gap campground, Northgate Canyon takeout | ||
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| 50. Sixmile Gap campground, Northgate Canyon takeout | ||
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| 51. Sixmile Gap campground, Northgate Canyon takeout | ||
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| 52. Sixmile Gap campground, Northgate Canyon takeout | ||