First Raft Descent of the Big South Fork of the Cache de la Poudre

Adrian Matthew Glasenapp put together this series photo of Sean and I on Double Trouble. Thanks Adrian!

Sunday morning I picked up Sean Davis nice and early for a mission to the headwaters of the Poudre. To the best of our collective knowledge, this Colorado kayaking classic had never been rafted. The Big South is an absolutely beautiful creek with steep 200 fpm gradients and tons of III and IV between the numerous class V drops. We put on early to allow ample time for our exploratory descent, but were soon caught up by the 50 or so kayakers that ventured down Big South that day. We had unwitting chosen the busiest day of the year on Big South. The extra encouragement, beta and safety from the numerous kayakers was most appreciated.

All told we had a pretty great day. We missed a line in one of the first drops, Starter Fluid, and I swam a short waterfall. Then we had to carry or line the boat a few times in the first gorge because the slots were just too narrow for our wide selves. At this point we were feeling like rafting Big South may not have been the best idea. Things turned in our favor really quick with Prime Time gorge and Double Trouble. This section was awesome and our lines were spot on. We arrived at Double Trouble just as Leif Embertson and crew finished pulling a log out of the line. It took a little convincing to get Sean on board, but we hit it perfect and had a great line. We had quite the gallery of carnagavoirs expecting to see some swimmers, but I believe they were equally entertained by our clean line.

Slideways is the final big rapid on the run. Here the creek plunges through a quarter mile of boulder choked class V+. The raft crux here is a boof between two boulders on the right, but before we even got there we got bounced left and completely missed our line. The left is extremely nasty and flipped us instantly. Fortunately neither of us had a bad swim. The remainder of the day was uneventful albeit a bit slow due to some wood, around which we were quite careful.

Another highlight of the day came when I was running shuttle. I saw two moose. I previously had no clue that there are moose in Colorado, so needless to say I was quite shocked when I rounded the corner and there were two of the gangly big nosed creatures standing in an alpine meadow.


Leif Embertson got this pic of Sean Davis and I cleaning Double Trouble. I know my position looks funny, but it is an anticipatory highside.