High Water on the Arkansas

At the beginning of this summer, when everyone was feverishly claiming that this would be one of the years to look back on, one of the biggest years in Colorado’s, and much of the west’s history, I began to get psyched for my two week trip to the Arkansas River Valley. As expected the water rose to high levels, but unexpectedly, it did not come to a huge peak -- at least not yet. For weeks it stayed at a solid, super fun level, as did much of the rivers in CO. But it was over too quickly, and before I knew it, I had to go home. Three days later, I came back. It was just to much to resist. Well, that was just part of it. What really happened was a zero percent contained, massive fire that hit the mountains near my home town with a force (as in 40,000 acres in 14 hrs). This said, I like to look on the bright side, and the bright side was that my two weeks of kayaking had turned into four. The town is fine and I would rather that our mountains hadn’t burned, but there is nothing I can do about it. I can say that those two extra weeks of kayaking were the best way to keep my mind off of flames. I had a blast -- quite literally bombing through the hole (which was then flushing) at Pine Creek and lapping Clear Creek of the Ark . I hope everyone has been having as much fun as I have with their adventures!