paddling with a camera

That segment of the river was not particularly scenic - a rather wide river bed filled at that low water with huge gravel bars. You could see also a lot of industrial accents: a concrete ruble protecting banks in many places, gravel pits, oil installations, and the ex-nuclear power plant. Nevertheless, it was a great workout to paddle upstream. The afternoon was cloudy and warm. I had enough water almost everywhere. I paddled between 2 and 3 mph against a pretty strong current.

When I reached the dam the sun showed up and I had much more enjoyable scenery when paddling downstream. I stopped for while at the confluence of South Platte and St Vrain Rivers to photograph the high cliffs of Wildcat Mound.

The nicest part of the trip was to paddle St Vrain upstream back to my car. The sunset over mountain was beautiful. Wildlife came suddenly to life: coyotes were hauling, big fish was jumping in a shallow water, deer was grazing on the banks, hundreds of geese were flying across colorful sky. I believe it is duck hunting season. I saw some ducks but no hunters.

St Vrain was a little bit shallow in one or two spots at the flow of 140 cfs and I met one fallen tree where portage was necessary. The flow of South Platte at Fort Lupton was around 300 cfs.

The above pictures were shot with Pentax Optio W10. I will try to take my Canon D10 DSLR with a tripod for next trips on the South Platte. It may a challenge to pack them into Sisson Nucleus since for the cold season paddling I am also taking a change of cloths and some emergency stuff.

I have started to work on a paddling guide for the South Platte River using pictures and GPS tracks collected during my last 5 years of paddling on this river between Platteville and Fort Morgan. I will also cover St Vrain, Big Thompson and Cache la Poudre River. The river guide is based on Google map API.

GPS trip odometer: 7.44 miles, moving time 2:22h, stopping time 1:00, moving average 3.1 mph, max speed 9.1 mph.

Related posts:

• South Platte River map and guide (under construction)
• South Platte River at Brighton
• Shooting Video with Pentax Optio WP - Boat Towing and Paddling
• How to photograph a river? The South Platte Case
• Sea Wind, the Icebreaker is Back
• Paddling on Wet Sand - South Platte River in Eastern Colorado near Fort Morgan
• Paddling Sisson Nucleus above Evans
• Opening the 2004 Winter Paddling Season
• In the Search of Open Water