30+ Miles of South Platte River in Eastern Colorado
My original plan was to paddle nearly 40 miles of South Platte from Orchard to Cooper Bridge. I wanted to resume my February low water paddling Masters to Orchard and explore another segment of the river. In winter, I also paddled the last few miles of my course: from Cooper bridge upstream to Snyder and back. Connie agreed to provide a shuttle. She was accompanied by my mother visiting us from Poland.
First troubles appeared at the Orchard bridge when preparing my safari boat (Spencer X-treme canoe) for launching. A local farmer asked me not to disturb duck and goose nesting area by paddling the river below Orchard. It seemed that he put two fences across the river to protect the area. After some discussion I agreed to move my launching 4 miles downstream to the next bridge at Goodrich. He wasn’t aware if I would encounter similar problems further downstream.
