Category "trip reports"

CLC Patuxent 19.5 Kayak on the Boedecker Reservoir

06/27/06. Boedecker Reservoir near Loveland. A nice paddling evening. Interesting clouds over the mountains. A distant rainbow, but too weak to photograph it without a polarizer filter. The water level was about 3′ lower than six weeks ago. Some islands […]

Paddling Kayak and Canoe in Northern Colorado

I have been living at Fort Collins in northern Colorado for 17 years. Before 1999 I had only a folding kayak, Feathercraft K1 expedition, and I didn’t paddle very often at least according to my today standards. Nevertheless, in addition to my local Horsetooth Reservoir, I visited several mountain lakes including Dillon, Turquois and Granby. In 1999 I built CLC Patuxent 19.5 and started a real exploration of Colorado waters. At the same time my garage started to convert into a boathouse …

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.

Paddling Sisson Nucleus on South Platte River above Evans

A nice sunny weather and a good river flow. This time I launched my Sisson Nucleus in the afternoon at Evans River Park and paddled upstream to take a closer look at the portage over Latham Ditch Dam near La […]