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When you become a dad things are a little bit different. There’s a lot of pressure to figure out a way
to bring the family along on your adventures in one way or another and you can accumulate some serious
bonus points for bringing other families with kids along too. This way the women can talk about the men
and baby poop, while the men get to adventure and if you get super lucky, the grandparents can watch the kids.
The perfect run for the family day trip would be within an hour and half drive from home, would have an easy
hiking trail about one mile long to the best rapids, would be set in a beautiful area and the grandparents
would be in town.
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| The wives Nicole and the proud grandpa Don Wigston |
Wigston and I, and various others had been talking about the upper upper reaches of the South Saint Vrain for
some years now, waiting for the right year to get in there and fire up some serious rocky gradient with a
splash of mountain water thrown on top. Andy Blakeslee and Nick went on a mission to clean out this stretch a
few years back and they, or at least Nick thought it looked good. It appeared that this was finally going to
be the year when we would have the necessary splash of water covering the steepest and mankiest of creeks,
for which it might be a stretch to call descending it, whitewater paddling.
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| The ladies looking at the creek wondering "are you boys really going to run this" |
Now I had never seen the BSSV, but I had heard something about waterfalls. The more we talked, the more this
sounded like a perfect family outing. On the Front Range, so close to home, check. A mile long, downhill
hike to the creek through a beautiful forest, and then an easy couple hundred yards further down the trail
to view the rapids. Short but scenic hike, check. Nick’s Nicole was in, my Nicole was in, the baby girls
were strapped into their car seats and bonus, the Wigston grandparents were in town. Most people would never
dream of bringing their parents, their wives and their infants on a dangerously steep exploratory kayaking
descent, but somehow that is what Mr.Wigston and I decided to do. In fact, it was truly what we had to do to,
do what we had to. You know what I mean, if you know what I mean, and I mean we needed to do what we had to do.
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| Nick and Andy doing a little last minute clean-up |
The BSSV is so named for various reasons. We started out with the acronym standing for Brainard South Saint Vrain,
because the drops are fairly near the origins of the creek at the outflow of Brainard Lake. Then after our
descent we thought maybe it was the Brain-less SSV. Or maybe it was just the BS – SV. Regardless, the day began
with a meeting and a scout of the supposed take-out. “Shouldn’t it look like there’s enough water to paddle at
the take-out?”
“Not necessarily,” said Wigston with confidence. I quietly agreed that there was a diversion upstream and that
where the drops were, there should be, hopefully, A LOT more water, seeing as how we were looking at approximately
2 to maybe, 3.5 cfs. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure we weren’t even looking at the South Saint Vrain, just a
small side trickle of a creek, but let’s just say, it wasn’t the most inspiring way to start the trip.
Never fear, when we got to the trailhead we unloaded the babies and the boats and when we began to gear up we
asked some people returning from the hike what the creek looked like. They said it was high and they looked
pretty concerned about our intentions. Just the reaction we were hoping for. They also
had some pictures to show us of the creek and the flow looked ideal. Spirits were high as we descended the
trail to the creek with our boats, paddles, wives and children.
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| Andy grinnin' and fired up |
Upon the initial inspection of the first series of drops the grins began to widen and Andy was literally giddy with
anticipation. Then we took a closer look at the whole section and some interesting thoughts began to creep into my
mind. Were we really going to run this super tight and chunky cascade with our wives and daughters watching, or
more likely cringing from shore? It reminded me of one of our first go’s at the Upper Narrows, before Whitline
changed. Maija, Pete’s girlfriend at the time, now wife, came to run the shuttle and watch a few bad-ass kayakers
run the shit. Little did she know that this was maybe our second time on the Uppers and that we were, in the overall
scheme of things, very much novices in class V river running. I could see her watching from downstream in the
distance while we circled in the eddy above Whiteline. I looked at Pete as I was peeling out and said quietly,
“I’m glad my girlfriends not here.”
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| Nicole and Zoe W. looking on with interest as Nick steps up first |
Pete proceeded to get surfed in the middle hole up against the cliff. He held it together however and managed to
surf his way out of the hole without rolling and style the rest of the drop. Fast forward some years and our
technique and concentration has improved but some of our bravado has probably waned. Or maybe not. Wives and
children watching, we scouted it out, took some deep breaths and then Wigston showed us how it’s done.
We followed suit and notched another probable first and last descent. But why not? We got some adventure,
the ladies got to hike around, and the grandparents got to hang with the babies. What more could you ask for on
fine summer Saturday.
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| Wigston showing how it is done |
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| My point of view |
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| Blakeslee in the ultra-tricky lead-in |
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| The move which lead to our naming this drop The Goalpost,
as there was a very thin line off a 6 foot ledge between two chunky rocks and then that set you up to climb a stout boil onto the slide. |
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| If you didn't make the goalpost or you failed to climb the
boil to the right onto the slide you would fall off to the left and it would probably hurt |
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| Getting onto the slide after climbing the boil |
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| Andy B. styling per the norm |
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| My turn after almost blowing the goalpost and making a miracle brace to pull myself onto the slide |
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| Saving it and then sticking it |
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| Nick givener in the next big drop |
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| And slicing into an eddy below |
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| Andy lining it up |
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| My view |
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| Happy ending for everybody |
The BSSV is a sweet, short and steep Front Range hike'n'huck. Probably not for everyone. Actually the only paddlers
who might be interested in this stretch are card carrying members of the Mank Crew. If you like Jasper Creek this
might be for you. We had approximately 150 cfs which was optimal for this tiny litle creek bed. The drops are located
just downstream from the bridge found a mile down the trail from the first trailhead on the road to Brainard Lake.
Just because I'm doling out the beta doesn't mean that I'm reccomending this run. Just to get that straight. Beautiful
place though. Just ask the wives.
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| Andy in the inbetween |
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