Paddling with Icicles - Thunderbolt-X on the South Platte River below Greeley

Thu - January 18, 2007

Paddling with Icicles - Thunderbolt-X on the South Platte River below Greeley

January 17, 2007. Winter is holding in Colorado, but the South Platte River is flowing. Some coastal ice makes it more tricky to lunch a kayak. You also need to watch for floating ice at least if you are not paddling Kruger's Sea Wind, but Thunderbolt or other racing egg shell. The river flow went down a little bit (~400 cfs at Kersey) but there is plenty of water to paddle in the river channelized by ice.

This afternoon I launched at Kersey and paddled 3 miles upstream and back finishing at just before sunset. It was 2 hours of heavy workout with a few photo breaks. Air temperature before launching was around 24F and dropped to 13F after sunset. A little bit too cold! Everything got icy. It's not a good idea to finish your paddling in winter at or after sunset.

I prefer to paddle upstream/downstream and avoid portages over dams in such winter conditions. It's good to know that I can always reach my car with a hot tea within 20-30 minutes.

Posted at 06:40 AM
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Thu - January 18, 2007

Paddling with Icicles - Thunderbolt-X on the South Platte River below Greeley