01. Ankle Breaker to Beaver Ponds

Over the past few years Oh Be Joyful Creek has become the most popular Class V creek run in all of Colorado. The sickening gradient slides down generally smooth flat slate resulting in surprisingly easy lines. Don't take it too lightly though, the swims are few but there is potential for epic carnage. The creek has taken on the nickname 'Oh Be Careful'. This run gets dramatically easier the more times you've run it. After the 2nd or 3rd time down most competent Class V boaters can bomb it in less than 10 minutes without breaking a sweat. The upper and lower halves of the creek are very different, even though the gradient is about the same. The upper 1/2 has the big waterfalls, a 25' fall and two 18' falls. Most boaters put in below the first one, Ankle Breaker, it has rocks in the landing zone. Don't bother boofing either of the 2 big waterfalls below, a hole thrashing at the bottom is a lot less painful than a two story drop landed flat. This section is generally a little less frantic than the lower half, as it is much easier to eddy hop your way down. There is very little wood in the upper half, so some boaters take out just above the huge avalanche path that crosses over the creek, the start of the lower half. The lower half is characterized by a big string of amazing long and steep slides interspersed with river-wide logjams climaxing in a shotgun blast over a 12' sliding-waterfall at the very end. The eddies are there, but you get going so fast it is like a gravity beam pulling you into the big drops. It is generally possible to 'wheel-chair' your way over and off the backside of the worst logjams, although some do chose to portage. Don't boat down to the confluence with the Slate, Take out river left at the end of the large pool just below the last slide/waterfall. Check out the pics at Mountainbuzz.com, and Ed Hansen's Web Gallery. There are some awesome pics of the US Steep Creek Championships taken in June(Brrr!) at Julie Keller's website., To get there: From the OBJ camprground you will have to cross the Slate River. High clearance vehicles can ford the river, but there are many vehicle casualties each year. If you're going to drive across make sure you know that the air intake is high enough that it won't suck up water, and use granny gear to crawl across the river very slowly. The put-in is one mile up the road at a flat rocky meadow to your left, it should be obvious that lots of vehicles have been there and the vegetation is getting smooshed badly. If you have strong legs please hike your boats up:-) The Quadruple Crown: Because of the short length and proximity of the Crested Butte creeks all 4 of them can be run in the same day. The East River is the best to start out with; it has the largest flow and the least gradient of the four. Next in line is Daisy Creek. Continue downstream after Daisy Creek to the confluence with the Slate River; there will be about one mile of slack water until the first rapid. The takeout for the Slate River is the same as Oh Be Joyful Creek so just walk or drive up to the OBJ put-in from there.