02. Fishing Pier to Forks Park

From the Fishing Pier to Garbage Disposal is a short with little warm up.  The next mile or so is solid class V. From below Garbage Disposal through Cannon Shot (the surprisingly clean horseshoe shaped 15'er visible from the road) is a section known as the Big T Gnar or Gnarrows. THE GNARROWS (May 2021) -Bad Boof: A few hundred yards below the jumbled mess that is Garbage Disposal. Not actually a bad boof above 300cfs or so. Boof the middle channel, aiming left of the wood at the lip. Regroup. You're entering the Gnarrows. - V-Slide: After peeling out from the eddy below Bad Boof, make your way around a couple corners and over some diagonally stacked ledges. V-Slide awaits. Aim center (below 300cfs) or just left of center (any level.) Come off sideways and you will be surfed. - Awesome Boof: Make your way through another stair-steppy alleyway section. Come off the 5' entry drop with a bit of right angle, then drive back to middle and launch a fat boof off the curling central lip. High-five your pals in the (smallish) eddies below -- but don't get complacent, as below you awaits... - Weird Thing: Marked by a strangely flat stone standing on edge on river left. The Entry Ramp is best run middle or left of middle to set you up for the strangeness below. At ~275cfs or below this drop can be boofed with a right stroke, taking you down the left exit. Higher than 275 and some speed plus a strong lefty will land you in a mildly backed up pillow/hole that spits you right. HIT YOUR BOOF -- the pocket overhung by the river-right boulder has been a bit of a swimming hole. Not a bad place to set safety. - Cannon Shot: This janky looking thing is shockingly smooth. Classic line is off the curling left shoulder. Aim to land center of the outflow. Center and river-right lines are also run. The bottom of the hair into Drake is three miles of fun class IV with the occasional sticky hole. There are two super fun IV+ rapids in the middle that are back to back at moderate levels. In 2021 one of the IV+ rapids, Drake Rapid, had a rock move and is now generally portaged. There is a line through it, but scout it ahead of time and make your own decision. You can easily scout it on the way up, and there is a calm section with multiple easy eddies beforehand. September 2013 Colorado received record rainfall within a five day period that has now completely changed the Big Thompson River. Lives were lost in this series of storms and the Big Thompson River redirected flows and removed roadways in the canyon. In the Gnar-gnar section, the last (bedrock) rapid looks to be the same or nearly so, but all other rapids are different. In general the run felt easier to me than the old run. The channel has been reshaped.  The old takeout park was completely obliterated. The stretch just above that old park has some meaty holes that can induce swims. Nature spoke previously, in July 31, 1976 when the Big Thompson watershed experienced a 10,000 year flood event, a 20 foot wall of water moving 60 miles an hour tore down the canyon killing 144 people. NOAA summary of the flood To Get There: Hwy 34 between Estes Park and Loveland runs beside the river. Various put-in and take-out options exist. The best run is from the hair section (obvious from the road) down to Drake. Other Information Sources:  Check out Patrick Forsters' article in www.coloradokayaking.com, and a high water BIG Thompson Fall Photo Essay By: Evan J. Stafford. Pics of the hair section on Webshots.