My first paddling this year: February 2nd - South Platte River starting from the Mitani-Tokuyasu State Wilderness Area below Greeley. River flow was about 650 cfs. Nice sunny day. I took my safari boat and tested a new paddle: Wayfarer from Epic Paddles.

The river upstream was occupied by hunters herding their plastic geese so I went about 4 miles downriver, i.e. 3 miles below the Kersey (highway 37). I didn't encounter any diversion dams or other obstacles. The whole trip down- and upstream with two short breaks took me 4 hours. Not much of wildlife, just a few herons and ducks.

The picture of South Platte River in fresh snow is from my 2001 winter paddling.

-- Marek Uliasz (uliasz@frii.com), February 03, 2002

Answers

Larry, I paddled twice during last weekend starting from my launching spot above Kersey and paddling upstream each time. I was suprized to be able to paddle about 3 miles upstream of the Poudre River with only ~75 cfs of flow. Finally, I started my 2003 paddling season.

-- Marek (uliasz@frii.com), January 21, 2003.

I took my son out for a paddle on the South Platte below Greeley on 1/3/03. It was wonderful (aside form a few old cars dropped in for rip-rap, and some private landowners that allow cows to graze the shore to dirt in some areas). The flow was 494 cfs and that was plenty of water on the stretch we paddled for our tandem MR Explorer with no gear aside from a change of clothes and a snack. We had little trouble finding a channel with enough water. There was one wire across the river, but it was low enough we floated over it easily. We put in at the bridge below the Highway 34 bridge, (sorry can't remember the county road number. We paddled down to the Kersey bridge. It was a little over 2 miles, by road, between the two bridges and took us just over 1.5 hours including a short stop for our snack. I hope to try the next section of the river below this soon! It was around 60 degrees and I was comfortable in a T-shirt and fleece vest with my PFD. January in Colorado, go figure!

-- Larry McMullen (pdlgsltd@yahoo.com), January 06, 2003.

Paddled a stretch of the South Platte again today. My fiance and I went from the Kersey Road Bridge (road 53) downstream to the bridge at road 61. It was a gorgeous day with temperatures around 60. The winds that seemed to be hugging the mountains were not very bad on the river. This is the stretch of river that ends at the east edge of that huge feedlot on Highway 34, and the smell from it was not the most pleasant part of the day. This strech took us a little over 2 hours with a short stop for a sandwich. The flow was about 540 cfs, a little more than my last paddle on this river. Lots of ducks, an eagle, several kingfishers, a shrike, tree sparrows, many redtail hawks and thousands of red-winged blackbirds at the takeout coming off the feed lot. It was a nice paddle for January 20th.

-- Larry McMullen (pdlgsltd@yahoo.com), January 20, 2003.