MtSurf

Several times a year I read comments on-line from people wondering if they should move to Colorado.  For me it has been the greatest thing I’ve ever done.  Moving from PA in 1997, I chased a dream to live closer to the mountains.  Since that time I’ve had several jobs, took up snowboarding, met tons of friends, one special one became my wife, started a family, bought a house, had a child, and still found time to paddle some of the best whitewater in the country.

One true gem of a river is Clear Creek.  Starting at the continental divide near the towns of Georgetown and Winter Park, Clear Creek flows for some 36+ miles into the town of Golden.  It has everything a WW paddler needs to get your heart going.  It’s cold clean water contains one of the best rodeo holes in the state (Lawson Hole), several miles of continuous class IV (Lawson- Idaho Springs), followed up by the Kermits section with more class III-IV, a nice taste of class V with the Black Rock section, some more class III-IV with Lower Clear Creek, and finishes up with one of the busiest WW Parks in the country (Golden WW Park).  If you need more head into Coors Brewery for a tour and grab a few free beers.  Then you can head down stream towards Denver and if the levels are right (above 1000 cfs) you might even be able to hit El Bronco (the biggest hole west of Pecos) and Shopping Cart Falls.

Here’s a video clip with Shane and Woody from LiquidLogic:  http://www.downstreammedia.net/LLVideos/ClearCreek2006.mov http://www.downstreammedia.net/LLVideos/…

And some actions shots from Lower Clear Creek and the Golden WW Park:

Clear Creek really does have it all, and it’s only minutes away from Denver.  Life is good in Colorado.