Milk Run & Brown's Canyon Back to Back
"Rolling in Zoom Flume"

Do I look happy? Snowboarding into July.

It's the end of June and North America's highest elevation snow resort, Arapahoe Basin, is trying to stay open through July 4. And yes, there is more snow up top. They plow lower elevation snow into trails to make it possible to get back to the lift.

I can alternate between snowboarding and kayaking every day, at least for another week or two.

Myself and Seth, a paddling partner met with the Summit Paddle Club, decide to go down to the Arkansas River today to run Brown's Canyon. He and I ran Brown's for the first time back on Paddle Day 25. Today will be his 5th time down and my 4th. We feel like we know it well enough to go down as a group of two.

Seth invited another friend to go paddling with us. She was not sure that she wanted to go down Brown's, so we ran the Milk Run first. The takeout for the Milk Run is also the put in for Brown's Canyon. We parked vehicles in such a way that she could stop after the Milk Run or continue on with us if she felt up to it.

In the end she decided to exit after the Milk Run. Seth and I continued on. We paddled Brown's Canyon exceptionally fast because the sun was getting low and there were no other paddlers on the river.
We made it out with a good amount of daylight to spare.

The best part of the run today was Zoom Flume. We both got flipped.
I saw Seth in front of me get spun around backwards and then disappear in between 2 waves. At the time I didn't know whether he flipped or not. Right after he disappeared going backwards, I was flipped in the trough of a wave myself.
I rolled up on top of the next wave and continued successfully through Zoom Flume. Seth and I both righted ourselves cleanly. I think Seth's roll is more reliable than mine, but I am sure he was also relieved that neither of us took a swim. There was no army of kayakers to help chase down boats today.

It was a very valuable roll for me. I was in psychological need of a big water combat roll to help straighten out my mental glitches.

It felt great to roll in the infamous Zoom Flume.
I feel like I turned a corner today and I am finally leaving my Shoshone fears behind.
-Dan