Foxton Creek
A Late Season Treat on the North Fork of the South Platte River
(Scroll down for more Photos & Videos.)
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One of Foxton Creek's many boulder gardens.
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A busy run with countless little drops.
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Beautiful scenery with lots of action.
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I have been looking to escape the rut of paddling Shoshone over and over again here in the late season. Shoshone flows reliably in good snow pack years because the power plant just above it releases water consistently through a dam. Most of the other area runs are quite low now.
Seth, one of my paddle partners from this summer mentioned that two guys he knew (Aric and TJ) were planning to hunt out a run called Foxton today. It is supposed to be a Class III/IV creek somewhere east of the mountains, but still within reasonable driving distance. I had not heard of it before, but something new sounded good to me.
It turns out that Foxton flows sporadically in the late season when Denver needs water from the lake next to my house. Denver is over an hour away, but Lake Dillon is one of that city's main water sources.
You can't plan in advance to run Foxton. You have to check the gauges online the day you want to paddle and then head to the creek hoping the water doesn't get turned off before you get there.
After a little hunting around the town of Bailey, we found our destination. The Foxton run is easy to scout from a dirt road parallel to the creek, so we drove along checking out the rapids. It all looked GREAT! The most technical part of the run is at the beginning so it is convenient to unload and take your time checking out the top part before putting your boat in the water.
We came across a paddler named Ivan at the beginning of the run. He had stopped to scout the river on his way back to the mountains from a trip to Denver, hoping he could find some others to run Foxton Creek with. We welcomed him in our group, and the 5 of us ran Foxton all for the first time.
It is a fun little run and a nice intermediate technical challenge. There is nothing extremely difficult and the water is not too pushy.
I'm sure I will return to Foxton Creek this season. It's exciting to find something fresh after I thought the season was pretty much over. The photos and videos of Foxton Creek on this page should give you a good idea of the flavor of this run.
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Seth in a Foxton hole. Aric & Ivan wait for their turns.
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C1 kayaker Aric gets it done with a single blade.
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Mountain peaks seen from the Foxton Creek takeout.
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Maybe this season is not quite over yet. In addition to this new discovery, I have heard rumors of another interesting run in the area called Waterton Canyon. Just like Foxton Creek, Waterton is said to flow late in the season when Denver needs water.
I am also considering a Westwater trip before I wrap things up for the summer. Westwater is supposed to be something of an epic kayaking excursion. It flows late season as well and is a fairly short drive from Colorado, just across the border in Utah.
It looks like there might be a few good whitewater adventures remaining before I break out the snowboard.
Stay tuned.
-Dan
Paddle Note: As you may have noticed in the images above, I'm using a different paddle in today's entry. During my California paddle days I experienced a very tiny crack at the juncture of the right blade and shaft on my Waterstick Zen paddle. The paddle doesn't seem to be significantly weakened, but a small amount of water has entered the shaft. Waterstick has a good warranty program and they have agreed to replace the paddle right away, but I will have to paddle with my old Seven2 paddle a few days while I wait for the new Waterstick Zen to arrive.
The power difference is quite dramatic between these two paddles. Having to switch to the Seven2 has caused me to really appreciate the Waterstick's blade design even more. My Waterstick also has a zero offset angle to the blades compared with 30 degrees on my Seven2. In addition to the stronger pulling blade design of the Waterstick, I also prefer it because of the zero degree offset. I am completely convinced that zero is the correct choice in whitewater kayaking with whatever brand of paddle you use.
I have written the roughdraft of a special paddle commentary journal entry that I will upload soon. It covers many paddle issues that new kayakers might be interested in reading about. A few experienced paddlers may also be surprised by some of the information presented in this special entry, especially the part about the evolution of paddles and the real reason some of us have such bizarrely offset paddles in our possession now. I will list the Paddle Entry on the "New Updates" page when it is available to view.
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