Day 4: Lower Rustic section of the Cache La Poudre

We arrived at the Dutch George campground on the Rustic section of the Poudre well after dark, so we didn't get much of a look at where we were camping. Here's the scene we woke up to. Not Bad eh? Aside from having to set up a tent, the Journey is working fine as a stand-in for the Odyssey.

There were a few other boaters around, but we decided once again to to the bike shuttle for the day. The shuttle was about twice as long as yesterday's, and took about 45 minutes. The one thing about biking your shuttles is that you ride all of the uphill with little downhill to reward you. That's OK though, because the kayaking is more fun anyways! (And Kayaks don't go uphill too well) The Lower Rustic section of the Poudre is a 9 mile run that consists of mostly continuous class III with a few IVs put in for good measure. Here's a typical scene on the Lower Rustic that we took while scouting one of the bigger sections.

Here I am punching a fairly large curler in one of the bigger drops. Much of the run was like this. Did I mention that the water was really cold???After collecting our bikes at the takeout we headed upstream to see Poudre Falls. This is a massive multi drop class V+ that gets run occasionally at much lower water. Here's a shot of the falls. If I ever am in the area at about 1/8th of the flow I think I'd like to give it a shot.
We loaded up the Journey to head into Rocky Mountain National Park for Day 5. Here's a shot of the Journey ready to roll with some pretty nice scenery behind her.

Next stop RMNP!