Let me start by saying we didn't actually kayak the entire stretch of the Black Canyon. The Black Canyon stretch of the Gunnison River from East Portal to SOB is Class V+. (Eric and I both started kayaking this June) There are 17 ft waterfalls, mandatory portages and deadly consequences if you slip up. But the lower stretch of the Black below Warner is only Class III.
Somehow Eric and I got it into our heads to put in at Warner and do the lower stretch of the Black. We still kayaked a secton that on average only 20 people a year ever get to see.
When we were kayaking the lower stretch of the Black we did meet some kayakers who had come the whole way thru the canyon. There were 7 guys and 2 of the 7 had holes in their boats and one of the other guys had a massive dent. I'm excited to see the videos they got and highly impressed with the sections and waterfalls they ran.
Both Eric and I had hiked the Warner Route earlier in the summer. It's easy when you are just walking it, but everything changes when you are trying to drag a 40 lb boat behind you or stopping it from sliding down the route in front of you. We realize about a mile or so in that maybe we had slightly underestimated how challenging it was going to be. But at that point, we were already past the point of no return. Not impossible by any means, just a giant pain in the ass.
The Warner Route starts 2700 feet above the river and in 2.75 miles you are at the river. If that doesn't give you an idea about how steep it is then just watch one of the videos. It's steep! There are loose rocks and large boulder sections, trees to climb over, down climbs and more.
We thought it would only take a couple hours to get the boats down, but we were sooo wrong. It was over 6 hours till we were at the river! It was way to late to put on so we hiked back up, ate, slept, came back in the morning, hiked down again and this time we got to kayak.
The Black Canyon was AWESOME! Its beautiful and knowing we were getting on a stretch of river so few people ever get to see made it even better. It was definitely nerve wracking because we knew if shit hit the fan we were stuck in that canyon with no way out except to continue down the river.
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| 10 minutes down the trail and we are already making repairs |
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| We found a couple pieces of my boat on the hike up |
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| On the route |
Even though it was a lot of work...once we were on the water it was totally worth it!!!
