Packrafting Black Canyon of the Gunnison

A two-day trip down into a deep dark ditch in Western Colorado.

Dates: Sep. 23-24, 2023
Flow: ~720cfs (USGS Gunnison River below Gunnison Tunnel)
Paddlers: Jeff Creamer, Dan Thurber, Luc Mehl, Eric Shedd, Chris Thomas, Mike Curiak, Thor Tingey, Will Blum, yours truly.

This past September, I was invited on a 2-day packrafting trip down Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This is a run I’ve wanted to do since reading about it in Banks & Eckardt’s Colorado Rivers and Creeks almost 20 years ago. But I would have never taken a kayak down there – the difficult rapids are too dangerous for my taste, the mandatory portage is long and arduous, and carrying a 50lb creeker plus overnight gear for almost as much as I’d be paddling it never made sense to me. Fast forward 20 years and the Alpacka Valkyrie has been invented, prototyped, and refined to the point that it performs as well or better than a creekboat at a fraction of the weight. Let’s go.

We collectively portaged Day Wrecker, Triple Drop, Ball Crusher, The Portage (duh), Next Generation, and Great Falls. I also portaged the top Lost Boys Slot and Sieve City since they were both difficult to scout and I was tired, although next time I’ll run them as they were relatively easy moves (with high consequences).

Check out Luc Mehl’s excellent blog post about this run with a great breakdown of risk management. https://thingstolucat.com/2023/10/03/...

Huge shoutout to Dan Ransom / Sockdolager Equipment for the incredible expedition pack that is the Bad Larry. https://sockdolagerequipment.com

A note about difficulty:
There is some debate online as to whether the Black Canyon is sandbagged, soft, or accurately graded. I personally would rate this run IV+(V+), meaning you can go down in there and have a class V+ experience if you want, or with a few portages you can get the technical difficulty down to IV+. The fundamental nature of the run (the majority of the whitewater) is class IV; however, it is a full-on commitment logistically and the rapids tend to be very sieved out and high stakes. And the portaging is def class V – much of it is sharp loose scree, where a wrong step will result in a rolled ankle and/or tumbling 100 meters down a hill. So don’t go in there expecting a mellow class IV time – it’s a mini-expedition that requires a solid team.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro / Day One
00:27 Daywrecker
01:03 Off Ramp
01:45 Double Trouble
02:19 Lower Intestine
03:10 Principal's Office
04:09 Lost Boys Slots
04:59 The 18-footer
05:48 The Portage
07:00 Next Generation
07:28 Day Two
08:24 Great Falls
08:52 Great Falls runout
09:40 Outro rambling