IF YOU LOVE TO FISH, DO NOT BOTHER FLOATING THE COLORADO RIVER BETWEEN PUMPHOUSE AND STATE BRIDGE ON THE WEEKENDS.
The crowds of people on this 16 mile stretch of river is officially out of control on Saturdays and Sundays. There were so many people up there last Saturday I am sure I saw a spike in the USGS graph.
We have been trying to ruin this river for 200 years now and this is just a different type of abuse. While an excessive amount of people on the water does not impact the river as severely as the amount of water we draw from her it does damage the experience people expect especially when they are paying good money. I have always tried to avoid this section during the summer weekends but on occasion I am forced up there by someones request.
For those of you who book through outfitters please listen to thier advice. Guides are in the business of catching fish but they also have to fill other expectations and those expectations simply can not be met on this stretch of river anymore during busy summer weekends.
I don't want to show my age here but the music is killing me. There are so many rafts blaring thier music it sounds like some new hybrid genre cross between country and reggae. Its just loud and annoying noise. The place not only sounds like a concert it smells like one too.
Pot is legal in Colorado and we are allowed to participate on private property. Your boat does not qualify. I started thinking my people were just not understanding me last Saturday when I realized they were both high as kites from the second hand smoke cloud.
Boat after boat of intoxicated ding bats passed me and the only creature on board in a life jacket was the strong swimming, stone sober Labrador Retriever. I saw a keg in a boat that had a life jacket on.
Is that odd to anyone but me?
Having to limbo under one of the two slack lines in the hot tub canyon during a 20 boat traffic jam was my last straw. It is against the law to string anything across a river in Colorado.
So who is responsible for policing this shit?
We all need to make sure our brother boaters are safe but I am way to skinny to be a police man. Raft companies and outfitters that pay for permits to be there are not the problem but they are often the easiest to monitor and scrutinize. Ultimately it is the BLM Kremmling office that is in charge of this section and I am pissed off at the fact they are no where to be found on busy days. I understand its a government agency and there is a budget but this just is not working when they are not. There are just responsible guides and fishermen there during the week so why not take one of those days off and put like 10 people there on the weekends.
Please understand there is no reason to avoid this wonderful stretch entirely. If you have to use it on the weekend try fishing late afternoon- dark once the riff raff has retired to the trees for the evening.
If you give a hoot write a letter to the Kremmling BLM office demanding they start to actually manage this section responsibly. There are people breaking the law.
Kremmling Field Office
Stephanie Odell
Field Manager
2103 E. Park Ave.
P.O. Box 68
Kremmling, CO 80459
Phone: 970-724-3000
Fax: 970-724-3066
E-mail: sodell@blm.gov
Carry On (somewhere else on the weekends)
