In the Spring of ’02, we paddled the Gunnison Gorge with a group of paddlers from the Midwest and Colorado. The most challenging part of running Gunny Gorge is carrying the boats down the 1.1 mile Chukar Trail to the river. We started by placing two deflated boats on a boat cart. (see the photo of TK and Larry Rice.) That worked great on the flat sections at the begining of the trail. As the trail narrowed and steapened, the cart seemed to flip every time we rolled over a pebble. In the end, we ditched the cart and carried the boats down, one at a time, using the paddles as handles.
A majority of the Gunnison River consists of flat water sections slicing through the steep, rocky canyon. The flat water sections were always welcome after navigating tricky rapids.
The paddling photos are of: TK and Larry Rice carting 2 SOARs down the Chukar Trail, Abby Hernandez and me picking our way down one of the many technical rapids in the Gorge, and Bob Donner looking downstream as Larry Heinz performs a quick draw stroke.
Kevin Jury, Wheaton IL
