Its the third week of May 2008, and Spring has been coming slowly in the Colorado Rockies. Old man winter is still very much alive in the high peaks and almost none of the major drainages have started to move. We were getting ancy, ready for warmer weather and flowing water. Hopes of paddling anything in the state began to be crushed as we watched temps drop during the week. However, a glimmer of hope appeared with a post by Casper Mike on Mountain Buzz inviting anyone willing to make the drive to central Wyoming's Medicine Bow mountains to join him on Box Elder Creek.
Now..., a little bit of spray, and some harsh discussion have been circling around for the last few weeks regarding the merits of Box Elder. Aside from the scattered info, including a TR on a high water decent of the upper canyon, we had little to go off of when we took up Casper Mike's invitation. Something along the lines of upper canyon good to go, lower canyon still unrun. So late Friday evening, we jumped into Justin's truck and started making our way north.
Upon arrival in Casper on Saturday, we met up with Mike and his buddy David, and set out for Box Elder Canyon. We parked at the midpoint of the run to check things out. From our vantage point 2,500 feet above the canyon bottom, we got our first glimpse of the creek. The view was impressive. From the canyon rim, we had a clear view of "loaf," a major drop through a mini gorge close to the end of the upper canyon. While unclear how runnable the drop was from our perch 2,500 feet above the river, it was BIG, and it certainly made us wonder about what we were just about to get ourselves into.
After discussing logistics, we decided to park one vehicle at the midpoint and drive to the putin and paddle at least the upper gorge, and possibly complete the decent of the lower gorge. Regardless of the outcome of the day, we would need to climb almost all the way out of the canyon to portage the middle portion of the gorge. Mike informed us that at the current flow of about 350cfs the middle portion of the canyon would be unscoutable and unrunnable.
So with a bit of trepidation, we headed for the putin. After solving a few gear issues, we finally got on the water to find out just what Box Elder was all about. After about a mile of mellow warm up, our trepedation was replaced with excitement once we got to the first of the quality drops which continued in pool drop fashion. The highlight of the day came at loaf, the drop we had seen from the top of the canyon. Loaf is a three tiered drop into a tight gorge, with a 6-7 foot boof exiting the gorge. The drop reminded me a bit of double trouble on crack, speed and with a serious case of roid rage. I could be exagerating a bit here, but this drop is BIG. Debating lines and probable outcomes, Justin decided to fire it up. We set up safety, and waited while Justin prepared to drop in. He charged the center entrance drop and barreled into the second drop before disappearing as he was totally enveloped in the curtain and crashed over the final 10 foot plunge. He resurfaced a quick second later well beyond the grips of the hole, rolled up, made a few strokes and boofed over the finale drop and into the safety of the large pool below. It was awesome to see Justin butter up the line. As clean as his line was, nobody else was up for the challange, and we quickly took to the dry line to continue our decent of the upper canyon.
By the time we had completed the upper canyon it was getting to be late in the afternoon. With a a huge portage required to get back to river level and the lower canyon, we opted to head straight for the car and the cold beer waiting there, and leave the lower gorge for the morning. The hike out was brutal. A slog by any standards, we had to hike up a mix of steep talus, muddy hillsides, and rattlesnake infested sage brush before reaching the top of the canyon and the car.
We returned the next morning and met up with Mike to paddle the lower canyon. Unfortunately, Casper Mike was not feeling well, and opted out of for the day, but helped us run our shuttle anyway. In addition, Mike helped us secure access through the private property at the take out.
To our knowledge, and Mike's, the lower canyon of Box Elder had not been paddled. Mike assured us that it was good to go, and a touch easier than the upper canyon. So we shouldered the boats and started heading down to river level. About midway down, we got a better look of the last drops in the middle section of the canyon. It looked really good with the exception of a serious looking set of drops immediately above what appeared to be a terminal hole. We still couldn't see what was contained further upstream in the heart of the middle canyon, so we were unable to tell how runnable/scoutable the drops are. So after some deliberation, we decided to put in below the last of the middle canyon drops below the hole.
After about two hours of torturous down scrambling, we reached the river at the bottom of the last of the middle canyon's drops. Upon closer examination, the majority of the middle drops looked really fun. Even the nasty hole looked like it would go although there would be SERIOUS consequences to being off line. And this would be a serious possibility given the stout set of drops leading into the hole. But a clean line was definitely there. However, after our hike, nobody felt like scrambling back up the river to test out our theory on how runnable these drops were.
So we geared up and headed down stream into the unknown. Along the way, we encounted a few challenging drops and some fun slides, and read and run with less of a pool drop character than the upper canyon. With the exception of 2 drops the lower was a full notch easier than the upper.
To summarize, Boxelder Creek is about 7 miles long cutting its way through a steep, rugged limestone canyon nearly 2,500 deep. The canyon can be divided into three sections; the upper, middle and lower. The upper section is about three miles long, and I would classify this as pool drop V, with one V+. The middle section is only about a mile and is V/V+. The beta we received is that there is no portaging one of the cave drops at river level, and at flows to make the upper and lower canyons good (about 250cfs to 400cfs) it is best to hike all the way up and around the middle. The lower consists of two V's at the top, the rest is fun read and run IV+/V- with a few slides.
Hopefully we can get back in there to find a way to tie this whole run together, although it is unlikely that at the flows needed to make the middle go (I am guessing 150 - 200cfs) the upper and lower would be very low and moderatley worthwhile. Your looking at 3-4 hours to portage up and around the middle, very exhausting to say the least. Leave 3 hours to run the upper, maybe 4 for the middle, and 2 for the lower section. Be heads up for rattlesnakes when hiking. For this reason, Boxelder Canyon will never be a classic, but anyone looking for an adventure through a beautiful canyon will be rewarded with a very fun run.
UPPER SECTION
Triple Scoop (V-)
Rocket Launcher (V-)
Wild Turkey (V)
Gut Buster (V-)
Electric Slide (V)
Loaf (V+) (1st known decsent by Justin Merritt)
Dung Ball (V)
About halfway up the takeout hike.
LOWER SECTION (1st known Descent)
G-Spot (V) Precision is key, missing the G-Spot could result in you playing with yourself in a ledge hole.
Moist Curtains (IV+) Get ready for two big juicy curtains to guide you down.
Turbo Tongue (IV+)
We have to mention that Casper Mike deserves alot of credit for opening up this creek. He did alot of work scouting on foot the entire canyon, which is not easy given the rugged terrain, and we were rewarded with an amazing creek nestled right off of I-25. Thanks for showing us the way Mike!
Also, it should be noted that there are definitely access issues with this creek. While the canyon proper including the midpoint hike out/take out is on public land the putin and takeout are on private property. Mike has secured access to the putin for himself, and I am sure he would be happy to help out any other boaters wishing to check out Box Elder. The takeout in particular is a very sensitive as you have to cross over private propery to get to your vehicle. Despite having permission to cross the land, we were confronted by two seperate landowners, neither of which actually own the property that you need to cross. Both of these landowners had guns. Whether they were on display for our benefit or not is unknown, but know that these people are not messing around. At this point it is a good idea to contact CasperMike on the buzz and see if he can help arrange something if you decide to run this.
Trip report and photos by Ben and Chris
