Creeking In Zion Nat'l Park

Colorado correspondents Evan (Dotcom) Stafford & Kyle McCutchen filed THIS photo essay on their recent creeking mission to the SW corner of Utah. I coerced 'em into letting TRL in on the e-action. See visual evidence of neat desert kayaking stuff below.

Dang son, that's a Big Dam Drop!


Neat! Neat! Evan.Com stepping up for the 1D. ((if this is not a 1D, please let us know & we'll retract.))


Kyle contributes to the Mission Destruct-o-meter with this quality bit of paddle carnage. Blade explosion upon impact on the big dam drop.


Top-notch desert slot canyon scenery.


Yes! Kyle droppin into the buttcrack gorge.


Bluebird skies, desert heat & whitewater paddleboating go hand-in-hand-in-hand ... Dotcom in a "mighty green" Jefe.


It was about 1 year ago that I did a weeklong desert roadtrip with Kyle & Dotcom. We'd discussed Southern Sierra, PacNW, NC/WV, & the Little Colorado R., but at every turn we were discouraged by rapidly dropping flows & way too much risk of skunkage for the long drives. It was about 9pm when we finally shoved all our stuff into Kyle's immortal T-100 without so much as a plan & then just decided to head south to Arizona since at the time they were having a very wet spring. I recall our contingency should we get skunked in AZ was to come home early & hit the upper Taos Box at boat-breakin' low flow on the way back. Turns out, we scored big time in AZ. With a 2-day trip on the upper Somethin'-er-other at stompin' flow & a 2-day 1D of CHRISTOPHER CREEK, we came back to cold-ass Colorado with sunburns & stories. Wish I coulda been on this most recent desert adventure with these boys, who, it should be noted, are currently on tour throughout the Southern Rockies documenting new classics for an upcoming guidebook due to hit shelves Spring '07.

****

Did you check out the new mp3 player app over on the sidebar?? If you're runnin' PC, you'll need to browse with Mozilla Firefox (which you should be doing anyway) to get the audio tracks to load properly. Internet Exploder don't work. You don't have Firefox, ya say? Get it HERE & then listen to some choons while you waste time on The Range Life from now on.

Also, big shouts out to NORWOOD MATT & Frenchy for their assistance in getting this thing up & runnin'.

***

Reader Comment: ANDI OBERHARDT, who's been one of The Range Life's most dedicated fans from the git-go (ahem-stalker alert!-ahem), sez: "Hey man - you're welcome to rip on my employer when it's warranted but what is this: "If you're runnin' PC, you'll need to browse with Mozilla Firefox (which you should be doing anyway) to get the audio tracks to load properly. Internet Exploder don't work."
It works. I'm using a released version of IE6 and it works fine. Get yer facts straight."

So there you have it -- Internet Explorer ver.6 will allow you to rawk out. (Thanks, Andi)