Not a Day for a Mountain Ride
OK, I admit it, I am just as curious as anyone else to see an area I’m familiar with after disaster has struck it. I had been thinking for a while that I’d like to see the aftermath of flooding in Boulder Canyon, and that didn’t seem like an unreasonable thing to do considering that they got the canyon completely open again pretty quickly.
Who knew Coal Creek Canyon was not open? Not me.
Blasting out 285 it started getting chilly with the high-speed breeze but I knew I was only going to be going fast for a short while. It also started getting quite windy. I turned north on C-470 and cruised up through Golden and onto Rocky Flats on CO 93. I had decided I would run up Coal Creek Canyon and catch the Peak-to-Peak to Nederland and then come down Boulder Canyon to Boulder. Didn’t happen.
As I turned off 93 at the road to Coal Creek Canyon there was a sign flashing that said “Highway 72 closed to Blue Mountain.” Say what? Where the heck is Blue Mountain? Is that a mountain, a town, a road, . . . ? So I decided to ignore the sign.
There was obviously something going on because all along the road there was a pipeline that had been laid aboveground–presumably temporary–carrying who knows what into the canyon. And there were trucks. And then there was that roadblock in the photo above. Figuring on pleading that I had no idea where the road was blocked to because I don’t know where Blue Mountain is, I went past the roadblock.
Not far beyond, however, there was another roadblock, this one manned by a state trooper. No skipping past this one. The guy I spoke to said Coal Creek got a lot worse flood damage than Boulder Canyon or several others. Really? I told him honestly that I had had no idea that was the case. And I said I guessed I’d take a different route.
So back to 93 and on up to Boulder I went. From there I headed up Boulder Canyon, figuring to just run up to Nederland and then back down. It was right near the mouth of the canyon that I saw some evident flood damage and repair. At about five bends the water wanted to go straight and when the bank interfered it ate away the bank. And the road. But fill had been brought in, the banks restored, new pavement laid, and a temporary guard rail set up. In truth, it was not all that bad and not all that big a deal.
I thought surely there must be worse upstream, but as I continued up the canyon I came upon a bunch of small houses and buildings right next to the water that appeared completely undamaged. How could that be? I would have thought they would have been swept away if there was serious flooding. Best I can tell, the creek was raging but the banks were enough to contain it for the most part. And it must have only gotten concentrated down near the mouth of the canyon, maybe from adjoining canyons adding their flow to the total. In other words, nothing at all like what happened in the Big Thompson.
By now the sun had gone into heavy clouds, the wind was whistling down the canyon, and the temperature was dropping as I climbed. I was wishing I had my electric vest and thinking maybe I wouldn’t go all the way to Nederland. Then traffic came to a complete stop. We all sat there for quite a while as probably 200 vehicles came by the other direction. Obviously there was something big up ahead that forced everyone to take turns using a single lane. That must be what I want to see, I thought.
Eventually we started moving and less than a mile further on we came to the delay: a traffic accident that was in the final stages of getting cleaned up. Wonderful. And now I had to keep going and oh me, what a long line of traffic was backed up heading down the canyon. When I finally reached a place where I could turn around and get into the line I was a long way past the accident site. And we didn’t move for 10 minutes or more. Maybe 15. You better believe I wished while sitting there that I had my electric vest.
Finally we started to move, went past the accident site where things were completely cleaned up, and crept en masse back down to Boulder. And then I headed home. Back in Boulder the sun was shining and the temperature was a lot higher than up in the canyon. I guess this was not a day to plan a ride in the hills.
Biker Quote for Today
You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you make your passengers sit behind you in the rear seat instead of beside you.
Tags: Boulder Canyon, Coal Creek Canyon
October 28th, 2013 at 12:39 pm
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