The fun is in the canyon - Pics from Monday

[fourthmeal]

Just a little 19-mile, 5-hour ride up Little Elk Creek. It's one of those canyons you see from the road and think "Probably couldn't get up that one..." It's tight, V-bottomed and full of willows, short waterfalls and boulders the size of cars. Even if you sidehill the east wall through the trees (which I did to avoid the crap the group was dealing with at the bottom), you still had to fight steep, tight washouts, thick trees and boulders the size of cars. But it was one of the most fun rides of the season so far. I just hope all the tree marks rub off before Steve sees the sleds.

 

[fourthmeal]

Near the top end of the creek, once you climb out of the ravine.

 

[fourthmeal]

Car-sized boulder, with David McClure's HCR thrown in for aspect.

 

[fourthmeal]

McClure coming out of the last tight waterfall section of the ravine. It took three hours to get from the truck to here. Ask me sometime about the cross-country skiers we passed near the highway who re-passed us before we got to this point.

 

[fourthmeal]

And this is what was waiting for us above that last shot of McClure. We killed a couple hours up there. You can climb out that top ridge and drop into Sheep Creek.

 

[fourthmeal]

McClure wasting gas while a few guys panned for gold in the creek bottom.

 

[fourthmeal]

Nobody struck gold, but it sounded like they found a lot of sons of of something while McClure and I were up shooting. I couldn't really make out what they were saying, but there was a lot of enthusiasm whenever they found one.

 

[fourthmeal]

Devin Hess, Travis Byington and Richard Hess were swapping back and forth between our three 800s.

Byington on the Pro.

 

[fourthmeal]

 

[fourthmeal]

The old Jet-Ski submarine trick.

 

[toddb]

Near the top end of the creek, once you climb out of the ravine.

Amazing pics. What settings would you recomend I start with? I will be using a Canon G10 (I don't want to bring my D300 yet).

 

[fourthmeal]

And the old "Where's the kill switch?" trick. More from this one later..

 

[fourthmeal]

Byington feeling up the Summit E-Tec.

 

[fourthmeal]

Hey, didn't we pass you this morning just out of the parking lot?

 

[tudizzle]

the skiers are classic!




looks a bit technical

 

[Scott]

LOL...good day for a tether?

And the old "Where's the kill switch?" trick. More from this one later..

HAHAHA!!

Hey, didn't we pass you this morning just out of the parking lot?

 

[Mattxp]

Awesome pics.

 

[turboDS1300]

Very nice. You should've asked the skiers to pack in some extra gas for you so you could play longer.

 

[MtnMaxMod]

Sick pictures as always. That HCR sure pops.

That honestly looks like one of the most fun areas I've seen in a while.

 

[CatWoman]

Awesome pics!

When I rode with Steve, we got passed by people on rentals. Then he told us he was taking us up this place where there are big pillows that drop off...only trouble was it was zero visibility, and there was a bit of a *problem* trying to make it any further than we did (no one wanted to go farther than him and fall off the mountain...wish it would have been clear, loved riding with him!).