Animas River Days (day 1)

Oh, it was a long drive to Durango, CO (like 9 hours - 470 sum miles), but it was pretty schweet! I left my place at 4:15 am and pick up Smoothanne in P.V. and then on to pick up Xtine in Anthem, and then on to Flagstaff to meetup with Lin-Dah and then the big push thru Tuba City, AZ, and Keyanta, AZ and Four Corners and then Cortez, CO and we ended up in the Lightner Creek Campgroundcampground was pretty kewl. It was 5 minutes or less from downtown Durango, it had a nice ramada for our group camp, showers and swimming pool. Weary from the drive, I was still stoked beyond belief to float with my peeps and to get my first class III rapid (Smelter Rapid) on the Animas River under my belt. We put in on the Animas here, it was crowded, but what do you expect, it was Animas River Days. And we floated 7 miles down river to the Home Depot. The flow was only about 1,000 cfs, it was still wicked fun. And Smelter did not disappoint. I am sure it is more terrifying when the flow is about 4k, but today the class III drops were no biggy. I think we pulled off the river around 6:00, and followed that up with a most excellent beer and meal at Carver's Brewery. Here is a video of Day 1: