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TR: Colo Gorge 29-Jan-2013 At 12:59:34 PM Superstu

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The weekend's planned climbing activities weren't looking so good:

So En and I decided it was a good opportunity to go check out the gorge on the Colo River. Access isn't easy and involves a 4WD bash along a muddy track from the Putty Rd (in some holes water was up to Subie's bonnet!?) followed by a solid bushwalk down into the Wollemi Creek.

Rafts all packed and ready to go...

To our delight Wollemi Creek had some decent water, enabling some cruisy paddling.
There were quite a few boulder chokes that needed portaging though, hard work.

yootoob video if the embedded link isn't working..
http://youtu.be/1je0VmD8_W4

Note: All images in this trip report have been blurred to protect the identities of those involved.

After an hour or so, Wollemi Creek joins the Colo River, and we had hoped for some good paddling. Unfortunately the river is quite sandy here and so is very shallow. We were mostly walking, with our packs in the boats being pushed along (I guess that's still better than walking with them...?)

It was approaching dark so we found a nice sandbank to set up camp for the night.

It rained on and off during the night and everything stayed stupidly damp. But in the morning we were in for a delight; the river had risen a foot or two thanks to the last day of rain.

No more portages, it would be paddling all day today!

http://youtu.be/_9UTtT3Y0tU

You've probably figured out from the video that En actually knows how to paddle, where-as I just imitate a human pinball machine and boof my way down. Normally I don't actually like whitewater, and a near-drowning experience on a post-mountaineering-relaxo-kayak expedition in Nepal convinced me mountains are where I belong. But packrafts seem to tame rivers a bit and are very forgiving (unlike river boats that seem intent on having me drink river water at the slightest indiscretion)

There was only one really big boulder choke in the middle of the gorge that was too tight for the rafts. In higher water I would guess it would be a really technical paddle, 4+.

For climbers the Colo is an enigma, so much beautiful rock, totally inaccessible, and invariably soooo chossy. Still, opportunities for riverside bouldering abound..

I explored up one side creek in search of drinking water, and managed to step into one of the Colo's notorious quicksand holes that wasn't at all easy to extricate oneself from.

The walk out involved several hours of uphill scrub bashing in the pouring rain, blech. Very pretty mountains though...

http://youtu.be/hhJVtTnZw6o