Clear Creek
09. Tunnel 1 Down(Tunnel One Down)
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportAt 150 cfs, you can park downstream of tunnel 1 and hike up to the large eddy on river left and float most everything, but there will be at least one section of inevitable scraping.
Started just below the damn. Enough water in packrafts if you stay in the channel. Washing out from the play waves in the park can have you scraping the bottom getting back into your boat
I found that at the lower flow (~250) there is a good bit of rock navigation trying to find a line without scraping (on packrafts). At 600 this is a really fun level. It goes fast.
Since the bike path is now complete to above the tunnel, you can park at the pullout above the tunnel and walk down as far as you want. Right below the little dam there are only 1 or 2 little spots to get in the water. Otherwise you need to start at the pedestrian bridge. If you start anywhere above the tunnel, there is no warm up before you're in the action!
From the little dam to below the tunnel is fairly continuous waves and little drops, with one left hand bend where all the water piles up on the rightside wall. Once you're below the tunnel it scales down a bit. As you run into Golden it becomes calmer as you get to the constructed pool-drop whitewater features.