To All,
Its
that time of year again, when all of the bills come due from various
state and federal agencies as well as insurance, all in service of
providing floating and shuttle service for you, the general public. In
addition, on my last trip of the season last fall, I managed to break an
oar while running Pinball Rapid through some very skinny water. Time
for some new oars!
For that reason I'll be having an early season sale, something I
haven't done for a couple of years. As always, if you buy a trip now,
it won't expire until I do, so if for some reason you can't make it out
here this year, you will still get another bite at the apple the next,
or whenever so long as I'm still breathing (and rowing). You can pay
with checks, credit cards, or Venmo. The price for a full day of
fishing the prettiest stretch of the Lower Upper Colorado River is $450,
but I'm only going to sell a few at that price! When you purchase I
float, I'll send you a certificate so that you've got something tangible
to hold onto, so trips can also make good gifts.
Soon I'll be completing my sixty-fourth trip around the sun, so
replacing my heavy ten foot oars was probably due. I can still row all
day without effort while I'm on the water, but the moment my big
cataraft touches the sand at the takeout, I suddenly feel every stroke
all at once. Rowing back to back days isn't an option anymore, for it
takes me a full day of not rowing to get over a day on the
river. My last set of oars lasted over twenty years, which amounts to
many tens of thousands of strokes into the Colorado River, (and fewer
into the Eagle, Roaring Fork, Yampa, Green and Gunnison rivers). What
I'll be replacing them with will be the lightest damn oars I can find,
which will be pricey. But if they can extend the amount of years I can
keep doing this, then it will be money well spent. Plus, it will add to
the time you can cash in on your discounted trip, so its a win-win for
everyone!
Paying all of the fees necessary to various governmental entities each
year is something I normally dread. But this year, its not bothering me
as much as usual, especially for the biggest check I write which is to
the Bureau of Land Management. The reason that I won't mind writing
that check to the BLM this year is that our federal government is under
attack by, well the federal government. In the twenty years that I've
run my outfitting business, I've dealt with many federal employees who
work for the BLM, the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, and
the US Fish and Wildlife Service. I depend on weather forecasts from
NOAA, and obsessively check the real time state of the river using gauge
information provided by the USGS. Of course, saying that these people
work for the federal government is not quite correct. These folks work
for we the people, and each federal employee that I've personally
dealt with has been professional, hardworking and diligent. Now almost
all of them are walking on eggshells, dreading the thought of checking
their email and finding a message from DOGE waiting for them.
With as many employees as the federal government has, I'm sure that
there are bad apples, and some deadwood that could be trimmed. I've just
never dealt with any of those. But if you think that the federal
government is too large, its worth noting that the number of federal
employees is about two million, or about what it was in the 1960's.
That's despite the fact that the amount of people they serve is much
larger that it was then. The portion of the federal budget their
paychecks account for is 6%. So although perhaps there are
federal employees we could do just fine without, those cuts should
probably be made with something more akin to a scalpel, not a chainsaw.
Since the BLM is the big one in my world, its worth noting what they do
here along the Upper Colorado River. The BLM regulates the number of
outfitters who ply their trade here, maintain the boat ramps, keep the
bathrooms clean, and oversee the river shuttle services. As busy as the
Colorado River can get at times, especially above State Bridge, I
shudder to think what it would be like without their oversight. On some
rivers like the Eagle and Roaring Fork, which are relatively easy to get
permits for, there are days when it looks like bumper cars out there.
Boaters crawl up each other's backsides on the boat ramps, then spend
the day on the water doing the same, leapfrogging each other to get into
the next good hole first. So, for as much river traffic there is on the
Colorado now, it would be much worse without the BLM's oversight. If
one is willing to run some of the trickier sections of the river,
solitude can still be found on the Colorado River.
So even though writing that check to the BLM isn't going to make me
jump for joy, I am proud to support the work they do. And for this year
at least, I'm glad to have some tangible way to show that support. The
Colorado River that we all know and love would be a very different
place without the BLM, and the fine dedicated people who fill their
ranks.
Time to hop off the soapbox now. The 2025 river season is upon us. With
what's shaping up to be a slightly subpar snowpack, the river is year
looking like this. It will probably fish great this spring until the
runoff begins in early May. Since reservoirs will need to be refilled,
the runoff will probably not be a huge one. This will be disappointing
to those (like me) who enjoy smashing into big waves, but the upside is
that all of that water being hoarded behind dams in the spring will be
available to be released later in summer. Whether the monsoons come in
July or not, its good knowing that there are millions of gallons stored
upriver that can be let out to cool the river off. For that reason, the
"Lower" Upper Colorado River is in the best spot to be in anywhere in
the American southwest. Its below the supply (Green Mountain, Dillon Reservoir, Williams Fork, Wolford Mountain, and Lake Granby) but above the
demand (the Grand Valley, Powell Reservoir, the Imperial Valley, and
other points south like Phoenix and San Diego). When those distant
places call for water, it has to come through here to get there. There is literally nowhere else I'd rather be.
I hope that everyone reading this has a great summer, and a great job as long as they deserve to have one!
Jack Bombardier
Confluence Casting
jack@confluencecasting.com
303 378 2149 - cell
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