It's always sunny and warm in Glenwood Springs

Come the latter half of the summer, most of my days are spent shuttle driving for Blazing Adventures as the water on wild rivers gets lower and lower, and operations shift to other, more dam-controlled rivers.  With the local trips on the Roaring Fork River on the wane, thanks in part to a rapidly melting snowpack and only a few bursts of precipitation since Memorial Day, we have started bussing our clients down-valley to Glenwood Springs, where the temps reach the mid-nineties and the sun blazes down with ferocity.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still get wet and guide some river trips during this time, and Blazing Adventures is continually booking some exciting trips, but just as the summer wears on for schoolkids who haven’t finished their assigned reading lists, our days spent trekking Interstate-70 quickly become routine.

A shuttle driver has a few choices on how to spend those couple of hours while the raft trips meander down the Mighty Colorado’s Glenwood Canyon.  It’s a good bet you’ll find a driver taking their weekly shower in the river’s slower eddies, making sure not to scrub too hard in order to keep the patchouli oil from washing off; or a shuttler/kayaker combo might bring his boat out and surf Glenwood Spring’s infamous playwave.  Not I, for another calling continues to oust my thoughts from that of the record July temperatures and on to wispy dreams of another approaching winter season.

C4 Waterman Parmenter Keaulana Classic

I have found two activities to occupy my time, each of which helping to engage the frontal lobe or get my heart pumping hard.  On sunny days, the choice is easy: I grab my inflatable stand-up paddleboard (iSUP) and cruise with the bus and clients to the river put-in.  I help unload the boats, ditch the deflated iSUP board and paddle, drop the bus at the bottom of the Shoshone Rapids section one mile down, and then run the bikepath back to the put-in.  The whole turn-around takes about 20 minutes, and after a quick pump session, I’m ready to make like Jesus and walk some waves.  There’s nothing like the rush found in running rapids while balancing on a floating rubber log.  With a little practice, even ‘Man-eater Rapid’ can be trounced on two feet.

If it’s a rainy day, I tote my laptop with me to set up shop down at the Oasis (our private take-out) and commence slapping away at the keyboard.  I have found that maintaining a website during the winter months finds me in a multi-tasking situation, where balancing being part of the party and building content from said party have a way of conflicting.  Thus, my summer months are spent digesting my snow-filled experiences and adding the stories to my site, either through written word, video or photo galleries.  With a little shade and some electrical outlets, the long day of shuttling morphs into a productive web editing session.  Talk about multi-tasking!

Tags: Aspen, Blazing Adventures, Colorado River, Glenwood Canyon Resort, Glenwood Springs, iSUP, raft, rafting trips, Roaring Fork, Shoshone Rapids, Snowmass, stand up paddleboarding, whitewater rapids