Kayak Days at Lyons, CO

It has been a cold and rainy weekend here in Lyons. Originally we had planned to go to Rockey Mountain National Park for a week, but it is hard to get a camping spot there, and now it has turned so cold and miserable, we have decide to stay down here at lower elevations, where it is warmer and we have full hook-ups for electric, water and sewage.

Near and in the park here, over the weekend, there was a gathering of kayak enthusiast. Since this is a sport where the participants get soaked, the rainy weather only slowed down the spectators. The creeks and rivers are extremely high here, so the events were moved to areas where the water level was satisfactory.

On Saturday we drove up the canyon to watch the extreme kayak racers. The rapids there are Class 4 and Class 5, I was told, and I certainly can believe that! There were rapids and falls six to eight feet high, with huge boulders causing "holes" that had to be avoided. Sometimes, a kayak racer did not make it, and was overturned. No one was hurt, but I would think it was very dangerous. The accompanying picture shows one of the racers, successfully navigating a water fall.


The other event was held in the creek that passes through our campground. In this event, the participants paddle into a "hole" below a fall, and do all sort of tricks, such as frontward and do backward somersaults and figure eight maneuvers. The picture here shows one contestant at the beginning of a front somersault.

Eagles in Lyons, not a pun

We are now parked in an RV Park in Lyons, CO, a small town about 15 miles from Boulder, where Debbie lives. This town in backed up to the foothill of the Rocky Mountains. So in back of our RV there is a small river or creek flowing, and the roaring rapids can be heard from our open windows. On the other side of the river are tall red cliffs rising up perhaps one hundred feet. These are sandstone cliffs, and obviously are some of the first fold of the plateaus of the Great Plains, that further west become the Rocky Mountains.
We have been entertained over the last week watching a pair of Golden Eagles, tending their chick in a nest built high in he cliffs. The photo shows one of the eagles in the nest with the chick.

The eagles seem to spend an hour or two tending the chick, usually first thing in the morning or late at night.
Sometimes one or both parents will be soaring and then one will suddenly plunge down and with a great fluttering of wings and movement, appear to kill something. Sometimes, whatever, they have killed is returned to the nest, where presumably the chick will eat it.

Other times the eagles will be perched on a nearby pinnacle, or even in another old nearby old eagle's nest, I suppose keeping an eagle eye on things. However, most of the days the parents are gone, living the chick to fend for itself. I have read that the eagles usually lay two eggs. However, the largest chick, usually the one the hatches first, usually kicked its sibling out of the nest.

A good question is how does the chick get sufficient water. I suppose it must get enough water from the prey it is fed. Still, these birds must have an amazing biochemical system of water conservation.

We are enjoying our time here. Beside eagle watching, we are spending time with our daughter and her family -- enjoying some time with Katie, who we have not seen for some time. Madeline and I walked the 10K track in the Bolder boulder Memorial Day "Race" ( race? we walked the whole way.) I must say every year this gets harder and harder -- really a little more difficult than I think it should be. Oh well, something to discuss with the MD at the mayo clinic this fall!

We went four-wheeling the other day on a rather difficult and challenging course.