Warm Springs – Full Film from Rig to Flip on Vimeo.
(The above embed is the full length 21 minutes and some video; for the attention or time-challenged here’s the trailer version.)
Fly fishers aren’t the only ones seduced by the siren’s call of rivers big and small.
When She Who Must Be Obeyed and I first migrated to the West (Salt Lake City) in 1984 for my post-doc training, we embraced with wide-eyed wonder the recreation so closely tied to Utah’s abundant snows.
Downhill skiing was shamefully cheap (weekday pass at Alta was still just $10) and downright rustic (read better) compared to today; as entertaining as that was we quickly became enamored with the rivers of the West. This was back in the day when today’s high tech polymer raft coatings were but a dream; giant war surplus rafts still plied the Colorado, Green and Yampa. Hell, we still drug around a vinyl-covered, wooden-frame kayak (a Folboat) my family had assembled in the garage when I was in middle-school.
A group we rafted with drew a short-notice Yampa permit and fate allowed me to wiggle my schedule enough to make the iconic five day run through Dinosaur. It was one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever done and a trip that should still be on your bucket list.
Seeing Sinjin Eberle’s tweet about the Warm Springs Rapid a few days ago zapped me back now nearly 30 years to that trip. American Rivers recently help sponsor an in-depth look at the Yampa, its place in American river conservation history and the Warm Springs Rapid in particular (article here).
It may not be fishy in terms of our usual fare, but those who love free-flowing rivers need to spend 20 minutes on the Yampa today…
