8 - 2/7/2009 - Green River Headworks

The Headworks is a short run above the Green River Gorge. I usually do this run with new boaters who want to improve their skills or with boaters who just aren't up to the rapids in the Gorge. In this case, the main reason to run the Headworks was time. I met a friend at the takeout at 3PM, which is about as late as you can meet and do this run in early February, since the park closes at 5:30. The problem is that if anything goes wrong and you don't get out of the park in time, your car gets towed. So, we decided to opt for the alternative takeout across the river, which doesn't have a gate closure.

The run itself was uneventful. The flow was around 720cfs, which is low but every rapid can be run without getting stuck. There had been a log at Railroad Bridge Drop (the first class III rapid), but the high water in previous weeks cleaned it out. We got to the takeout with plenty of light, so we decided to run Ledge Drop One. This is one of the rapids I flipped on the previous week, so I wanted another shot at it. At the bottom of Ledge Drop One, we carried our boats back up to the top, ferried across the river to the takeout.

As we left, I noticed that the time was just past the park closing time. If we had done the full run down to the lower takeout in the park, we might have been able to barely make it by pushing ourselves, but if there had been any problems on the river things would have been tough. So, it turned out to be the right choice.