After an all-day, 21-mile hike down from Stony Pass yesterday, I was excited to rest my feet and start paddling on the Rio Grande today.  

I planned to spend three days getting to Creede, about 30 miles downriver from the well-named Thirty Mile Campground.   

I had not planned on the river flowing at 1,100 cubic feet per second and nearly topping its banks.  Even after a late start, the magic-carpet ride of the Rio Grande delivered me to Creede by mid-afternoon. 

Along the way, I got an up-close view of where the West Fork Complex Fire burned to the river’s edge. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to see all of those thousands of trees on fire. 

Yesterday, I met Elmer and ShaRay Rock. The father and daughter were out spotting bighorn sheep in preparation for the hunting season, which will begin in August.

ShaRay won the hunting lottery and drew a ram tag this year.  As a member of the Ute tribe, she would have a week head start on the other hunters, but it would not matter if she did not know where the sheep were.  

Elmer described the mass exodus of animals out of the Rio Grande National Forest as fires raged last summer. He speculated about what the charred remains of the trees and new growth of plants would mean for the animals this year. It all added to the puzzle of trying for a successful hunt.   

But no matter what, he knows the lack of snow and rain is affecting everything. He said the grasses in the meadows are about half as high as usual and the black flies and mosquitos are not nearly as bad as usual. 

Tensions are rising as water supplies dwindle, he said.  

“People are going to end up getting shot about water again,” he said.   

With that in mind, I soaked up the fast ride to Creede.  By the afternoon, the water levels were already dropping.

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