Durango – Colorado has had one of its deadliest spring runoffs in a decade.
In a little more than a month, 10 people have died or are presumed to have died in rivers swollen with melted snow. Of the 10, seven involved watercraft – rafts, kayaks or inflatable boats. Three of the deaths occurred during commercial rafting trips.
Rescuers on Tuesday continued to comb a 2-mile stretch of the Arkansas River through downtown Pueblo in search of a 14-year-old boy who is presumed to have become the most recent victim.
Andrew McDaniel was in an inflatable raft with two other boys trying to navigate a new kayak course when the raft hit a rock and burst, tossing the boys in the water about 4:25 p.m. Monday, said Gary Micheli, spokesman for the Pueblo Fire Department. McDaniel was not wearing a life jacket.
The highest number of boating fatalities in the past decade occurred in 2000, with eight deaths.
Rick Storm, chief law enforcement officer for Colorado State Parks, said several years of drought have made people more careless.
“They underestimate the power of rivers,” he said. “People should be honest with themselves about their abilities and experience when they go boating. We don’t want people in over their heads.”
In Durango, shock and grief rippled among river guides over the drownings of two men Friday on the Upper Animas.
One man, 25-year-old Daryle Bogenrief, was a widely respected river guide for Mild to Wild Rafting. He and a tourist in his boat, 30-year-old Scott Licona of Lumberton, Texas, died after their raft flipped in the whitewater of the rugged canyon – the country’s only two-day stretch of Class IV and Class V rapids.
Both men were wearing helmets, life vests and wetsuits.
Mild to Wild Rafting ceased operations at least through Tuesday’s funeral for Bogenrief.
“They’re very shaken,” said Casey Lynch, owner of Mountain Waters Rafting, who has been acting as a spokesman.
Mild to Wild clients were given the option of canceling their bookings or going with Mountain Waters. They flocked to Mountain Waters for trips on the Lower Animas, the tamer part of the river that runs through Durango. And clients booked for the more dangerous Upper Animas still wanted to go too.
“The first thing we tell people is that there were drownings,” Lynch said. “We changed our Upper Animas trip because our guides are still pretty shocked. The water is still high.”
He said his only cancellations were people unhappy because the river trip had been shortened to make it less dangerous.
Colorado State Parks, which licenses commercial river outfitters, investigated Friday’s drownings and should complete its report in two weeks, said Storm.
The state sets minimum safety requirements for outfitters that cover the equipment that must be on board, training of guides and orientation of clients. The requirements don’t vary from river to river.
Storm said the requirements are adequate and that compliance among outfitters is good. They have, for the most part, he said, very safe records.
Paul Witt, a spokesman for the Colorado River Outfitters’ Association, said that last year, more than half a million people took commercial river trips.
Outfitters on the Upper Animas say they screen clients to make sure they have the experience, ability and conditioning to undertake the adventure. They provide river-safety classes on the Lower Animas. Guides and clients all wear wetsuits, life vests and helmets.
Because the Upper Animas is in the San Juan National Forest, the Forest Service also requires safety and operations plans before it issues any permits.
The deaths of Bogenrief and Licona were the first ever for a professional outfitter in the 25 years commercial trips have been offered on the Upper Animas.
In the last 10 years, the number of river outfitters running this whitewater realm has increased from two to seven, although only five are very active, according to Forest Service spokeswoman Ann Bond.
Lynch said that outfitters, who once waited for the peak flows to subside before attempting the stretch, have been going earlier in bigger water.
“It is not Disneyland,” Lynch said. “It is not a ride on a track. It is a river. It is wilderness. God forbid they don’t let us have wilderness. Some of us want more out of life than protection.”
Butch Knowlton, head of La Plata County’s Office of Emergency Management, said an accident on the Upper Animas is one of his greatest worries.
“More and more people are being introduced to a spot that is so remote there is no way you can have a conventional, timely emergency response,” he said.
In Pueblo, the problem Monday may have been the lure of water on a hot summer day in the city.
Micheli, the Fire Department spokesman, described the raft on which McDaniel was riding as “the kind that you’d probably buy at Kmart or Wal-Mart.” None of the boys was wearing a life jacket, a protection required by law on the river.
The presumed drowning follows the death Sunday of a 54-year-old California man, who was swept away by Clear Creek near Golden.
Staff writer Erin Emery contributed to this report.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
