The Eagle County sheriff is mulling a boating ban on the Eagle River, following a slew of rescues as the river swells with snowmelt.
Last Monday, Sheriff Joseph Hoy’s rescue team plucked 19 rafters from the swollen river after a trio of commercial crafts capsized in a foaming hole near the town of Eagle. Two weeks earlier, two women and their dogs required rescuing after their raft keeled in the same rapid. Everyone in both accidents was OK.
“It’s not something he wants to do, but if he keeps getting rescue calls, it’s something he will do,” said sheriff’s spokeswoman Shannon Cordingly. “We are hoping we don’t get any more calls.”
The ban would not affect single-paddler canoes or kayaks, which are protected by state law — with some exceptions — from safety-oriented bans. It would prohibit commercial boating on the river, which supports a healthy stable of rafting companies.
Chris Reeder, part owner of the Vail Valley’s venerable Timberline Tours rafting operation, has joined several other rafting companies in voluntarily bypassing trips on the stretch of river through Eagle. He’s also planning to paddle a few deputies down the river this week.
“So they can actually see what goes on on the river,” Reeder said. “A lot of these decisions are based on the amount of calls they have to respond to on the river and sometimes, I think those decisions can be made pretty hastily.”
With the Eagle River rising several feet in the past week and peak flows expected next weekend, typically fun rapids are becoming dangerous. Former bumps become foaming raft-flippers. That requires rafting companies to constantly adapt their trip plans, Reeder said, making adjustments to suit their rubber-riding guests.
And as the water rises, recreational rafters tend to wait.
“It seems like a lot of people have wised up recently,” Reeder said. “I haven’t seen any private boaters all week.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
