The kayak course in the Arkansas River provides more than just fun for boaters. The stone outcroppings that help create a variety of water features in the course also make good places to sit and enjoy the river without getting wet. Temperatures in the 70s, making it seem more like summer than the last week of winter, should continue today with a cool-down expected later in the week.

City, Corps of Engineers to study kayak course
Damage from high flows to be repaired, ways to reduce future maintenance sought.
By CHRIS WOODKA THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
The Army Corps of Engineers and the city are evaluating the Downtown kayak course after brief high flows damaged portions of it last summer.
Work on the structures won’t actually begin until after Nov. 15, when river flows below Pueblo are reduced during the winter water storage program.
“The Army Corps of Engineers are doing a review of the temporary improvements in the next couple of weeks,” said Scott Hobson coordinator of the Legacy Program for the Pueblo Planning Department.
Meanwhile, the city will receive its own review of the kayak course from its designer Gary Lacy, who is nationally recognized for his work on designing boating courses across the nation.
The Corps of Engineers actually considers the work it did in the river a fish ladder, which provides shelter and habitat for fish behind boulders below the dam. The kayak course is a structure with wings of grouted boulders jutting into the river from Fourth Street to Union Avenue.
The course consists of eight features, or holes, that provide a whitewater experience for kayakers at certain flows.
Hobson said the city is looking at the possibility of adding an additional grouted layer of rock terraces along the south side of the river, along the bluff. Other improvements include deciding how to fill parts of the bank that washed out and how to deal with material that washed out of the course and formed a bar at the end of the course.
“We had flows of 5,500 cubic feet per second one day last summer that washed out fill material and caused some erosion,” Hobson said. “We have to do some reshaping on No. 8 to get some of the rocks cleaned out.”
The flows were far above normal, but within limits of what the course could experience in future heavy rains.
During the winter repairs, the city also will be looking to reduce the amount of maintenance required on the course. Hobson said it is important to get the design right before signing off on a final contract with the Corps.
“We don’t want to have the project released and have the city responsible for major repairs, maintenance or improvements each year,” Hobson said. “Hopefully, when we get the terracing, it will be more permanently stabilized. Otherwise, it could cost $20,000 or $30,000 a year for maintenance.”
The city also is looking at putting a permanent trail along what is now a maintenance road, as well as a footpath closer to the kayak course.
Hobson said work is expected to be done before higher flows next spring.
The kayak course was built in conjunction with a recreational in-channel diversion water right obtained by Pueblo after five years of litigation last spring. The court case led to the 2004 intergovernmental agreement that, in part, limits exchanges on the river through Pueblo during certain flow conditions.
The kayak course also has been the site of several events this year, the most recent during last month’s Chile and Frijoles Festival. Lacy designed the course so that it would be more challenging during low flows and at times when kayaking opportunities in other parts of the state were limited.

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