Boulder canyon, Colorado

     One evening I was sitting around the house wondering where to go climbing when the phone rang.  One of my best friends, James Donell of Boulder, was on the other end.  "You ain't going to believe what James has done" he exclaimed.  Here is where the confusion starts:  two climbers named James living in Boulder and both transplanted Georgia Boys.

    He went on to tell me about James Castro's crazy hose scheme.  It seems that he got the bright idea to start siphoning water out of the Boulder Canyon aqua duct and use it for creating ice climbs.  Well all the local climbers thought it was a jolly good idea and the Boulder Profiteer, Neptune, and others started buying hoses and donating them to James.  He kept dragging hose and making climbs and everybody was happy.

     The Water Authority wasn't pleased but after some negotiations James worked out an unofficial deal that kept the water flowing.  Soon everybody wanted to jump on the band wagon and make some money off the deal.  A popular ice festival organizer wanted to increase the hosing and have a large event, someone else then wanted to have those rights then it all got stinky and the water pigs shut James down.

     I was there dragging hose myself when a crew came down the aquaduct line pulling out the hoses and putting padlocks on the grates.  This ended the fun when water rights and access became an issue.  I understand though that other areas of Colorado out of site of the road still spring the occasional temporary leak.  Anybody you see in these photos that ain't me is named James...

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