Friends of the Poudre Summer 2000 Newsletter

14th annual event is on June 3

Poudre River Festival: Discover the river in Old Town

The 14th annual Poudre River Festival will be held June 3 at Legacy Park with the purpose of helping people discover the value of the river corridor near the Old Town area of Fort Collins.

The festival will feature raft rides in two locations - on the river along the northern edge of Old Town Fort Collins and in the lower Poudre Canyon - and a variety of activities, including kayak races, flycasting clinics, picnic lunch, and educational booths hosted by civic and environmental organizations.

The event will start at 9:30 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m. There will be no charge to attend the festival.

Legacy Park is across the river from Lee Martinez Park, but is a little-known site to many area residents. To know where to turn west off North College Avenue to reach Legacy Park, festival-goers will need to watch for a Friends Of The Poudre banner that will be located north of the Old Town railroad tracks. The west turn is just north of the Vine and College intersection.

In the past, the festival - the longest continuously held annual celebration for any Colorado river - was conducted at the proposed Gateway Park site in the lower Poudre Canyon as part of a Friends Of The Poudre awareness campaign to raise public support for opening Gateway Park. The nonprofit organization took the lead in a successful 12-year effort to raise $1.2 million to open the scenic 377-acre mountain park at the confluence of the Poudre main stem and the North Fork of the Poudre.

Construction to make entryway improvements will begin this summer; the park will be opened next summer.

"We feel like we accomplished our goal of opening Gateway Park, so we decided to move this year's festival to another site that is in the public eye," explains David Lauer, president of Friends Of The Poudre. "During the last year, there has been growing public interest in the river corridor, particularly near Old Town, so we thought the festival would be a good opportunity for people to see in person the value of the river in an urban setting."

Public interest has focused on a downtown river corridor development project and revisions of flood plain regulations. Both topics are under review by the city of Fort Collins.

The festival will be the first time the public will be able to take organized raft rides on the river where it skirts along edge of Old Town Fort Collins to East Mulberry Street. The raft ride will take slightly less than an hour and cost $10 for an adult; $5 for a child under 12.

During previous festivals, people had the opportunity to take a 3-mile raft ride from Gateway Park to Lower Picnic Rock picnic grounds near the canyon mouth.

Similar rides will be available during this festival. Commercial rafting companies will pick up people at Legacy Park and transport them to the lower canyon launch site on round-trip bus rides.

Cost: $25 for an adult; $20 for a child 12 years or younger.

The canyon raft rides include lunch; lunch for people who ride rafts in town are $3 instead of $5.

The rides will be provided by licensed guides from A-1 Wildwater, Rocky Mountain Adventures, Mountain Whitewater Descents, Rapid Transit, Rocky Mountain Adventures, and Wanderlust. Poudre Paddlers and The Mountain Shop will host the kayak races.

People who are interested in canyon rafting are encouraged to purchase tickets early at The Mountain Shop, 632 S. Mason, or call Chuck Wanner, Friends Of The Poudre executive director, at (970) 484-0810.

Tickets for the in-town raft rides will be available on a first-come basis at the festival.

Click here to view the event poster.