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Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs kayaking enthusiast Dan Piano went to sleep Monday night after a long weekend of kayaking at Cross Mountain Gorge downstream from Steamboat on the Yampa River.

And when he woke up the next day, it was time.

Charlie’s Hole, Steamboat’s best-known spring kayaking playground, was ready.

“It really just got enough water this week,” Piano said. “It just started getting fun.”

A spike in the river’s discharge turned the still-lazy Yampa into a kayaker’s delight earlier this week. The river was running at about 300 cubic feet per second as recently as Monday afternoon. A surge of water doubled that mark in the next 48 hours, however, and by Wednesday afternoon the river was running at nearly 650 cfs in downtown Steamboat Springs.

Just because the river was running Wednesday doesn’t mean much for the season, however. Local kayakers said just what the spring of 2010 will hold remains to be seen.

The decreased snowfall for the region isn’t necessarily a bad sign, some said. It still all depends on the weather.

“It just depends on how warm it gets how quickly,” said Barry Smith, of Steamboat’s Mountain Sports Kayak School.

What the season turns into depends on the next couple of weeks. A warm streak could melt off the high-country snow and send all that water crashing into the Yampa in a short span.

A more tempered weather cycle could lead to a longer season but no overwhelming whitewater.

Smith said the season could be perfect for his classes, a slow melt and the overall lack of snow turning the river less treacherous and easier to access.

Piano, too, was hoping to stretch the season out.

“I always prefer a longer season,” he said, already planning out an afternoon on the water. “Our kayak season here is so short, we take any weeks in addition we can get.”