Palmerfest and life

Well alot has happend in the last couple of weeks.

I spent the long weekend at Palmerfest. The weather was ok for the most part until it decided to rain on the sunday night and snow on the monday morning.

Here is the link to the pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157605150456465/

I found out last friday that my grandma Vicki out in BC had passed away.

I spent the basically spent this past weekend sleeping. I was supposed to go away paddling but woke up saturday morning feeling sick and dopey so I stayed home.

I managed to do some cleaning upstairs. I still have some tidying up to finish off in the basement.

I also managed to book my flight out west and get one of my bags packed. I am going to take a mini-vacation after the funeral on saturday.

I am going to head over to Montana on sunday to meet one of my Flickr contacts named Larry. We are going to do a photo shoot of some of the Montana wildlife. Some of his pics are here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larry-dears/sets/72157603269222815/

After that it will be back to Vancouver for 5 days to visit with my relatives.

Elora Gorge

I had never been to the Elora Gorge before. I knew there was a slalom race on the sunday.

I missed the down river race on saturday due to paddling on the Washago Black with my friend Ryan.

I thought I would head over and at least take pictures or help out with the race. The weather forecast was cloudy with chance of rain. Not idean for picture taking but I figure what the hell.
I finally made it there around 09:30 after making the two hour trek from Barrie. It would have been sooner but the Tim Hortons in Fergus had to be slower than the one in Petawawa and that is saying alot.

I ran into the Greve's family and they pointed me down to the river where I ran in Katina, Jim, Steve, and by fluke Greg. Aparently Greg and Al were going to be the only open boaters in the slalom race. The course was definitely not open boat friendly.

I took a couple of test shots near the hole at gate 13 but decided to venture further up river in the flat section. Luckily I had my booties on as the rocks were very slippery. I also had on my PFD for the just in case oopps into the river. The scenery in the Gorge is absolutely beautiful which warrants another trip back on a nicer day to take pictures of the river and the old buildings in towns of Elora and Fergus. I found a semi-rock ledge that was making its way across the river. I walked out on that as far as I could to take pictures. I had to drop dwon on one knee and get wet for each of the pictures I took of the paddlers.

These slalom boats can really move. It is amazing how they just zip in and out of the gates with ease. Well maybe more technique than ease as the paddlers made it look real easy. I continued taking pictures of all the slalom boats untl this one paddler in particular caught my eye. I had to do a double take thru the lense. Was I seeing things .... nope it was a play boat going thru the gates. To my surprise it was young Richard Maggs. This would be his first time doing a slalom race. This kid is an excellent playboater and puts alot of the older paddlers to shame at places on the Ottawa. Now there was something else different about his paddling style .... he actually had a smile on his face as compared to the serious zoned in look the ther paddlers had.

Smile:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/2484221139_bca30f6bbd.jpg

Serious:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3042/2487300386_d1ee960fb2.jpg

Next came the two open boaters. It was interesting to see them negotiate the course as it was a difficult one. They both did great considering how hard it was.

So here I am standing out in the river when I almost get run over by a play boater. The guy was definitely not paying very close attention. His paddling style is just as bad as his driving style. It turned out to be Kevin Maggs.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2290/2484027475_23a48cfe82.jpg

He spent the next little while watching the race while sitting in his boat on the ledge I was on. Now just prior to this I noticed that Richard was on shore looking depressed. I heard him oversay "Gee dad I didn't mean to come dead last!".

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/2484223209_9904d07c3e.jpg

Just kidding ... the above picture of Richard was taken just as he was picking up his boat to carry it up river. Kevin and I continued to watch the race when some of Richards friends stopped by just in time to cheer him on. The rest of the racers had now finished their final runs when the motly crue armada of play boaters came up to me led by this guy.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3136/2484854970_2ea87cddc1.jpg

They asked me if I had the GF with me and I said yep and that Greg and I were going to take a run down the river from just below the old mill to the low bridge.

I quickly changed into my paddling gear and we set up the shuttle on the way out to the Old Mill in Elora. We did a quick run down the river and managed to play in a few spots and check out the scenery. The only thoughts in my mind was how this run would scare the crap out of my in higher water with all the undercuts and potential toilet bowl eddys, etc. We managed to make it back just as the awards cermonies had finished. We had to make sure Greg got his medal.

After that I said my goodbyes and headed back home.

All the pictures can be found here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157605009013083/

Washago Black

Not much has been happening in my life except that work is starting to get super busy with all the new responsibilites I now have.

Ryan came down from North Bay and we met up at the Washago Black to have a fun but relaxing paddle for a few hours.

We went bare bones so I did not take the camera along this time.

We met at the take just after 1pm and ran into a group of paddlers just coming off the water. We were pretty well suited up and ready to go. We threw Ryans boat onto my car and gave Karonne a ride up to the putin so she could get hers. You should have seen the look on her face when see asked me for a ride and I responded with "Your not a kayker are you". She looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

We spent the day focusing on catching eddys, ferrying, and most important of all surfing. We managed to spend alot of time at various spots surfing up a storm. The best surf spot of the day for us was the last set before Pinkies.

We ran into a couple of other groups of paddlers we knew. The takeout basically turned into a gabfest.

Ryan took be back up to get my car. The Kraiker brothers were driving by and put on the breaks when they realized it was me. We caught on life as I had not seen them since last fall.

Ryan had to boogy as he was on a schedule as he had to pick up his bride in Burke's Falls in order to give her a ride home.

It was a great day just to be out on the river with friends.

I stopped at my friend Mark's place for dinner. His house was in demolition mode. I had to earn my dinner by taking out the toilet as he wasn't sure how. Also did some computer fixing as well.

I finally got home around 9pm and did a quick load of laundry and re-packed my paddling gear for sundays adventure.