Colin Moneypenny

Holy crap xmas and new years has come and gone

2012-01-12T18:26:00.000-05:00

Dang It!

I had a xcellent xmas with the fam jam.

I was supposed to go on a east coast work trip during new years only to have a last minute cancellation due to the flu running around on the remote end.

So I ended up spending new years eve day at my sisters place ripping out her kitchen base cabinets while my brother-in-law fixed all the drafts. I thought it was going to be a two day job but thanks to the cabinets not being screwed together and the counter top in the same way ... it ended up being a one day job.

I ended going home after that and spent new years eve having a few drinks and watching movies.

I spent the next three days of that pretty much sleeping as I felt like total crap.

Work has been crazy busy and I am going thru paddling with drawls.

Come on march get here

Life is going by to quick

2011-12-14T20:26:00.000-05:00

I have still been busy over the last few weekends working as the Troll in my sisters basement re-routing electrical pathways and the hot water heater.

I managed to squeeze in a couple of photo shoots in between the chaos of work and trying to get stuff down around my own house.

I am looking forward to some downtime during the xmas holidays to kick back and relax.

I hope to be able to get some outdoor winter landscape photography down ... but I need snow for that.

It's been raining alot ... upside is great for driving in but sucks for the skiers out there.

Keeping busy and losing weight

2011-11-15T14:46:00.000-05:00

I have been spending time at my sisters helping them sort out the electrical and other stuff in their house. I feel like a troll working in the basement. Well it's not what people would normally call a basement as it is seventy years old.

At least it keeps me occupied and allowing me to lose more weight.

I have now managed to lose 35 pounds since february and still going.

My goal is to go from 240 to 230 by march and then down to 220 by june and stay there

I have not been 220 since mid-80's

I am not on any fad diet or doing cleanses,etc

I just cut out alot of crap out of my diet

I don't count calories or anything like that

If I want to have that curry chicken or goat or go to mcdonalds I do it

I try not to eat after 6pm and dirink anywheres from 8 to 10 litres of water a day (yes ... I go pee alot)

I am keeping busy in my paddling off season working on my sisters house and another friends house

I find it really easy and feel great

I really noticed how great i felt a couple weekends ago when i was able to carry my new boat from the river up the steep hill to the parking lot without even stopping

I can't wait until spring paddling in march

Chillfest 2011

2011-11-08T14:38:00.000-05:00

Well last weekend there were ten of us paddling on the Lower Madawaska River.

It was close to freezing but at least the sun was out ... well mostly out.

I spent the day taking conservative lines down the river as I did not want to go for a swim even though I had my drysuit on. Had to rescue some boats buts thats par for the course.

The evening or shitshow as I like to refer to it was a great dinner and lots of drinks at the famous Wilno Tavern. I am glad we did not get kicked out when the private party started as it would have meant going back to a motel room to party.

I have to admit I was moving pretty slow on the sunday.

Brrr ... it's cold out ... what the hell happened to summer

2011-10-02T15:07:00.002-04:00

I can't believe that I had not posted anything since June.

My summer ... aka paddling season has been super busy!

I managed to to get in a 11 day and 12 paddling roadtrips to the south eastern USA on rivers in TN, GA, NC. SC.

I bought a new white water canoe and gave my old one to a friend of mind in North Bay for his girls to use.

It was a sad moment as I had 228 river days with her but I know she will be well loved.

Also paddled for a few days in WV for Gauleyfest which is a sad time for me as it means the end of my paddling season until spring.

I plan on spending the winter months doing more studio photography and working on my sisysers house.

I have managed to lose 27 pounds since february which is a good thing.

Another great weekend of paddling on the Lower Yough

2011-06-07T15:07:00.000-04:00

Life is back to normal with photography and paddling pretty much in full on mode for the rest of the summer.

I managed to get two great days of paddling in on the Lower Yough last weekend with my friends from North Carolina.

There were six of us in our group (4 open boats 2 kayakers) to start as we tended to be like magnets collecting more and more people as we paddled down the river.

The weather managed to hold out during the day for paddling on the saturday. But ... sometime during the middle of the night we had a crazy assed thunder and lightening storm. I enjoyed watching the light show but made sure I was totally on top of my air mattress.

Sunday morning was a mixed bag for weather but turned out to be a great day. I am glad the crew convinced me to bring the camera that morning as I go some amazing nature and paddling shots.

The food was amazing ... never seen so many great meals made in a dutch oven before ... definitely something I am going to look into.

Can't wait to get out paddling again ... hopefully soon on the Ottawa and if not that then Week of River in Western North Carolina beginning of July.

Holy crap ... what happend to may

2011-05-31T18:56:00.000-04:00

May was pretty much a blur.

I managed to get out paddling on the Middle Channel of the Ottawa River once at +20 on the gauge.

Also got in a Lower Madawaska River run at 100ish on the gauge.

Other then that it was study study study for my CIsco re-certification exam which I passed!

Now the paddling season can reall get going!

April went by fast

2011-04-27T12:13:00.002-04:00

Alot has happend over the month of April.

I did not get any paddling in at all ... have not been feeling the urger to do so.

I think that stems from being busy at work and also worry about have to study/pass my Cisco re-certification exam in June. It's been stressfully just thinking about it.

I also managed to accidentally break my brand new 50 to 135 mm F2.8 lense. I ended up slipping and when I fell forward my lense heavy camera hit the ground first. The lense totally sheared itself off the mounting plate.

Good news is ... camera is still ok.

I spent easter weekend with the rents. I spent about four hours saturday afternoon up on the roof installing the rain guard ... but ... at least I had a great dinner afterwards with my dad, step-mom and my crazy sister and brother-in-law who decided last minute to drive about 340km on a coffee run and end up at my dads.

Soon it will be time to get wor down around the yard for spring cleanup which is a joy in itself ... not!

A thank you note from a fellow paddler

2011-03-29T18:45:00.001-04:00

During my first paddling trip a couple weeks ago ... I spent a few days on the Little River in the Smokie Mountains in Tennessee paddling with Mark Toddhunter.

I paddle with alot of people and will help anyone of my Paddling friends out. Mark and I decided to run the river together ... just the two of us. We left the main group that were dilly dallying trying to put on the water and they were all in the little itty bitty boats. It made sense for Mark and I to paddle together as he was in his Outrage and me in the barge were failrly close together boat size wise.

We had a fantabulous day on the river together. I explained my bizarre paddling style to him. We were able to take the same lines versus the lines the beer coolers would take. Mark swam only two times which according to him is way less then normally.

At the end of the day he had a big smile on his face and apparently at the campfire that night he was super stoke about his experience on the river according to his son Matt and other that were there listening to him

Today I received the following email which made me feel really happy about that day of sharing:

Colin,

Hope you are well. Just wanted to say that I hope to come to the Yough trip that David Sink is coordinating. More than anything I wanted to thank you for the exceptional photographs that you were kind enough to take for us all at ALF. I have been wanting to “show off” to my pals at work for some time, and all I hear usually is “ so your goin raftin, or kayakin again?”. Now they have the great pictures of the real deal thanks to you. Next time you run Green Narrows I would gladly volunteer to take your photos if I could borrow your camera. Seriously I appreciate your work and our friendship. The day we paddled the Little was a much needed time for me. I had actually been considering selling all my stuff and taking up square dancing or something. You were an encouragement and made the day fun. You are indeed an ambassador for our sport.

Hope your hand has healed.

See you soon.
mt

End of sping roadtrip

2011-03-27T19:25:00.002-04:00

Well I have been home for just over a week.

Lets see if I can remember what happened during my last week of paddling.

All I remember is great times on great rivers which included three trips on the Little in the Smokies and a day on the Tellico.

It was great to stay in Lenoir City at Karen and Jeff's place as it made it convenient to go about visiting other paddler that were in the area.

The only hard part of the whole trip was the drive back home. I left Tennessee at 3:30am on the friday and 850 miles .... 15 hours later I was home. This was not bad considering I stopped for about an hour total time including gas, lunch, bathroom stops, and a border crossing.

Would I do that drive again ... yeppers ... am I looking forward to spring paddling down in the USA next spring ... yeppers.

I was definitely wiped the weekend after the drive back. It was pretty much a whole bunch of getting stuff done around the house intermixed with a lot of being in a unconcious state.

I did manage to upload the paddling pics I took during the trip on my flickr

It's still pretty cold at home ... and the ice is still in so paddling in out of the question.

I am hopefully going to keep busy with some up coming studio photo shoots plus some photo shop from some shoots I did just before I left.

Spring 2011 Roadtrip

2011-03-07T19:30:00.001-05:00

Well it's finally arrived ... my first USA spring roadtrip signalling the beginning of the 2011 paddling season.

The last couple of weeks were fairly busy ... I managed to squeeze in a couple of photoshoots and get all my paddling gear checked and packed.

I left home last thursday morning and headed off to work. My manager told me to hit the road at 10am but I could not as I had a whole pile of things I really needed to get done for other people on the team. After all ... I was leaving for two weeks and would not be sure if I would be checking in or not.

I manged to get out just before noon> The border crossing at Buffalo was rather painless. I got my normal anything to declare from one of the two US customs guys. The other one asked me where I was going. I said Tennessee and then he asked why and I pointed at the boated ont he roof. Turned out he was a kayaker.

I hade to make a stop in Morgantown, WV to pickup a boat for my buddy Jeff from Utah. This would be the second boat I have deleivered to Jeff in less then a year but at least this time I was not driving it all the way to Utah to drop it off.

After that I made it to my friends place in West Milford for the night. I was curious to see how far they were progressing on their bathroom reno. I now have a bet with them for a dollar. They say they will be done by the time I see them on my return trip back north on the 20th. I think not!

I left friday morning at the crack of dawn to make my way down to the Mulberry Fork races near Garden City, AL. I new this was going to be a long day of driving. I managed to break it up with a few stops including one in Lenoir City, TN to drop off the boat and the other at the Mohawk Canoe factory in Chattanooga, TN. I managed to pull into the campground of the races at 7:30ish which was really only 6:30 as I forgot about the timezone.

I learned something that day with the new GPS I bought. It told me that I would arrive at 17:05 ... but ... when it was 17:05 I noticed that there was still a really long pink line to follow on the gps. That was when I reallized I went through a timezone change by looking at the cell phone.

I ran into alot of friends at the registration booth. I paid my entry fee. After that I told them they had to change all their race info as due to me being there it was now a International race.

I quickly setup my tent in a high spot before the rain started which continued through the night. Luckily the it stopped during most of the slalom races on the saturday.

I did enter the down river race. It was nice to finally get back in my boat as it had been since last september that I was las in it. I had fun during the race. I got passed by lots of people but did not care. I played around in the rapids on the way down as I was just on a leisurely paddle. I ran some of the race gets when I got to near the end. After blowing one of the gates I ran the rest of the last set of rapids totally backwards practicing my skills. I then spun the boat around and paddled the last 60 yards or so standing up in my boat. I got an applause for that. Don't think they ever had that happen before.

After that I went and took a really really long front and back surf in the local play spot the kayakers were in. I stayed in there way long then any of them could.

After that it was back to the campground for the banquet dinner and awards. It was a great evening to just hang out and talk to new people. They were surprised at how far I had driven just to come to a race,

Unfortunately on sunday the races were cancelled due to the high water. Pretty much eveything around was in flood stage. I packed up all my stuff and headed back up to TN. I made a quick stop in Lenoir City to drop off my roof top carrie and all my camping crap as I would not be needing it. After that I headed up to Charity and Gabe's for a week of chillaxing. It was nice to finally sleep in a bed again.

Today ... being monday ... would be a fun day. The sun was shining and the skies were blue but the water was still high everywhere to go boat. Gabe and I manage to change the flat on the front tire of the tractor. We had to take the old tire off by hand and put in a new tube and put the tire back on ... only took us about 1.5 hours but we got-r-dun. I spent a couple hours shooting some photos of the farm and the old farm house on the property. Be interesting to see how the rest of the week pans out on the farm.

Getting read for my first paddling trip for 2011

2011-02-12T21:04:00.002-05:00

Not much has been going on since new years.

I managed to get a couple of photo shoots in with the new camera and finally have it dialed in to how I like it for the studio stuff.

The next couple of weeks will be spent getting ready for my two week USA paddling trip in march.

Last day of 2010

2010-12-31T17:56:00.003-05:00

Well ... it's here ... the last day of 2010.

This year had its shares of ups and downs.

I managed to paddle nine new river this year which is six more than expected.

Three of them were in Canada:

Petawawa River - Upper Section, Algonquin Park, Ontario
Petawawa River - Town Section, Petawawa, Ontario
Kipawa River, Laniel Quebec

Six of them in the USA:

Big Laurel Creek, NC
Wilson Creek - Section B, NC
North Branch Potomac, MD,WV
Cheat River Narrows, WV
Middle Ocoee, TN
Upper Yough, MD

I know of some friends that have had their first children come into their life in 2010 and hope to meet them for the first time soon.

I have had some amazing roadtrips ... most for paddling ... some just for the hell of it just to shoot photos of friends and nature. I don't even want to know how much mileage I put on the car just to go some where on a whim ... driving long distances to be with great friends is just art of my life. I just get in the car and go.

Being a Canadian ... I view roasdtrips in terms of hours ... where my US counterparts are always thinking of just mileage and they think driving 50 miles to go somewhere is far. Alot of my US friends always tell me I am crazy when I show up somewhere to go paddling after making a 11 or 14 hour drive but hey ... I already know that.

I met a whole pile of new friends this year. It's amazing the hospitality there is within all my paddling friends. I could probably do a coast to coast roadtrip thru the USA and have a place to stay everynight. And they all know they have a place to stay if they are in my neck of the woods.

So here are my tentative paddling plans for 2011 as far as road trips go as I had to re-jig some stuff in order to fit it into my work schedule:

1. ALF - leaving Canada noon thursday 10-Mar-2011 and hope to paddle something easy on friday 11th afternoon in NC as it will be the first time in my boat since Gauleyfest.

Possibly paddling in NC on the saturday 12th as well. Will be in TN sunday 13th through friday 18th.

Hope to maybe hit up the Warrior Locust Fork slalom race in AL if it is on the 19th.

After that I will be heading back to Canada with a couple of stops along the way to do some photography stuff.

2. Week of Rivers - NC, TN, AL, where ever the hell I end up

Leaving Canada noon thursday 30-Jun and hope to start paddling mid afternoon somewhere in NC on the friday.

Not sure what the whole plan is but will figure out hopefully with paddling friends once the date gets closer.

3. Lost Tribe Weekend last weekend in July

My plan is to leave noon on 28th July and meet Matt Thomas around 3pm Eastern on the friday for a run down the Middle Ocoee before heading off to the Lost Tribe Weekend. My birthday is on the sunday and I get to spend it paddling on the river with my friends.

I will be around for another 5 days before heading back to Canada on friday 5th August

4. Gauleyfest ... need I say more ... I will be paddling with the Beyers like always because they love me or need someone to show the others where not to go.

There will most likely be a couple of Lower Yough weekends in there as well but those are weekend trips that are under 7 hours each way.

So hopefully people with be able to come out and play with me in 2011!

R.I.P Mother

2010-12-03T18:19:00.001-05:00

03-Dec-2010

Well today was a sad day in our family.

My mother passed away after a dealing with a series of strokes since september combined with being diagnosed with cancer a couple weeks back.

Her condition worsened alot over the past week and it is probably a good thing that she passed on now then prolonging the pain and suffering.

There will be no funeral service as her wishes were to be cremated.

Everyone in the familiy is doing fine.

Shit happens ...

2010-11-27T14:18:00.005-05:00

I knew my camera was having issues and her death was imminent.

But why the hell did it have to happen during a photoshoot with my friend Anastasia.

It happened about an hour or so into the shoot and all I heard was click ... camera totally locked up.

So we stopped shooting and looked at stuff we had already shot on the computer.

I made a quick call to Henrys Camera to let them know my camera died as was coming back.

Luckily for me I had extended warranty and third time is a charm as I am getting a camera replacement. Not totally free as I am going to upgrade to the recently released Pentax K5 by paying the difference in price after the warranty exchange price.

We did manage to get the camera goign again to shoot some more photos until it died again and this time for good.

Hope to get the new K5 next week.

I spent today upgrading my photoshop computer to CS5 ... glad for school discounts .... 265 bucks is better then 1000 bucks.

I think I will be visiting Chapters to get a book for the new features.

Life in the slow lane

2010-11-23T20:15:00.003-05:00

I have been taking it easy the last month catching up on some stuff around the house.

As a computer geek you tend to collect computer parts over the years. I ended up purging two full closets worth of parts plus other stuff including old paddling magazines.

I have been trying to plan out my first spring paddling roadtrip for 2011. The plans are slowy coming together.

Other than that I have been busy doing some fun studio photo shoots with some of my friends. I am always looking for more people to shoot as I have alot of time to kill between now and mid-march.

Thats all I have to write about.

Until next time be safe out there!

Thanksgiving

2010-10-11T14:45:00.003-04:00

Not alot has been happening since I did my last paddling trip.

Work has been crazy busy and I have been doing some puttering around the house.

Went and visited the Rents for the weekend over in the Ottawa Valley for Thanksgiving dinner.

Felt kind of strange driving that way with no boat on the car. I went through the highway 60 corridor through Algonquin park and was dissapointed that the colours were done and there we not many leaves left on the trees at all.

The weather was nice and sunny for the entire time.

I spent part of saturday up on my dads roof cleaning out the gutters and installing some leaf guards. Tip ... don't assume your father has read or found the instructions for the gutter guard. They were stuck in the bottom of the box and Ihad to rip the stuff out and re-install right side up.

After that we replaced the belts, a spring, and made some minor re-adjustments to the snow blower.

I did manage to shoot some of the fall colours around my dads place. The leaves were pretty much non-existence as all the heavy winds during the week had blown them off the trees

Sunday dinner was great ... had lots of ham, turkey, stuffing, sweet potato, and lots of other goodies with a nice glass of Jost Comtessa White Wine.

Left early this morning and made the 380km drive back home to my place before the road got crazy with all the cottagers heading back to Toronto.

Lower Yough and Gauleyfest or bust

2010-09-21T19:17:00.002-04:00

It is hard to believe that I just finished my last USA paddling roadtrip for the 2010 paddling season.

I had an amazing last few days with old friends plus meeting some new ones.

It all started last thursday when I left work at noon l and head south for my third Gauleyfest. The only differences this time around is that I would be staying and paddling with my friends from Charleston, WV on satirday and sunday. I also had made plans to paddle the Upper Yough river near Friendsville, MD for the first time. I was kind of nervous with running it but I had been practicing on my technical river running skills all season with that being my ultimate challenge at the end of the year.

I made a few phone calls to some of the boys to nail down the plan for friday. I even managed to convince Mick not to go squirt boating and come paddle with us through a triple dog dare. As I was driving through the toll booth going from NY to PA I hear a beep beep beep coming from the lane beside me. It turned out to be my friend Brandon and his girlfriend Laine and they were also headed to Gauleyfest. I pulled over to find out what their paddling plans were before they continured on. I was also curious as what the odds of the three of us meeting there so I posed the question to my statistical analysis friend Chris from FL with the following:

"Two separate vehicles

One leaving Ottawa

One leaving Toronto

Occupants do not know each other is heading to gauleyfest

Both vehicles end up in side by side lanes at the same time exiting the toll booth from new York state to Pennsyvania"

His response was:

"Odds are exactly 1:893,597"

I made a stop in Erie, PA for some snacks and gas. Soon it started to rain so hard you could not see. I phoned Brandon to see where he was and asked where they were going to be sleeping. Since they were not quite sure and the weather was going to be crap at least until the next day I offered to let them stay with me at a friends cabin for the night and come paddling with us the next day. Since they were way ahead of me I told them to find the Walmart at exit 78of the I79 and wait for me. After getting some groceries and other stuff we continued the journey to Paul's place and made dinner and watched a movie while it continued to pour outside.

Friday:

We left the friday morning and headed down to Friendsville, MD to meet up with Joe and Tony. Mick was still in transit and would just meet us at the put in. It was kind of cool to see more and more people I knew showing up in the parking lot at the put in even though they were paddling in different groups. This would be my 300th river trip in my boat since I got here in late August 2006. Joe and Tony were going down in a shredder while Mick and I were doing the open boat thing. Brandon and Laine would be in their kayaks. I waited for Mick to show up while the others paddled down to Wait Rock.

Mick finally showed and the two of us met up with the others.I also opted to wear my brand new elbow pads that my buddy Ryan bought for me.I was still kind of nervous but was ready for it as this river had been on my bucket list for two years. The river description is here http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_753#tab-rapids

A common saying from me thoughout the day to Mick was "your shitting me you want me to run that how".

I know I was out of my boat a couple of times. I know I hit a fuck you rock in some insignificant part of the river and went over but was quickly back in my boat. My only major one was swimming half of Bastard while still hold onto my boat and paddle. I also ended up having each end of my boat get stuck on two rocks at the same time. I had to standup and get out of my boat and pull it down off the rocks into the eddy behind them. Before getting back into it I used it as a long pole and swung it over to Mick to get him from his side of the river over to my eddy so he could finish swimming accross to the other side of the river to get his boat.

My last out of boat experience happend when I went over a big rock and fell off the backside into the water. So here I am hip deep in water with paddlers going by me. Mick asked me if I was ok and gave him the thumbs up.He paddled further down river and disappeared behind a boulder the size of a couple SUV's. Joe had apparently asked Mick where I was and he basically told him I was in the middle of the river trying to figure out how to get in my boat. Joe's repsonse was I am getting the video camera out. After about 5 minutes I figured out the line I needed to run the rest of the rapid without using any outfitting as I knew my chances of me hopping into my boat and getting the thigh straps off would be slim to none. I managed to get back into my boat by pretending it was a bobsled and doing the 1-2-3 go jump in quick and just start paddling. I made it the rest of the way down to where Mick and Joe were.

I must say this was a full on intense run. My skills were definititely put to the test. I had some amazing dry lines on some technical drops. I have only done on or two drops in my life and today there would be lots. Things that do stand out in my mind are:

Charlies Choice - I believe we ran the right side.

Triple Drop - ran most of it fairly dry

National Falls ran it on the left side fairly dry.

Gun Barrel and Henzerling - dry and clean.

Meat Cleaver - ran the right lineover the right pointy rock clean and dry

Cheeseburger Falls - this was probably the second scariest thing I have run in my life.Esepecially when your in a eddy up above it face up river and you cant spin your boat around. I had to put my paddle down and push of the rock I was beside with both hands and grab my paddle quick before running the perfect line totally backwards. I rememberd to throw my body weight up river so I would not end up doing and ender. I ran it toally clean and dry but had to get off the river for a few minutes as my heart was pounding and I definitely had one of those oh shit looks on my face.

We were startting to run out of water big time as the river was dropping and the bubble was now in front of us. Some of us elected to walk Fuck Up Falls as there was not a great line with the water being lower.

Double Pencil Sharpener - ran it clean and dry

Soon we were booking it down river quickly as we did not want to end up walking our boats off. We managed to get tot he takeout just before 6pm which is extremely late and it was the lowest that Mick had ever paddled out on in all his time running the river. I am glad I had the elbow pads on as they were all nice and scratched up. I will also wear pants next time instead of short to avoid get scrapes in my shins. We recovered the vehicles from the putin. I was just about to leave Friendsville when Joe forced me to stay for sausages he was doing up on the bbq. How could I say no :)

I managed to finally get to my friends place in Charleston fairly close to midnight and was totally wiped and was soon in bed.

Saturday:

Don, Jo, Jeff and I were up before 8am. We had to shift the boats around so we could just drop my car off at the takeout and not have to worry about wasting time there. Today would be my third Lower Gauley River run and the description is here http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_2379#tab-rapids

The plan was to meet up with some paddlers from VI, NC, and SC as we were going to run the river together. Todays run would feel more like a class 1 float through to me compared to the Upper Yough from the day before. My car ended up being the store everyone dry gear bags in it for the day vehicle as the others were going to the putin. Tip for next year .... park beside the woulds so you dont get boxed in at the end of the day.

Soon we were at the putin heading down river to Koontz's Flume. Most of the other open boats decides to take the left hand dry line and avoid Five Boat Hole. I decided to go into the hole ... only problem was a kayaker decided to get in there before me and I had to drop in sideways in order not to kill him. I also had to put my paddle down for a seconds to grab his kayak with both hands for the Hand of God move as I had pushed him over. I then pushed him out of the hole with my hands before grabbing my paddle and had to side and back surf the hole for a while before realizing I was not getting out of the hole. I then had to swim to shore with my boat and then get back into it. I did get lots of whooo hoos and whistles while I was in the hole.

My buddy David told me some kayakers had some concerned looks on their faces when I was heading over to the hole to begin with. He then had to explain to them that I really meant to go there and play in it unlike the southern boaters who stay away from them like the plague.

The rest of the river was super fun. I kept pushing myself taking different lines from the others in the group. I would always ask Don if there was anything that would kill me and if not I would just pick a fun line for me which was not necessarily a line the others would do. My second and last swim of the day came at Lower Mash when I was trying to take the Hero line from left to right across the huge hole to make the right hand eddy only to get spanked. I had been thinking all day what I would do at Pure Screaming Hell. My plans were to run it full on and punch it and was wall lined up to make my run when I realized I was sluggish with more water in my boat then I though I had. I then changed plans literally at the last minute and clipped the left 1/3 of the hole and continued on.

It was a super great day in the sunshine paddling with Jo, Don, Jeff, David, Gilley, Alex, Kevin, and Leah. The only thing that sucked was my car getting boxed in on all sides by other vehicles and we had to wait forever to be able to go and get the other vehicles. After a quick bite to eat ... some of us headed over to the main festival site to check out the pending shitshow that always comes with too many people and toooo much beer. I was suprised at how many other Canadians I ran into down there as well as my US friends.

Jo, Don, Jeff and I managed to get back to their place sometime after midnight and we were all pretty much exhausted and went straight to bed.

Sunday:

Today would be my fourth trip down the New River Gorge http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_2418#tab-rapids

It was the same paddling group as the day before except for Kevin and Jeff. It was pretty much a repeat of the day before .... lots of sunshine and great paddling. I did have a couple of swims while trying to make some different more interesting lines to only get nailed by a FU rock at the bottom of some of them.

We all met at Pies and Pints for dinner. This place makes amazing pizza with very bizzare and interesting ingredients. Well worth the stop which was followed up by ice cream at DQ before heading back to Charleston where had time to watch the Canoe Movie I had brought with me.

Monday:

This would be the day I dreaded the most. It is a eleven hour non stop drive back to my place. I did it it 13.5 hours as I made a few stops along the way which included shopping, having a nap with my blanky and pillow on the grass and under a tree at some rest stop in PA, booze shopping at the duty free, and a visit to a uncle of mine in ST. Kits. Like I posted on my Facebook status ... "I am friggin tired, beat up, scraped up, and sore ... but wtf ... it was Gauleyfest and it was worth it!"

This was my 62nd day in the USA for the year.

I paddled 30 miles or 50km this past weekend with only a few scrapes and bumps. Anytime you don't have to go to the hospital at the end of a river trip is a good trip in my books ... but .... on a sad note:

Two people died while rafting on the Upper Gauley during the weekend. A girl in her mid-20's came out of a commercial raft and ended up getting stuck in a undercut at 9am sunday. They managed to recover her body at 4pm that afternoon as they had to drop the river level. Another person died today. I had thought about running the Upper Gauley this year but decided against it I as I personally thought I needed another year of technical creeking river running under my belt. There is still lots of time to get that one off my list.

We all know as paddlers that their are inherent risks within our sport but unfortunately the same can't be said for the causal rafter who may just think of it as a fun day out and not fully realize the consequences. We all paddle with friends and keep an eye out for each other and trust each other with our lives.

Be S.A.F.E out there!!!!!

Ottawa Valley - Gatineau River - Gull Open Canoe Slalom Race

2010-09-14T21:22:00.003-04:00

This will be a short blurb.

I managed to get out with some friends and do a run down the Main Channel of the Ottawa River a couple weekends back followed by a fun day on the Gatineau River. Our group of four did not see any other paddlers on the Gatineau that day. It was nice to have it all to ourselves.

I spent last weekend at the Gull Open Canoe Slalom race. It was the 30th year for the event. I ran the river from below the dam. I was happy with my run in the top section as this was the second time I had ever ran it in my life and had less water in my boat.

I spent the rest of the time trying to shoot photos of the race plus partaking in the evening festivities. My camera still has a scratch in the sensor but seems tobe ok in busy background shots. I can no longer do any sunrise, sunset, or sky shots. I am still trying to figure out what to do with the camera as it is a 1000 dollar repair or buy a new camera or wear it out and hope to get a new one under warranty. Only time will tell.

I did one one race run out of my two on the sunday. I did not do any practice runs on the course. I came third last which is way better then my previous year of being last. I even managed to make it though all the gates but I did get 120 seconds in time penalties for touching gates. I was probably the second last person to go down and had a big cheering squad on the side of the river. I was quite happy with my run considering I am moving a 85 pound 14 foot boat around and the other racers are in boats thay probably weigh have as much as mine.

I am spending the next two days getting ready for the next item on the PRO circuit which happens to be Gauleyfest. I hope to get my first ever Upper Yough run in on friday and then the standard Lower Gauley saturday follwed be the New River Gorge sunday.

This will be my last paddling trip to the USA for this year.

Two weeks of bad luck

2010-08-31T07:47:00.003-04:00

The last couple of weeks have been quite unlucky. I am now on round two of how things go wrong in sets of three.

To sum it up:

1. scratched my camera sensor while trying to clean it so my camera is pretty much screwed for some style of shots. . TIP: don't ever do this.

2. photoshop computer did not want to boot at all .... took a day to get it going.

3. water leak under kitchen counter due to connector on water filter ... took a couple hours to fix it and cleanup the mess.

4. the pool pump stoped working while vaccuming the pool in order to get it closed for the season. Luckily my neighbour had a spare I could borrow to finish the job. Managed to fix it a dew days later by taking it appart.

5. the car starts acting up to the point of being barely driveable but at least makes it to the Ford dealer .... 920 dollars ... mass airflow gizmo, heater core hoses and pipe, vacuum line, radiator and heater core flush ... car is good to go.

I de-stressed the night I found out how much the car was going to cost me ... I took it out on the two blue spruce trees that formerly occupied a really crappy spot in the back yard.

On the flip side ... my summer stuff is now put away for the winter and yard work is getting pretty much done ... which means I am free in October to go paddling.

I am going to head over to the Ottawa Valley to visit friends and go paddling for a few days ... can't wait to get back in my boat again as it has been too long.

Roadtrip to Gull and Ottawa River and to USA

2010-08-13T11:25:00.003-04:00

Well alot has happened since my last update.

I spent alot of time out in the front yard weeding the gardens and cutting back the overgrown crap. Man thats alot of work.

I also managed to get a outdoor photoshoot with my friend Amanda. We had spent some time in the studio back at the beginning of the year and were trying to get together for another shoot. But as life has it our schedules never agreed to much until I received an early morning msn message asking what I was up to for the day. It was definitely fun and challenging shoot out side having to compensate for extra light and stuff but she was very happy with the results.

I spent the rest of my time after that getting stuff ready for my next nine day roadtrip which would take me over to the Gull River, Ottawa Valley and another trip into the USA.

Saturday 31-July

The day had come to begin my trip. It would also be my 45th birthday. I headed over to the Gull River in Minden Ontario for the 2010 National Slalom Races for C1, C2, K1. I spent the day shooting photos of my friends that were competing.

Photos are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157624636451258/

After that I headed over to the Sierra Designs factory outlet sale in Foymount, Ontario for some shopping before they closed their doors forever. I am going to miss that place as it was classic stop on my way to or from the Ottawa river.I then headed over to Esprit to have dinner with my friends before finally getting to the Rents place just before midnight. I was suprised to see a card and coconut tarts on the counter complete with a candle to boot!

Sunday 01-August

I spent the day paddling the Middle Channel of the Ottawa River with seven other open boaters and some kayakers. The weather was great.

Photos are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157624703532334/

I even had a chance to have my boat used in a River Rescue course being taught by Jim at Esprit. It was cool to see people going into a hole to get my boat time and time again.

Photos are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157624507196227/

After that it was time for a quick shower before heading off to Brad and Kim's place for an excellent pulled pork bbq dinner. There were close to 60 people there.

Monday 02-Aug

I spent the day with the Rents as they hd just came back from a weekend away. My step-mommy made the ribs i brought with me for dinner with all the fixins. I even managed to vacuum out the shit-mobile before re-packing my stuff to continue my roadtrip.

Tuesday 03-Aug

I left the Rents place at the crack of dawn as i had a long drive ahead of me. I did not realize there were two different border crossings to the USA just south of Ottawa. I ended up crossing at this little craphole of a crossing at Ogdensburg. Even though I used my Nexus card ... I had the US Customs guy from hell. I don't know how many times he asked me if i had booze and tobacco with me. He then wanted to search my trunk of my car. He had fun trying to squeeze himself into trunk to take a look as it would not fully open with my canoe on the roof.

My goal for the day was to stop at Ricketts Glen state park in PA for some photography. There is about 22 waterfalls there that are supposedly gorgeous to shoot. As luck would have it was raining when I was getting close and the forecast was thunderstorms for the day and next morning. I then decided to continue my journey to the ASCI park in MD instead. After a 13.50 hour drive I finally made it to the place. I phoned one of my friends to find out where most people were camping. I managed to get my tent set up in the campground before midnight.

Wednesday to Sunday

I headed over to ASCI to see what the scoop was for the ACA Slalom races as i was there to shoot photos of the race and paddle in between. This would be my third trip to ASCI this year alone. It is a great facility to work on technical paddling skills. It was great to see old friends and meet new ones. I spent some quality time on the river paddling hard trying to catch all the eddys i could plus surfing where ever possible. I had dinner that evening with the Beyers before heading back to the campground.

The next four days were pretty much a repeat of shoot photos, paddling, dinner, occasional drinks with friends.

Photos are in the process of being upload here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/collections/72157624581437893/ ... There will be four albulms there by the time I am done.

Soon it was time for the 800km or 500 mile drive back home. Things were going well until I hit the border. The customs officer told me i could not bring a canoe through the nexus lane and to go through the regular lane on my next trip. She spent about four minutes explaining it to me instead of the normal ten second have a nice day. (I looked at the US / Canadian Nexus site when I got home and there is no exclusion of any vehicle type or what you can and cannot drive through the Nexus lane).

The next couple days was spent getting caught up at work and another trip to the Ford dealer to get new rotors on the car.

Another USA roadtrip to Lower Yough and ASCI whitewater park

2010-07-21T19:55:00.002-04:00

I decided literally last minute late thursday night to head down south to paddle with my USA friends on the Lower Yough for Tandemonium.

I headed down to Paul Cline's cabin friday after work. Spent the evening watching the last two thirds of the first Iron Man movie. And since I could not sleep I decided to watch the part that I missed before falling asleep on the couch.

I left early saturday morning as I had to meet the Jo and Don Beyer at the putin. I wanted to get there early to get my boat sorted out and then run shuttle. There were lots of friends there plus I managed to meet a few more on the river.

It was definitely entertaining day on the river with all the antics. I shot close to 500 photos that day. They are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157624410839139/

There was lots of fun to be had at Cucumber and Swimmers. Jo, Don, and I headed down river after spending a while at Swimmers as it was get past dinner time.

The three of us headed over to the local BBQ just outside Ohiopyle and the food was great as always.

After that it was a short drive to the Tall Oaks campsite for night. Breakfast the next morning was the standard paddler affair. After that we headed off to ASCI in MD.

I had a blast running the park 5 or 6 times with no swimms running the features. Had a few swims when I was playing in one of the holes trying to surf my boat.

Soon it was time to make the long the drive back home in 9.5 hours. Had to make a few stops including a 20 minute power snooze close to home. Even managed to watch a really cool mesmerizing lightening show for the last 45 minute drive home until it started to rain so hard I could not see out the side windows. Luckily I always travel with my boat on the drivers side of the car to block the sun and rain while drivings.

I can't wait until my next trip down in a couple weeks for ACA Nationals.

Canada Day Long Weekend in the Ottawa Valley

2010-07-07T19:39:00.003-04:00

I spent last weekend in the Ottawa Valley.

It all started out last wednesday by making the drive from home over to Esprit's base camp in Davidson, QC. I had a great dinner with Jim and the gang followed by watching The Canoe Movie that I had brought with me. It was also great to see Gonzo aka Martin as I had not seen him since last august. After that I made the drive over to my dads place where I would be staying the rest of the weekend.

Thursday was 1st July aka Canada Day. I did not feel like paddling that day so I headed down to the local park to check out the celebrations. I shot some photos of the Petawawa River Rats. They had their complete fleet of kayaks for the general public to use out in the swimming area. There were little kids all the way to adults waiting in line for their turn.

There were lots of other thing going on for entertainment. I was only there for a couple hours as I was not feeling the greatest. I even missed the fireworks.

Friday was a workday for me. Luckily I have a job where I can do it remotely. I was able to heat over and hit the Ottawa River for a run down the Main Channel. I had to do it solo but saw lots of friends along the way. I had a great run through McCoys. I had my driest run ever by running the extreme right hand line at Phil's Hole. Hardly any water in my boat.

I spent some time shooting photos of friends at Push Button and they are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157624294767295/ and here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157624296534945/

After that I took relatively conservative lines for the rest of the river as I was on my own. After getting a ride up to get my car from the putin I decided to stay at River Run for the night as paddling would be starting early saturday. Plus who would want to miss the antics of the GKC and KWP being there as well. Lets just say it was a total shitshow around the fire and through the night.

Saturday was definitely an early day that started at 6:30 for me. I ran my boat and gear up to the top putin and had breakfast. After shuttle was set Brad and I headed back up to the putin. I did not have a great run through McCoys. I tried the same line as the day before but ended up bouncing off the wall and got pushed into rightside Phils. I quickly self rescued and swam with my boat into the first eddy. Brad was very surprised that I could swim that fast with one arm while towing my boat with the other.

We paddled down to Baby Face. I got out to shoot photos. Brad had the wave to himself for a good 30 minutes before Dave showed up and then another 15 minutes until Wayne showed up. It was a beauty of a day with the sun shining.

Soon Brad and I headed down to the dam to meet the gang from Esprit. Brad's wife Kim and her son Jamie were rafting with Esprit fo the day. Brad and i were going to paddle down with them and I was going to shoot photos. It was a great run down the middle channel before stopping for lunch. The Esprit gang were great as they allowed some of our fellow paddlers to shuttle back up with them. They added two open boats and five kayaks on the top of the bus along with all the rafts. You cannot beat that for hospitality.

The run down the main channel was fun. I had a dry run through Garb and Push Button. Brad said I style it through the Normans. I ended up having my second swim of the day when I droped into Kahuna sideways at Coliseum. It was a very tiring swim with my boat as the eddy had alot of current pushing different ways. My run through Center Slot was fine.

Here are some photos I took of other boaters http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157624295550679/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157624420473782/

Soon the day was over. I still was not feeling well so I decide to pack up my tent and gear. I gave Brad a ride back up to the top to get his truck and then I made the drive back home to the Barrie area.

Sunday was pretty much spent indoors napping and putting my stuff away. I also made up some DVD to mail the 459 photos to Esprit that I took of their raft trip down the river.

Another USA roatrip to paddle the Ocoee

2010-06-29T20:41:00.002-04:00

Life has been busy the last couple of weeks.

In between doing some photoshoots for some new friends of mine for their modeling portfolios I managed to squeeze in five and a half day trip down to the USA for some fun paddling.

I left work just after noon on friday 18-Jun and arrived at my friends Pam and Pat in West Virginia around 8:30. I spent some time catching up with Pat and the renovations he was doing around the house. I wish I had his skills with some of the stuff he has been doing. We had a very late BBQ dinner before I headed off to bed.

I left early saturday morning as I had a long drive to the NOC near Bryson City, North Carolina. I got there about 2pm where I met up with Alex in the putin parking lot. He was glad I was there as one of the newbies he was paddling with lost a paddle. I ended up lending him my spare paddle for the day.

I geared up quickly and caught up to them on the river. I thought it was kind of bizarre considerin was about 32C outside plust humidity and people were putting on drysuits. It was until I started paddling into the fog I realized the was was beer can cold. You could put a case of beer in the river and it would be chilled and ready in 10 minutes.

The six of us had a great run down the river. The newbies did verry well considering two of them had not been in moving water too much. I ran the drop at the falls or hole before you get tot the slalom course twice. I want to catch the eddy behind the big boulder just beside the hole. I almost caught it the first time and did it the second time. It was a rush for sure as I slipp stream through the hole on the right angle to make the eddy. After that I ran the slalom course and did really well.

After packing up my geat I made the just over two hour drive to the Ocoee River area in south eastern TN. I finally found the Ocoee River Rats campground and hooked up with some of my Alabama friends for the night. I spent some time catching up with them before crashing for the night.

I was up early sunday morning. It was great to have a shower followed by a great breakfast with my friends. After that I said my goodbyes and headed over to the putin for the Middle Ocoee early as I was not sure where it was. It is a fairly easy shuttle to do my hitch hiking. I picked up a butt boater and gave him a ride to the putin. This would be a personal first decsent of this river. It is one of those classic souther rivers that has been on my list for a long time.

I only had to wait about 30 minutes before my friend Kimberly showed up from NC. Soon the TN boys were there. Kim and I setup our own shuttle as we were running the entire river. The TN boys were to wimpy to paddle that far.

The Ocoee is a beautiful river. It is quite busy with rafts but a fun fun. I never had any swims running any of the features. I did swim a couple times when I went back to play in the holes which consisted of some fun side and back surfs. I ran what I thought were all the technical lines as the rafts and the other rec boaters were taking the easy way down the river.

My best move of the day had to be at Cats Pajamas. It was a pour over into a hole that look straight forward. I waited for the squirt boater to finish before I did my run. The only problem was that it was a deep hole. I did a mystery move with the first six feet of my boat into the hole. I was pretty much vertical and the front part of my boat was gone. I ended up doing a whole bunch of low braces and back sweeps and managed to recover. Kim and the squirt boater thought I was a goner for sure but I came out with a big smile on my face.

Hell Hole was a blast. After getting the high sign I started my run and a butt boater decided to try and play chicken with me as he thought I was a raft only to be yelled at that I was a open boat. He got out of the way real quick. I crested the top part of the huge wave and Kim said it looked like I surfed it for a bit before dropping of the backside into the hole where I filled up. I had to run Power House very carefully. After that it was a short paddle to the takeout where Kim packed up and headed back to Asheville, NC for the night.

Whe caught up with her husband Karl and went out for Thai food followed by icecream for desert. I had never really been downtown Ashville before in the summer and in daylight. All my trips through there had always been in March and total darkness. It is a beautiful city.

Monday would be a non boating day and a leisurely drive to Charleston, WV to stay at my friends Don's place for the night. We had a great dinner together with his kids but unfortunately his wife Jo was out of town on business.

Tuesday would be a run down the New River Gorge. It was the third time I had run the river and definitely the highest I had ever paddled it. I had lots of fun on the river. My most memorable moment would be running Lower Keenies. Last time I caught the eddy behind the huge rock half way down on river right. This I would not be able to because of the high water. I boat scouted the run while the others got out and looked at it from shore. The run at this level reminded me of the Normans on the Ottawa River. It was a total blast.

Soon we were done. It was great to paddle again with Don, Jeff, and David plus meet Kevin, Kevin, and Amber. It is always a great experience on my paddling trips in the USA to see my old friends and meet new ones. I cannot believe how many people I have met over the years plus the people that know me that I have never met in person yet. It is great meeting those people when they go your the guy that did blah blah or this and that.

After goodbye were said I made the two and a half hour drive back to Pam and Pat's place for the night.

Wednesday was a leisure drive back to Canada with a stop at the duty free for some booze.

Ottawa River - First paddle of the 2010 season

2010-06-07T13:09:00.001-04:00

I had a great time paddling both channels of the Ottawa river for the last saturday. This would be my first time for the 2010 paddling season. It would also be the lowest I had paddled the river in the last three years with the gauge being at -1.25.

I met up at the putin with some of the Petawawa River Rats. After shuttling and gearing up we hit the river and headed over to McCoy's.

I hopped out to shoot photos of the gang and spent some time scouting the extreme right hand sneak line at Phil's Hole. There isn't much wiggle room for error when paddling a barge like mine. A slight mis-calculation would take me into rightside phil's which is not a very nice place to be. I ran the line fine and fairly dry for the most part. I ended up having an out of boat experience when I was not exactly setup on for centre Horshoe. I ended up in rightside which is a so so place to be but life was good.

I tried three times to side surf Babyface. Almost had it a couple times but at least i came off without swimming. Soon it was time to head down river. I wanted to paddle both channels but most people were only paddling only one channel and would be finished by noon. My dilema was soon solved when I ran into Jim and his merry bunch from Esprit. He offered his services to shuttling me back up top with them after they finished lunch. Sweet life was definitely getting better.

I met up at Iron Ring with the Rats before we spent some playtime at S-Bend. I was happy to catch the top right eddy at Butterlfly. I even managed to get a half decent front, side, and back surf in leftside Butterly before spending some time in the water. I almost recovered but I need to cool off anyway.

Soon we were at the big roar of Garvins. I carried my boat around at Elevator Shaft and setup to shoot the Esprit gang running the Dragons Tongue. I spent some time looking for a line. One of these days i want to run the tongue. Jim's only comment was don't follow our line ... just make sure you drop off the left side!

Upper No-Name was a breeze. I eddy hopped down the right side of Lower No-Name and was really happy when i caught the eddy just below Vampire. It is a half-circle indentation in the rocks that my boat just barely fits into. I first caught it a few years back when Neil and i were there. After that I jet ferried over to the Esprit lunch spot where my baby ended up as snug as a bug with the rafts on top of the bus.

After lunch we head off to the main channel. I ran the entire main without getting my shirt wet and I ran everything. I ran into Paul Mason just above Garb plus saw some other friends at Push Button and the takeout. I headed over to River Run and the Tours to say hi to some of my friends that i have not seen since the fall.

It was another great day on the river.

May 24 Weekend Paddling Roadtrip to the USA

2010-05-28T16:04:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I headed down to the USA for another paddling roadtrip with Ryan and Wil from North Bay. We were going down for the North Branch of the Potomac River festival in West Virginia. The boys picked me up at my place late thursday afternoon with the N.O.P.E van nd boat trailer.

After a couple stops for food and gas we made it just outside of Pittsburgh for the night at 02:30 AM on friday. The boys grabbed a room while I slept in the van. We would soon be on the road again after hooking up with Leah and Wayne who were also staying at the same hotel.

We met up with our USA counterparts plus a couple more Canadians in Ohiopyle at the Lower Yough putin. Everyone geared up and hit the water. It was great to finally be able to not have to wear a drysuit for a change as the weather was great, water a hell of a lot warmer than back home, and no bugs.

After a quick run down the loop section we headed over to PS Composites near Friendsville, MD for a tour before heading off to run the 8km section of the Cheat River Narrows section. The weather was great and still holding for a beautiful day on the river. I managed to have an excellent front, back, and side surf in a small hole just below where the squirt boaters were playing.

After dinner at some pizza hut we headed off to what was supposedly a 30 minute drive to the campground but turned into almost an hour. You just cant make a 1983 Chevy van towing a boat trailer go that fast on the steep up and down curves in the hills of WV.

We arrived at the campground just in time to avoid being locked out. Soon tents were up and drinks were semi-flowing around the campfire.

Saturday would be a early day. We heading into Westernport for breakfast before heading off to the putin for the NBP. The skies were overcast and rain was in the forecast but we did not care as we were only going to get wet anyway. The three of us headed down river from the main group as we did not want to slow anyone down for any reason. We managed to hookup with another group of PA boaters.

One of the boaters recognized me and sad "Are you the Canadian". I replied "yes one of them". He then said "Are you the one in the Phil's hole video on youtube". I replied "yep that be me". After introductions were made ... I had an amazing surf time in the small hole at the normal lunch spot. The highlight of this group was a guy paddling that was 83 years old. He took up kayaking when he was 75ish.

We had a great day running the river with this group. It turns out they are planning a Lower Yough weekend in the summer during one of my planned trips. Looks like we will be hooking up and paddling together.

Soon it was time for dinner followed by a campfire and drinks.

Sunday came way too early. The plan was to pull the pin early and head over to the ASCI white water park in McHenry, MD for the day before making the trip back home. We got there and the water was not running yet. Ryan and Will checked out the park to see what would be lurking under the water later on once they turned the pumps on.

At first they only had two pumps on. I ran the first drop and was re-circualate around the big eddy a few times before I was able to get out of it and head down river. The boys decided they were just going to play on the back half of the park. I had never really thought about putting my battery in for my pumps until I was full of water as I had not had it in for the other paddling we had already done.

After I finished my first run. I wend back to the car to get my battery. Sometime during this time they cranked on another pump. The water was just a rocking which now made it even more difficult but fun to navigate the river. I did have a two out of boat experiences when some of my fellow heckler paddler friends showed up just to see what was going on but not paddle.

After a few more succesful runs it was time to leave as we had a long drive ahead of us. We left the park at 4:30 and got to my place at 2:30 monday morning. The boys headed back to North Bay after sleeping in for a bit.

Yes it was a long drive but we had lots of fun paddling in four different places.

Kipawa River

2010-05-28T15:55:00.002-04:00

The last couple of weekends have been quite eventful.

I drove up to North Bay two weekends ago to go paddling with friends on the Kipawa River near Laniel, Quebec. It was definitely a full day on the river. We were on by 11ish and and off by 7ish.

I had never paddled the river before. It was a nice hot sunny day with a low flow of 17 on the gauge but I did not care. Drysuits were definitely in order for the water was cold and the blackflies we in full swing.

I had two minor out of boat experiences ... one at the beginning of the day on Rock and Roll and the other and the end of the day at Hollywood. The river is absolutely gorgeous. The only downside to the whole day was the two mandatory portages. One around Grand Chute and the other around Pete's Dragon. I would have been better off throwing my boat in the river and watch it hopefully make the run nice and clean versus the Class VIII portage. They were both brutal. Luckily I had from the other in the group.

I would like to go back and paddle the river at rally levels of 120 but we will see if that time ever comes.

Hell or High Water 2010 - Petawawa Ontario

2010-05-04T18:14:00.001-04:00

Well after a month of trying to re-adjust of being home and back to work after my 28 day road trip ... it was time to think about paddling some where.

And this somewhere would be the Petawawa River. It is pretty amazing that I swam in the Lovers and Catwalk section for many summers as a military brat but never ever paddled it in my canoe.

The time had come and what could be more safer and fun but to do it during a festival.

I headed off to my dads place after work on the thursday. I stopped off at the river to check the level and get some info from Phil. After that I stopped at Brad's to borrow a cart for my boat before finally getting to the folks place.

Friday:

I worked from his place friday and headed off to the river around 3pm to help set up. Phil and Cody were gracious to lead me down the river. I had no issues at Railroad but ended up having an out of boat experience at Lovers. I almost made it but not quite enough. After a quick self recovery we took out at the Catwalk. I was so happy with my run as it was now my first personal decent of the section of the river.

I met up in the park with a bunch of old friends to catch up on life.

Saturday:

Today would be race day and I headed over early to help set up. This would be my day of sever stupidity. I would eventually have to make TWO trips back to my dads ... first to get my drysuit and booties ... the second to get my pfd and helmet. I must say I was a total idiot.

It was great to see more of my friends. Especially Jen as i had not seen where in over a year due to her travelling with her job. It was nice to have her back in country safe and sound.

I did a practice run on the river and it went very well. I did not care about my time. It was more of making it down the river blue sky up. I made it through lovers no problem at all and was very very happy. I spent about an hour shooting photos of the practice runs. The weather and lighting were not that great for doing so but hey it would not be a festival without crappy weather.

I headed back up to the top for timed race run. As l uck would have it I ended up side surfing the last hole at the bottom of railroad for a very long time. I was told by many people later who were standing on the bridge that they were worried that I was stuck under my boat when I was actually still in my boat. I was forced to bail when i came out of my outfitting.

I had a laugh when a rescue kayaker said let go of your boat as we were swimming together ... I went ... uh ... NO. I Swam the boat to shore ... emptied her out and go back in. Soon I was at Lovers ... I took the same line as before and totally aced it by going completely left of the rooster tail. It was an awesome but tiring run by the time I got to the Catwalk finish line. I think I did it in under 11 minutes including my out of boat experience.

Later that night we all went to the Yacht Club on the Base for dinner and awards ceremony.

Photos are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157623893866513/

Sunday:

Today would be an interesting day. It would be my personal first decent of the Upper Petawawa River in Algonquin Park. I was a bit nervous to say the least.

I manage to hook up with three other open boaters I have paddle with in the past. It would have been five of us in total but Jamie got hurt the day before and could not make it.

After doing all the shuttle logistics we put on the river and enjoyed a leisurely warm up paddle to the first set of rapids. Soon there was us and about thirty kayakers on the river. I managed to run my first ever drop in my life. I think it was about a six footer. I ran it clean with the proper angle and lean back. It was a bit nerver racking as I was not sure about how far back to lean but I nailed it. I have hapy to see that alot of people I new watched me run it.

There was another sketchy drop on river right at the next set. I did not even attempt to think about running that one. I took the left channel and end up having a swim. I ended up with having to much lean going through the hole sideways. I tried my best to slowly move my weight over to the other side and almost made it. Johno said i looked like one of those fainting goats trying to get my boat to lean the other way in slo-motion.

After that the river was pretty much full on. I ran the rest of the solid class 4's fine with some interesting lines to say the least. It did not take the four of us long to scout each set. It got to the point that we head to depart from the group of kayakers as they were taking way to long to over analyze the runs only to end up psyching themselves out not to run them.

I ended up running the drop at the last class 5 fine but did not realize there was more crap further down below about 100 metres away and ended up going over the equivalent of Leftside Horsehoe on the Ottawa and then having a short swim.

After what would be a long bumpy swim on a stupid "F_ck You" rock we were at the takeout.

All I can say is that is was a fricking awesome experience and I want to run that section of river again. Thanks to Dave, Matt, and Johno for an excellent day.

I must apologize to Jen for bailing and not paddling with her tah day. Sorry ... next time!

Photos are here. Not that many due to all the rain.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157624018869150/

The Roadtrip Home

2010-04-19T20:03:00.003-04:00

I know I am a bit late on getting this final post to my roadtrip done but here goes.

Monday 5th April 2010

I left Colorado and kept driving east. My most memorable moment of the day was when I was driving painfully slow at about 20 to 25MPH in a really long construction area thru Hickville, Somewhere. I had a really good laugh when I ended up getting passed by a tumbleweed that was going faster then me.

I arrived in Wichita, KS around 3pm which gave me time to check into the hotel, cleanup, and get my camera gear ready before my friend David picked me up for dinner at his place.

It was great to finally meet his family in person. Having a sitdown dinner with all the fixins was a real treat and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

After that it was off to robotics night. David has been heavily involved with a local group of home schooled kids that compete in robotics competitions.

Every year it is a different so called game play. A detailed manual is given out to those teams that wish to compete. It outlines what task the robot has to complete. All the raw materials are provided for free and you can only use what has been provided. The is absolutey no charge for any of the teams to enter the competition.

The kids did have to raise funds in order to purchase the materials to make a replica of the game play area, presentation supplies, etc.

David's son was on this years team and was involved in the CAD portion of the design phase. There were about 30 kids involved in the design, build, test, presentation, and competition phases of the robot. The youngest was 13 and the oldest was 18. All the kids had to be home schooled at least 51% of the time (this allowed some of the kids to take some early university/college courses).

These kids are the master of building robots as they have been doing it for years. It was pretty amazing to see the results of them being able to split pvc pipe down, flatten it, and then reshape it for their own needs let alone the programming in C language for the brain and remote controllers, etc.

I sat through their formal and booth presentations. It was pretty amazing to see the hard work these kids did. They treated the whole project by forming a company with various departments and everything complete with employee badges.

The team gets together four nights a week and all day saturdays. The furtherest people come from about 70 miles away. Thats the dedication that won themthe right to compete in the upcoming Nationals in Dallas, TX

Their team name is "Wichita Homeschool Warriors" and their website is http://www.whwrbest.com/

Tuesday 6th April 2010

Spent the day driving to Chicago, IL area where I had my last free hotel room at the Four Points hotel from one of my points card. It was even across the road from the Midway Coscto so I go another one off my list. I ended up going for a long walk followed by dinner at a really good Mexican place.

Wednesday 7th April 2010

Spent the day driving back my house. Picked up a couple of bottles at the duty free and sailed through customs like nothing. Had dinner in Barrie with my friend Mark at Jack Astors as I was not cooking anything that night.

Thursday 8th April 2010

The plan was to actually go into the office and work but I kind of didn't make it. I had this really bizzare dream where I dreamnt I was sleeping in my own bed. I woke up to see that I was not in my tent and went back to sleep only to realize that it was not a dream but reality.

I ended up working from home both thursday and friday playing catchup on emails and other stuff.

That concludes the end of my trip. I ended up driving 13013 KM or 8085 miles in 28 days.

I still need to figure out how much it cost me but I am pretty sure I did it for under 2000 bucks!

The Arches, Canyon Lands, and beyond

2010-04-05T01:38:00.000-04:00

Tuesday 30th March, 2010

I slept in until 9am. Guess I needed it.

Spent the rest of the morning going through my receipts, online banking, and off-loading photos from my memory cards.

Went to a paddling film festival in SLC. It was kayaker oriented … I guess they have not seen the light yet!

Wednesday 31st March, 2010

I spent most of the day over at Antelope Island. The weather kind of sucked for photos but it is a really amazing place to visit. Hard to believe that on a relatively small island on the variety in the changes of landscape it had. There was quite the collection of Bison and other animals there.

I did manage to visit the Costco in Ogden (another one of my list) before heading back to Jeff’s Places. I did have to log into work for a while and finish off some month end reporting stuff otherwise I would have spent longer trying to fix it if someone else had tried to do it for me.

Thursday 1st April, 2010

Woke up to about three inches of sticky wet snow on my car. Great day for a road trip to the Moab. Luckily I still had my snow tires on as the road was kind of sketchy in spots on the number 6 highway thru the canyon. There was no sign of snow once on the other side. Tip …. There is a huge frigging Jeep Safari every Easter weekend in Moab. The place is a total zoo. I have never seen so many jeeps in once place. A lot of the things cost 40K or more with all the bells and whistles they hand on them. The cops were having a field day handing out tickets to the maniacs on the road.

I spent the next couple of days in The Arches National Park. Pretty amazing place to visit. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Saturday 3rd April, 2010

I spent the early morning in The Arches and the afternoon in Canyon Lands National Park. Amazing view from above. I then drove down to the Newspaper Rock State Park to take some photos of the petroglyphs before finding a place to camp at the BLM just a few miles from outside the Canyon Lands Needles park entrance. You can camp anywhere there for free but I decided to be sociable and pay 6 bucks to camp at a fee site and mingle with some of the others there.

It was the first time I actually set my tent up in daylight hours. Later that night a wind storm came in.

Sunday 4th April, 2010

I woke up to a whole bunch of red sand inside my tent that blew in through the mesh screen. Luckily I keep all my clothes and stuff in a Rubbermaid container inside the tent otherwise it would have been real interesting trying to get the dirt out of it all. I spoke to the BLM campsite host. He said the winds were about 60 MPH. He was surprised my tent was still in one piece and attached to the ground. He told me he has seen lots of tents get totally ripped to shreds in the wind storms. Go Sierra Designs!!!!

I headed over to the Needles section of Canyon Lands and hiked some of the shorter trails.

I then came to a decision that I was getting vacationed out and made a decision to start heading east. I emailed my friend in Wichita and asked if it was ok to come Monday and Tuesday night instead of Thursday and Friday night. He said it was fine but the only problem now was his son had MONO so staying there was not really an option. David had a plan B which was to let me use a two night hotel gift certificate they had won in a fundraiser. I now have a comfy stay in Wichita to look forward to.

I managed to make it all the way to Walsenburg, CO before deciding to stop for the night. I really think that all the deer in Colorado really need not to stand on the road to eat the grass in the dark. Is the amount of damage to a car by a deer different at 55 to 65 mph? It was too much drama for me so I ended up getting a room for the night instead of playing chicken with a deer.

Utah

2010-03-30T13:08:00.001-04:00

Saturday March 27th, 2010

I made the drive over to Zion National Park. I must say yes … the Grand Canyon when viewed from above has the holy crap what a nice view feeling when you first look at it but Zion is way better. After getting a camping spot I hiked around for the afternoon shoot photos of the amazing rocks and shadows.

This place is totally worth seeing and spending a few days at.

Sunday March 28th, 2010

I actually managed to sleep in until 9am. I guess life on the road finally caught up to me. But I think it is probably due to all the fresh air and the higher altitude. I must say it takes a lot more out of you hiking around here then it does back home. I spent the rest of the morning shooting photos on the east side of the mountain tunnel before making the roadtrip out to Bryce Canyon.

I was in shock when I finally arrived. There was still about four to five feet of snow all over the place. I stopped at the visitor center and then headed right up to the end of the road as far as it would go at an elevation of just over 9000 feet.

I slowly worked my way back down shooting photos at all the view points. I came across a German family from New Mexico that had a top radiator hose that was leaking. It took me a few minutes to find my metal duct tape that was somewhere in my car. I took off the radiator hose and taped it up. They refilled the radiator with water and they were good to go to make it to the closest town to get a new hose.

After that it was back to shooting photos which lasted a whole two minutes. My circular polarizing filter decided to come off my camera lense and roll down about 200 feet down the steep cliff bank before it most likely fell the other 1000 feet to the bottom somewhere. I was not going to get it back.

I now had to change my plans. Instead of heading to the Moab area I decided to head up to Salt Lake City area and drop off a boat to my friend Jeff. This would give me time to buy another filter and get an oil change for my car as it was due for one. This also unfortunately meant that I would not have enough time to head up to Montana to visit another friend of mine as I would have to backtrack over to Moab to finish off my photo trip.

I made the 4.5 hour trip up to Jeff’s place. The drive up through highway 15 was beautiful. This would be the first time I actually met Jeff in person. We knew each other from CBoats.net and he found out I was heading out west and asked me if I could shuttle a boat from TN to his place as it was on my way. He was happy to get his new toy.

Monday 29th March, 2010

Today would be a lazy day. I managed to buy a new filter, oil changed on the car, and re-attached my thwart on my boat (thanks to Jeff).

Jeff and I headed off to a local play spot ten minutes from his place named Riverdale Wave. It is a cool spot to play at. The water was a bit low but you could still get some surfs in. We were there for about an hour before heading over to another play spot. Jeff continued to paddle there while I took photos of him and an old abandoned building that was beside the river.

After that we headed over to one of the local creek runs. It was low an runable in a plastic boat but not my barge. As we walked along the river Jeff explained all the features and dangers of the river. It was a really cool section of river complete with an outdoor shooting range beside it.

Soon it was time for dinner and watching of some video clips of the local play spots at higher water.

I was wiped and was in bed by 9pm.

New Mexico and Arizona

2010-03-27T11:00:00.000-04:00

Wednesday March 24th, 2010

It was snowing when I went out to load up the car. I was laughing my ass off when I saw a whole pile of cars from California covered in snow and they owners weren’t sure how to take the snow off them. They looked at me funny when I pulled my snow brush out of the car and cleaned my car off. I was asked where did I buy that and answered with Canada.

I spent the day driving around the northwest part of New Mexico. I was totally amazed at how the landscape was always changing in terms of rock formations and plant life. I spent about four hours hiking around the Chaco Culture World Heritage Park. It was pretty amazing to see remnants of Pueblo’s that were built sometime in the 800A.D. I was able to get some great photos of pictographs and rock formations.

After that I drove up to Shiprock to take some photos of Shiprock Peak. I was hoping to get up close but the dirt road leading into it started to get pretty sketchy. It was definitely a beautiful sunset.

After that I headed down to Gallup and grabbed a room for the night.

Thursday March 25th, 2010

I continued my day driving around New Mexico.

My first stop was at the El Malpais National Monument. It was really cool to see sandstone bluffs on one side of you and the left overs of volcanic eruption on the other side of you. I also managed to get some amazing photos of a natural arch bridge.

Next stop was at the Very Large Area (VLA). This place had 27 huge radio astronomy dishes that when place in their largest configuration in the shape of a Y that each leg of the Y would be 13 miles long. They were in their smallest configuration close together which was pretty cool to see. For those of you who have seen the movie Contact with Jodie Foster … this is where part of the movie was filmed.

Next stop was Flagstaff, Arizona. The plan was to meet some boaters from the south east that were just finishing up a 16 day paddling adventure down the Grand Canyon. I missed dinner with them but we were able to hang out next door at the Pub for drinks. It was great to meet Anne, Amanda, and the gang.

Friday March 26th, 2010

Once again I woke up to snow on my car.

Todays plan was to hang out at the Grand Canyon for most of the day. The drive over was interesting. At 8000 feet the winds were blowing with white out conditions. There was a car about 300 meters in front of me and then he disappeared only to re-appear in the ditch. Glad I still had my winter tires on. For the most part my trip has been hovering in the low temps and I was prepared with everything from summer to winter clothes and anything in between.

I spent about four hours hiking along the South Rim trail. The view was amazing. I am totally envious of a few different groups of my paddling friends that have been able to paddle the Grand Canyon over the last few months.

I made the drive up to Page Arizona and camped for the night. Luckily I put all the extra tent pegs in as around midnight a huge windstorm accompanied by rain moved in. I thought I was going to lose my tent fly but everything worked out.

Paddling in Alabama and the drive out west

2010-03-23T22:00:00.000-04:00

Wednesday 17th March- paddled the Tellico and then off to Davids place in Hunstville for the night

Thursday 18th March

Spent the day at the Space Museum in Huntsville, AL. It is a really cool place to spend the day and just relax. I also managed do some shopping at the local Costco.

I ran into the Jackson Kayak crew at a restaurant just outside of Kings bend. It was nice to get caught up with everone as I had not seen them since last summer before they competed at Worlds in Switzerland.

I spent the night camping at Alabama Mountain Games site.

Friday 19th March

I woke up to find ice on my tent. WTF is up with that as I am in friggin Alabama!

I ran the Locust Fork river from Swann Bridge and took photos of rodeo completion at Ender Hole. I also had some fun playing in the hole. Got some great front, side, and back surfs in plus a couple of swims after but worth it. The crowd on shore seemed to be surprised I could surf my boat in there. It was a funny that when a kayaker swims another one chases them. None of them chase an open boater. Guess it comes down that kayakers might not know how to swim 

Saturday 20th March

Today would be the Locust Fork Slalom Race, I spent most of the day shoot photos of my friends. I had a great BBQ lunch from Art Fowler, I have been totally amazed with the BBQ I have had all over the South East. BBQ in Canada sucks big time. At the end of the day I decided to run the lower part of the course and did very well. I should have raced…. Maybe next time. We all went to the awards at AMG site and then it was time to say goodbye to friends but not before setting plans in motion for Nationals and Gauleyfest. I was lucky enough to stay at a friend place that night and avoided the rain 

Sunday 21st March

Paddled the Locust Fork from Kings bend down to the 160 takeout with the gang , Ran an excellent line at the drop on the falls. Arlene and Joseph decided to run my line as I made it look easy and did not hit any rocks. Part way down the river I pulled a Old Town Discovery fiber glass boat of a rock in less than a minute by myself. It had a huge crack right across the middle of it. Judy asked me how many times I had done that in my life as I made it look so easy. My answer was lots . It got pretty cold on the river near the end when the wind picked up near the end as the temperature dropped big time.

Mexican for dinner in Oneanta followed by a nice comfy bed at a friends place in Talledaga.

Side Note:

I think the one most question that a lot of people asked if I went to the Olympics. I don’t want to seem rude but the Americans have no concept at how big Canada really is.

Here are the stats from Wikipedia:

Covering 9,984,670 km2 or 3,855,100 sq mi (Land: 9,093,507 km2 or 3,511,023 sq mi; Water: 891,163 km2 or 344,080 sq mi, Canada is slightly larger than the U.S.

Monday 22nd March

The plan was to drive 1270KM to Oklahoma City today. Managed to do it in 13.5 hours,

I was hoping to go visit some friends in Wichita Kansas but decided it was not in plans for this trip due to some tight time frames for getting on all my photography stuff.

I crossed the North Canadian River twice and then decided to get a room on my points at the Sheraton by the airport. You should have seen the look on the cops at the airport when I did a drive by with two canoes on my car. It was like a WTF moment!

Spent the night getting caught up on re-charging the camera batteries and backup photos from memory cards onto a couple of external drives.

Logged into work and caught up on some work that needs to be done during my trip. Works out well as I get to save a vacation day or two by the time my trip is over.

Also rinsed off some of my paddling gear and hung it up to dry before a well deserved sleep.

Tuesday 23rd March 24, 2010

I managed to sleep in and then pack up my gear.

I logged into work for a conference call. Looks like I have to figure out some computer programming stuff in my head during my driving time.

I talked to my dad for a bit to see if he got rid of some nasty spyware off his computer. Luckily he was able to do a system restore back to just before he got it. So life`is now way better for him!

Today will be a shorter drive of about 850km to Albuquerque NM.

Crossed the South Canadian River and drove through a place called Canadian County.

I talked to a State Trooper in Shamrock Texas about speeding on the highway. He told me not to go past 70mph as the posted limit is strictly enforced in Texas.

The landscape through Oklahoma and Texas is pretty barren. Saw probably 200 or so of those huge wind power generation towers all over the place. Also would like to know why gas is more expensive in Texas than all the other states I have been through.

Finally reached the New Mexico border and huge wind sheer while driving. Almost saw a transport get blown off the road. Glad I was not beside it 

I saw a motor home on its side as it was blown over by the wind. I could only go 65mph in the wind even though the posted speed was 75mph

I decided to grab a room in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the night. I think tomorrow will be a promising day for photos as long as the weather holds out.

Paddling in North Carolina and Tennessee

2010-03-17T21:51:00.001-04:00

Well he last few days have defineitely been interesting so far on my paddling portion of my roadtrip.

I spent the saturday paddling section B of Wilson Creek in NC with Kimmie and Craig. The level was about 9 inches.

I spent the night at Kimmies before heading off bright and early on sunday morning for the 3.5 hour drive over to the Tellico River for the down river race. I took some shots of everyone running Baby Falls before heading off to go run the river from below Jarods Knee to the Ranger Station with a large group of boaters from all over. The level was 2.4.

Sunday we had about 50 or 60 open boaters at Calhouns in Lenoir City for dinner

Monday was spent running The Little river in the Smokies from just below Elkmont to just above the Sinks. I forget what the level was.

Tuesday was another run down the Tellico with the level at 2.5.

Today was another run down the Tellico with the level at 2.25.

I am currently spending the night in Hunstville, AL and plan to spend thursday visiting the Space Museum before heading off to Kings Bend for the Locust Fork slalom race in Kings Bend.

And maybe a shopping spree at Costco in Huntsville.

March Break Roadtrip to the USA

2010-03-12T22:26:00.001-05:00

It's time for another R.O.A.D.T.R.I.P. to the USA.

I decided to take some extra vacation time and head down to the South East for a week of fun paddling.

To sum up my trip do far:

14 hours of driving
925 miles of road
3 toll booths
20 dead roadkill deer and one munched by a transport truck on the fly.
6 State Troopers
Paddling on the Big Laurel Creek and the rest of Section 9 French Broad in North Carolina with old friends and some new ones ... P.R.I.C.E.L.E.S.S!

Almost time for another R.O.A.D.T.R.I.P

2010-03-01T05:56:00.002-05:00

Well I can't believe another year has almost past and that it will be soon time to head to the U.S.A for a paddling / photo roadtrip.

This time it will be a week of white water canoeing with great friends and soon to be new friends in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. There should be quite the turn out there this year for ALF (Ain't Louie Fest). Knoxville ... here we come.

I am looking forward to paddling on some new rivers down south. Tellico here I hope you don't kick my ass this year.

After that I am heading out to Arizona, Utah, and Montana for some landscape photography before heading back home.

The countdown begins :D

New Years holiday time in West Virginia

2010-01-05T20:05:00.001-05:00

I decided to head down and ring in the New Year with my friends in West Virginia.

I figured if I was going to freeze my butt off I might as well do it down there as there was a huge cold air mass covering eastern Canada and the USA. Go figure that it was -14C in Alabama and that friends down there were dealing with bursting pipes and other problems due to the frigid cold.

I was looking forward to using my Nexus card for the first time. Crossing the border was super quick for me as it took a whole 10 seconds versus the hour I would have ended up waiting going through the regular lineup that was 30 cars deep.

US Border Guy: question - Anything to declare.

My Answer: bottle of rum

US Border Guy: goodbye

No where you going, staying, coming back, etc.

I made the drive to WV after work on the wednesday in seven hours which included about a 30 minute stop for gas and various goodies. I had no issues with crappy weather or anything. It was smooth sailing.

I did have to work from WV on thursday ut luckily I have a job with the technology that allows me to do that. New Years eve was pretty low key with great munchies, some drinks, and a movie.

And then came New Years day. I forgot I was visiting the college football fanatics and soon found out I was going to be forced to watch three football games. But not before spending a few hours outside with a chainsaw cutting up the rest of a big tree that fell over in the fall. Ended up making a huge bonfire.

It was pretty neat to see all the deer on my buddies front grass. There were ten of them. Too bad it wasn't Bambi season.

And then came the football. My buddies son Mark was patient in explaining the rules of the game. I am pretty sure he must have thought I was a freak for not watching sports. Dinner was great which included the ham I had brought down with me plus some other goodies Pam whipped up.

Saturday basically consisted of learning how to cut mats for picture frames, make risotto, troubleshoot a busted microwave (turned out to be a bad diode) and the world of the Wii. The Wii was a blast. I am thinking I might get one later on but only after I take care of some of the Xmas bills first.

Sunday was the drive from hell. It would normally would only be a 8 hour drive back home but that would be too simple. I ended up running into a friggin snow storm complete with white outs on the I79 just north of Pittsburgh. It was alot of where did the vehicle in front of me go. Oh there it is in the ditch. I totally laughed my ass off when a Lexus SUV pulled out to pass me and ended up in the ditch about 390M down the hill. Seriously if there are no transport trucks driving in the left lane then the roads must be pretty crappy and then there was the fact that most people down there dont have winter tires.

As soon as I got onto the I90 they closed the I79 behind me. I pulled into Erie, PA for some gas and snacks from Panera bakery before continuing my journey on the I90 East bound. I was the only car on the highway going my way for about 20 km. All I could think about was is this friggin road closed and then i finally saw another car. The west bound lanes were a different story. I watched about 40 vehicles slide into the ditch. They finally closed the west bound lanes once I reached the New York state border to way past Erie.

They raised the toll fair on the I90 in NY state. It went up a whopping 15 cents. Pretty good considering you drive about 100ish km for $3.15 which would be over 20 buck in Canada for the same distance. Soon I was at the Duty Free in Buffalo and then across the border just as quick my trip down south.

My question to Canadian Border Lady: did my card scan ok

Her response: Yes have a nice day

Saved another hour as the cars were over 30 deep in the regular lanes. Soon I was at the Burlington Sky Bridge. The only problem was that it was around 4:30 and I still had an hour to drive to get home. But after checking the traffic report up in my neck of the woods I decided to stay at a co-workers place near my work as it was a total disaster zone at home.

I finally made it home safe and sound monday after work.

The last day of 2009

2009-12-31T22:05:00.002-05:00

Wow ... I can't believe it is New Years eve already.

Where did the time go from my last post about my trip to Cuba.

Life has been pretty busy. I did manage to get out boating in November. We had our annual Chillfest paddle with the N.O.P.E Crew on the Lower Madawaska River followed by a great dinner and drinks at the Wilno Tavern. The pics from that day are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622838392018/

I spent alot of time over the last few weeks trying to get my house cleaned up for Xmas dinner with my family. I missed a few spring cleanings and did not want to get yelled at by my step-mom :P

I even managed to get my Chris-Ma-boat setup for the tree.

The rest of the pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/4203957661/in/set-72157623046239868/

Dinner went off without a hitch. It was me, dad and step-mom, sis and bro-inlaw, plus my kids. Not sure who it was but someone in the motely crew gave me a cold.

I am currently celebrating New Years Eve at a friends place in West Virginia. New Years Day should be interesting as they are all football freaks and I don't watch sports. It will be especially interesting as West Virginia University is playing Florida State in the Gator Bowl. Just kill me now and get it over with.

Happy drinking and be safe out there.

See you all in 2010 :D

C.U.B.A. with the Rents

2009-11-09T09:46:00.001-05:00

I was supposed to go paddling in the USA during Gauley Season for about nine days but I ended up cutting that way back in order to go to C.U.B.A with my dad, step-mom, and a whole pile of her family.

This would be my first ever real fun in the sun vacation outside of North America. The plan was set, trip booked and paid for. This would also be the first time I have been on vacation with my dad and step-mom.

We stayed at the Melia Las Dunas. It was a very nice resort.

I won't get into too much detail about the trip but it consisted of ALOT of alcohol, beach and pool time, good food, catermaran sailboat trip, and then a day off resort to visit a local family that my aunt and uncle knew.

I kind of knew wat to expect off resort. Yes there is alot of poverty in Cuba but people seem to be happy. They do get free health care and education including university level. The number one sport there is "Hitch Hiking".

I would definitely go back.

Some of my pics are up here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622666589945/

Almost ready for winter

2009-10-17T06:45:00.003-04:00

I have not been doing much in the way of paddling or photograpghy over the last couple weeks.

But at least I can say I have all my outdoor yard work (except for raking the leaves that are falling) done.

Work has been a total zoo lately but at least it has made time go by fast.

My next paddling trip is 14th November for a run down the Lower Mad and a night on the town in Wilno. Not sure how well I will do after not being in my boat for over two months in what will be mostly likely very cold with snow but WTF ... might as well do it.

I am off to a photography show to in Toronto today and who knows what after that.

Alot has happened since august

2009-09-29T21:00:00.008-04:00

I kept meaning to update my blog but I was too busy paddling.

Here is the Cole's Note's version.

I managed to get a couple more paddling trips down into the USA.

I had to send my camera back in Pentax for repair. I managed to get it back just before heading down for my next USA trip.

One trip was on the 22-Aug-2009 where I headed back down to Ohiopyle, PA for the over the falls race. Basicaly it boils down to a bunch of boaters being able to run this 18 foot water fall. It is only legal to run it one day a year and that was it. I spent some time shooting pics of some of my open boat and kayak friends. The motly crew managed to get a Lower Yough Loop run in before heading off to the BBQ place for dinner.

The rest of the the pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622038649605/

Most of met up on the sunday morning for breakfast at some restaurant in WV. We were going to run the Cheat River. It was kind of on the low side which made it fun and technical. I had a total blast paddling a new river for the first time.

The pics from the Cheat River are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622175502640/

Labour Day weekend was spent paddling up on the Ottawa River. I managed to get a run in on the thursday afternoon after work. I paddled with some of the KWP Crew on the Main Channel. I managed to have a very scary ride in Kahuna at Coliseum. My boat kept disappearing as the water line was up to my arm pits. I ended up hurting my shoulder and could not paddle for the rest of the weekend.

We ended up having our King of Clubs competition.

It was a series of on river and off river antics inlcuding:

relay race
cardboard boat race
boater cross
boat toss for distance
Z-drag tow a truck up a slight hill
how many boats and people you could get on/in a car (had to be the same amount of people/boats)

I could only take photos of part of the crap show as I could not paddle that day.

They had a how many boats / people can you get into / onto a regular car ... no trucks.

21 boats and 21 people (5 in the trunk) was the winner and you had to drive it at few feet with all the stuff in / on it.

We also had a cardboard boat race through the Lorne Rapids.

The rest of the pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622276981876/

My next adventure was our annual Gull River Open Canoe Slalom Race. The attendance was lower then previous years but that did not matter as it was great to see old friends. Some of these friends you only see once a year at the race.

Here is what your typical spectators look like

My pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622311345539/

My sisters pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622449199780/

My last paddling trip to the USA for this year was for Gauley Fest in Summersville, WV.

I spent the saturday paddling the Lower Gauley with Don and Jeff Beyer. I had a couple of out of boat experiences but nothing to worry about.

Pics from that day are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622431348594/

I spent the sunday paddling the Lower Yough with Don, Jo, and jeff Beyer plus the rest of the normal motly crew of US boater I have been with like Tony, Joe, Mick, Paul, and gang. It was another beautiful day on the river. I managed to take a few sketchy runs in order to bump up my paddling skills, had a few swims, great times.

Pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622307995367/

Phil's Hole Rodeo

2009-08-11T11:40:00.007-04:00

Well last weekend was definitely interesting.

I ran the Middle Channel of the Ottawa River with some of the Petawawa River Rats in the morning. It was a great weather day. Lots of fun was had all around.

I spent the afternoon relaxing with Cheryl and Martin from the CReW before we all headed over to McKoy's for the rodeo.

I knew it was going to be an interesting event when I was paddling the flat water section over to the island. There we lots of different types of floating vessels as the rules for the comp where straight forward. Anything that floated could enter.

I myself had Devyn squeezed into my boat behind my saddle and a floating turtle and kiddie pool on top of the front part of my boat.

Everyone started showing up and the spectactor crowd was pretty big. I watched for about a half hour before I had enough guts to get into my boat and jump into the hole on purpose.

Normally I avoid Phil's like it was the plague. I dropped into rightside sideways. It was pretty bumpy and munchy to say the least. I as more scared surfing in there then my two runs going thru Buseater last summer.

Rest of the pics are here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157621880872791/

I drop in two more times but was window shaded pretty fast.

I can't believe I actually did it but I am glad I managed to survive.

The after party was pretty good. I managed to see a video of my first ride which made me happy to see it from a different angle.

Another birthday come and gone

2009-08-03T10:35:00.003-04:00

Well I had to spend last friday actually working on my 44th birthday due to a bunch of people being out of the office. It wasn't that bad and went by pretty quick.

I was treated to a steak dinner at Jack Astor's by my friend Mark and the Deacon's. It was a great night out with friends. After all it was the friday night of a long holiday weekend.

What more could you ask for ... paddling of course. My gear was already pre-packed. I loaded up the car first thing saturday morning and headed off to spend the day paddling the Gull River in Minden with friends.

The weather was fantastic. I was able to play around in some other peoples open boats. I had a really great time in a Bell Nexus ... definitely on my list of a possible future boat. It was alot lighter than mine, quick, and responsive.

Soon it was almost time for Ribfest. One of my buddies TJ had organized a kick in 20 bucks and have a pig out dinner of ribs and all the fixings. It was great to see old friends plus meet new ones. After dinnier Monekah and I shared a surprise brithday cake as her BD was earlier in the week.

The drinking had started but there were a few people holding back for a night session paddling in Earl's under generator spot lights. It was pretty cool to watch. I only wish I had my camera as the shots would have been amazing. Too bad it was in the shop being fixed.

The partying continued around the fire until the wee hours of the morning. I wolk up early sunday morning happily without a hang over. I packed up my gear and headed back to Mark's place in Barrie to help him replace some elctrical fixtures and switches before heading home to catchup on my own neglected house work.

Houston ... I have a problem ... my camera is NFG

2009-07-27T16:51:00.003-04:00

I have been noticing over the last few months that my outdoor pics have seemed very washed out or over exposed. It was getting to the point where I thought I was losing my touch.

My paddling pics no longer had crisp water droplets in them. My skyline pics seems very bland and so on.

Normally I could just wlk up to a river or water falls and set my camera to 1/10th of a second shutter speed and voila .... an excellent pic with sliky smooth water. But that is no longer the case.

Luckily my sister (yes I have a sister and yes she hates me most of the time like sisters do) has the Pentax K100D which is one model below what I have. She was gracious enough to lend it to me last weekend so I could do some comparison tests between my camera and hers.

I was paddling at the Gull River on saturday and took some test shots with my lense on both cameras set to the normal 1/10th of a second and voila .... her camera pics look like this

My camera pics look like this using the same settings

My camera is now on it's way to the surgeon to get fixed.

Me being cameraless is going to be really strange as all of my friends know where I go my camera goes.

This will be the second time my camera has gone to get fixed. The first time it was a circuit board that need replacing as it was taking random purple pics like this

Padlding the Lower Yough River in Ohiopyle, PA

2009-07-23T15:43:00.002-04:00

Well ... last weekend i decided to go paddling on a new river for me in the USA.

I headed of to ACME, PA from work on friday to meet my friend Paul for the first time in person. Most people would think that it is strange to just show up and stay with people you don't know.

But for us Open Boaters the globe might be huge but the paddling community is small. I met Paul online a few years back on the CBoats.net website so we already had a feel for each others warp sense in terms of personality.

During a few ice cold Canadian beers, paul gave me the low down on how to get to the river and what to expect.

I left for Ohiopyle National Forest Park early saturday morning to meet up with Joe and Tony who were both from just outside Philly somewhere. Added to the mix was Sean from OH and Mike from PA and they were both new faces to me.

We had a great day running the entire river. It was really great to focus on my technical skills of catching eddys and not swimming. After paddling it was basically have a beer and figure out what to do for dinner.

Turns out it is illegal to drink alcohol in a State Park and i was let off with a warning from the ranger instead of a ticket.

Dinner was pulled pork sandwhich and more beer and this place does it right. Forgot the the name of it but you can bring in your own beer :)

After that we head over to Sean's campground to check out the local playspot for future possible camping sites on a return trip.

I headed back to Paul's place for a late night drink before heading to bead.

The next day Paul, myself, and the two boys heded back to the Lower Yough. We met up with the gang from the day before plus Jay, Pete, and a few others. More new people to paddle with. Most of us just ran the loop section as we were pressed for time and had long drives ahead of us.

It was another great day on the river. The only problem now was the path off the river started as a goat trail between the boulders until it flattened out. I actually had to take it easy and put my boat down twice.

After that it was goodbyes in the parking lot. I stopped for a quick bite to eat at the BBQ place before my seven hour trip back to Toronto including the half hour at the border.

It was a great weekend meeting new friends to go boating with in the future.

I will definitely go back and paddle that river for sure.

Newfoundland - Part 02 and then back home for some paddling

2009-07-16T17:44:00.003-04:00

Damn ... life has been totally busy.

I totally gapped it and forgot to update my blog when I was on vacation.

So here are the coles notes version:

Saw ice bergs in Twillingate and Durrel
Had a blast hiking around Gros Morne National Park on the west coast
Toured the Viking Settlement on the northern tip of the island
Saw "The Navigators" life at the local pub in Rocky Harbour .... fantastic show.

After that I headed back to the mainland and toured around Nova Scotia for a few days.

I spent a few days up in Canning visiting some friends from my high school days. I probably had not seen Mrs. M since 1983.

I ended up working a day in Halifax with some of our staff there plus an extra day touring around.

All goo things had to come to an end. I had not been in my boat for almost a month as was going through paddling withdrawls. I decided to head back to Ontario a few days earlier than planned.

I still have to go through the photos I took which will take some time.

I managed to drive all the way from Halifax to my dads place in Petawawa in 16.5 hours which included three 5 minute pit stops and a 20 minute Costco shopping spree for my step-mom in Ottawa.

It was nice to just relax before having some fantastic boating on the Ottawa for a few days. I also ended up taking some photos at a freestyle competition that was going on. I have slowly been uploading the photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157621383289639/

Roadtrip to Newfoundland - Part 01

2009-06-25T22:20:00.001-04:00

I decided last year that I wanted to do a roadtrip to the island of Newfoundland as I never been there before. After some discussions with some of my friends that had been there on vacation or actually still lived on the island I was convinced. My main goal for the trip was photography only.

Time slowly passed by first it was months and then it was days away. Things were pretty hectic all around and I had to get things packed, ferry booked, bill pre-paid, and then it was time to hit the road.

I decided that I would spend a night at my dads place first as it made for a more quick direct route and avoided the rush hour traffic in the big cities.

My journey started on Saturday 20-Jun-2009 when I left my dads at 6am. After a 15 hour drive I managed to drive 1300 km and ended up in Moncton, New Brunswick where I grabbed a room for the night. I never really thought I would get that far in one day as the weather was pretty crappy once I left Quebec and you always have that fear in the back of your head of running into a big ass moose.

Sunday 21-Jun

I slept in the next morning and thought about different options for the day. I was only about three hours from Halifax, Nova Scotia or three and and half to my friends sister and moms place in Canning, Nova Scotia. I had not seen them in quite a long time so I headed off to Canning. Colleen was quite surprised when I rang the doorbell. She was only going to be home for a bit before heading off to a function for the night. Joan was off in Vancouver visiting friends so I missed her. I went for a drive around the area before head back to the house for the night.

Monday 22-Jun

I left the house around 9:30 the next morning to head up to North Sydney, Nova Scotia in order to catch the ferry. I had lots of time and was in no rush plus as usual on all my vacations it was crappy weather. I took the slower route on the eastern side of Cape Breton Island towards Sydney Nova Scotia. It was a very beautiful drive up despite the rain and fog. I hope that one my trip back it will be nicer for photos as i never really had a chance to take any. I picked up some Gravol at the Walmart in Sydney as I get motion sickness and I was just about to spend 15 hours on the ferry to the east side of Newfoundland.

I arrived at the ferry with lots of time to spare only to be delayed getting into the terminal due to all transport trucks that were blocking entrance as they could not get into the parking lot quick enough to allow the cars in. It turns out there were only going to be about 200 passengers on this big boat. Not sure how they made money on that trip but hey more space to spread out and relax. I ended up having a bunk space in a dorm room that would have had 60 people in it all to myself. I pretty much slept the whole trip as I was drugged up on Gravol.

Tuesday 23-Jun

Finally ... I was on the Island of Newfoundland in Argentia complete with the rain and fog. I headed down south from the ferry terminal to Placentia and then off to the Ecological Reserve at Cape St Marys. The weather was still crappy and not the best for taking photos but I went to the bird reserve regardless. It is definitely a spectacular place to visit and was hoping to maybe go back on a better weather days but that did not materialize at all before I left the area. I headed up to St John's for the night and took some spectacular night shots of Cabot Tower at Signal Hill. I spent the night sleeping in my Motel Ford Taurus at the local Walmart. Wasn't the most comfortable sleep I had but considering I did not roll into the parking lot until well after midnight I didn't care as I was super tired.

Wednesday 24-Jun

I spent the morning touring around the St John's area visiting Petty Harbour, Cape Spear, Kiddie Viddy, and ended up back at Signal to take pictures of the information boards, etc. I started talking to the commsionaire that was working on site. I exchanged one of my Bell Beavers for a couple of St John's city pins. Fair trade all around. To my delight the summer students were having their first outdoor practice for the up and coming Canada Day Tattoo. It was great to watch with the Fife and Drums band with soldiers in period costumes. After that I headed into town for the best fish and chips I have ever had at the Sundance. I spent some time walking around the downtown core before continuing my journey down the eastern coast. I grabbed a camp site at La Manche Provincial Park. Great value at 15 bucks for the night and I was looking forward to my first shower the next morning since the last sunday at the hotel. I ended up next door at the neighbours campsite for drinks before heading off to bed for the night. I ended up having a great sleep considering it poured rained the whole night and my tent was totally dry inside.

Thursday 25-Jun

I managed to sleep in the next morning which felt great compared to the night I spent in the car. Had a shower and a great breakfast before continuing the journey south. The weather still wasn't the greatest but I still wanted to drive down the coast. Definitely a beautiful drive. The weather on the coast was still going to be crap for the next couple of days so I decided to head further west on the island to the Burin Penisula to spend a couple of days visiting my friends Martine ans Isaac. Martine was out and about doing video shoot for work. I sepnt some time catching up with isaac when he asked me if I knew anything about routers for networking. I had to earn my keep so I re-configured the router and voila wireless internet for the house was born. And then after catching up on some emails it was bed time.

Ottawa river 06-07 June 2009

2009-06-09T20:02:00.002-04:00

Saturday: level 15.75

I dropped my boat and gear off earlier then expected at the OWL putin before heading off to River Run to find the N.O.P.E (Northern Ontario Paddling Explorers) Crew which consisted of Andrew, Ryan, and Wade. The plan was to meet there, gear up, and set the shuttle. We left my car at the bottom of the River Run parking lot before heading off for a morning paddle on the Middle Channel.

This would be my first trip down the river this season which turned out to be the same for Ryan and Wade as well. It wasn't long before we were staring at McKoys (me with the standard sick feel in my stomach). It was one of those holy crap which line do you want to take. After ten minutes of looking at it Andrew was first followed by me, Ryan, and Wade. I know I went down the tongue on Phils and then to the left to avoid the boily crap. Not sure about the others.
After the long paddle across the flats we finally came to Iron Ring. We all got out to scout it ... well maybe look at it ... Ryan never saw it at that level and basically said holy crap that really nasty. We all decided that nobody was going to run that and headed off to scout Little Trickle. I remember Andrew making it clean ... not sure about Ryan ... and Wade hade the interesting I think I will flip upside down and roll back up half-way down the run but managed to come up face and skin still intact.

Then there was my run .. Andrew was sitting in the first eddy below waiting for me. I ended up trying to carve into the eddy too soon and drop my edge too much and ended up going for a swim. I managed to swim with my boat to the big rock island on the other side of the eddy. The only problem I had now was how was I going to empty out my boat and get back into it as the water was pushing me all around and I was over waist deep in water. I managed to push the open side of my boat against the rock wall and lift it up enough to get most of the water out before rolling it up the wall to get out the rest of it. That was the easy part. I know had to figure out how I was going to stand on a small rock and jump 6 feet forward into my boat without tipping over. Somehow I managed to do it and ran the remaining drop not using my outfitting to the big eddy further down river. Andrew did make a comment about how this was going to be a very interesting to watch as he was pretty sure i was going to swim again.

Next stop would be Angel's Kiss. Some of the others played there for a bit as I was taking a break exploring the shore line. I found a complete skeleton of a deer about ten feet from shore. I put the skull with antlers attached on top of a stump. We stopped at Butterfly for a bit before heading off to Garvins for lunch.

I spent some time scouting ST Chute but decided against it as the left side of one of the holes I would have to go through was munchier then my previous run last summer at a lower level. We spent some time having a nice lunch before heading down to the Garvin's Waves. I somehow ended getting knocked over on the third wave which resulted in my second and final swim for the day.

I did not feel like running Upper No Name and took the left hand channel around the island. Not sure what happened with the others when they ran Upper No Name.

I took the far right line on Lower No Name which was a very dry run for me. Ryan followed Andrew down the left side. I think Wade went down the middle.

We were soon at River Run takeout. I had to run Andrew back up to the top to get his truck and thats when we ran into Sarah D from the CDB Crew. We talked for a bit before heading back for a quick beer and munchies before our game plan for the afternoon of heading of to Trick or Treat Falls for some more fun. We made the 40 minute drive there and all of us looked at the falls but Andrew was the only one that geared up for four runs before calling it quits. It was getting late and we had already decided that we were going out for dinner. We ended up at the Rocky Mountain House in Renfrew. The food was pretty good (well i thought so). Some of the CDB Crew ended up at the same restaurant and I spent some time chatting with them before catching up with the N.O.P.E Crew out in the parking lot.

Ryan and I ended up going to the Tours for a visit and email check as he had never been there. Andrew and Ryan were heading over to check out Bussy.

After that it was back to the campground for and evening of a nice fire with drinks, followed by more drinks, SQUIRREL, followed by more drinks with Cale, Steph, Leah, Gonzo, and many others. It was a very late night for everyone. I think I packed it in just before midnight. I am not sure who the last person standing was as it wasn't me.

Sunday: Level 15.75

I wolk up around 06:30 and my head was going swoosh swoosh swoosh ... I don't think that was a good thing but at least I was alive ... barley. Soon it was breakfast time. The plan for the day was to meet Carly and Billy at the put in for 9am. We ended up being a few minutes late by the time we set up the shuttle but were not too worried about that.

Everyone was pretty much geared up and we headed down to the river. Ryan was not sure whether he was going to paddle his Prelude or his C1 Nomad. After a wet exit check he decided on the Nomad which would be an interesting day for him as he had never been in moving water with it.

Sarah D and Pat also joined our motly crew on the river. Along the way to McKoys Carly and Billy were busy shooting video while paddling their Dynamic Duo. Everyone made it fine through McKoys.

Soon we were at Little Trickle. Pat helped Sarah with her run as she was a bit nervous about running it. She made it fine as did I and all the others. We spent some time at Angel's Kiss and Butterfly where I managed to get an amazing back surf in the left hand hole.

Soon we were off to Garvin's. We headed over to Elevator Shaft. Carly and Billy wanted to run the Duo down for part of their video. I think Andrew ran it as well after the rest of us headed over to the other side of the river to the lunch spot for a quick bite to eat.

I ended up having a swim at the 2nd wave on the bottom Garvin's wave which basically sucked. Ryan also ended up having an out of boat experience after me. My run through Upper and Lower No Name were fine.

I watched Carly and Billy do their run throigh Lower No Name. They were almost vertical on some of the waves before they dissappeared around the corner. I did not realize that Ryan was out of his boat and it had gone down the right hand channel after Upper No Name. Luckily he did not swim down there as it is pretty crappy in there. Everyone else made it down fine. Ryan was re-united with with boat and Carly and Billy carried back up for another Lower No Name run for their video. Ryan played video guy.

After that is was off to the takeout for a beer before doing the shuttle. I picked up the Duo and threw it up on my car. Carly was quite surprised that I could pick the thing up. Apparently Billy can't do that by himself :p.

I dropped Andrew, Carly, Billy, and Pat off at the putin and I put the DUO on Carly's vehicle as I did not want Billy to hurt himself. I had to head back to River run for my gear before heading off to my dads to drop of my paddling gear into their garage followed by the ling drive home.

Palmer Rapids and Lower Mad Trip

2009-06-04T11:30:00.002-04:00

I managed to get out paddling last weekend 30-31 May.

Spent the saturday paddling around Jessups and the Lower Set for the day. The weather was actually nice for a change. There were about 100 Scouts on the river taking courses. I paddled with my friend Keith Watson who finally decided to show up before lunch time but at least he made it.

Sunday was an interesting day on the Lower Mad. We ended up paddling in rain -> sleet -> snow -> and then sun at the end of the day.

The level was not that great for playing at Hass Hole in an open boat but fun for running the river. Keith and I met up with another couple after the Scouts decided to cancel their trip due to the crappy weather.

The best run of the day had to be at Split Rock. Keith and I spent about 10 minutes looking at the channel running through split rock. The right channel there was boney but the left channel was doable if you were able to make the line as the moves were tight. I never hit one rock and ended up in the eddy as planned.

My other best run of the day was at Raquette. Normally you would have to go to the left of the island but there was enough water to run the right hand side. The only problem would be to figure out where to run the river wide drop. Keith scouted the right hand side and said no go.

My line was from right to left and then over the six foot drop. I had to do a few braces and sweeps to keep from going over and getting sucked back into the hole but made. I was full of water but I made it.

Keith saw me disappear and decided to take the far left line which was kind of boney with no drop on it.

All in all it was a great weekend for paddling.

Barely paddling and going stir crazy

2009-05-18T19:28:00.000-04:00

I had a great couple days of doing photo shoots with a couple of my friends.

My friend Samantha had a great time and will be coming back sometime in the future for another shoot.

The rest of Samantha's pics are here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/3497387582/in/set-72157617549072287/

My friend Kent and his girlfriend Chantel as came by for a shoot.

It was a bit strange doing a male model shot as well as the couple shot but I was happy with the results:

The rest of the pics are here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157617699124132/

I also managed to get a great day of surfing in at Hass Hole on the saturday of the Victoria Day long weekend followed by a party with old friends. It was literally a last minute decision of the morning of to make the 3.5 hour trip to Palmer Rapids.

The pics from the paddling/partying are here:

Paddling

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157618479214200/

The Band

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157618480931476/

The Party

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157618394502513/

Paddling Fun and Level 6 Cup

2009-04-26T19:31:00.005-04:00

I manage to get some paddling in over the last couple of weeks.

I spent the saturday of Easter weekend paddling with some friends on the Tamworth section of the Salmon River. The weather was great and the water was cold but it was a fun day out.

I also managed to get a day in on Beaver Creek during the M.A.C.K.Fest weekend (see www.mackfest.ca). I managed to punch in the front of might boat after succesfully running the bridge drop. The damage is way beyond my repair skills and is current at Paddle Sports Repair for surgery.

I just spent this weekend in the city of Ottawa taking photos of friends at the Level 6 Cup. The weather was aboslutely gorgeous on saturday for the competition. I hope to have all the pics up soon. 2500 is alot to go through.

As always you can view my current pics at (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/).

This would also include some of my recent studio photoshots with friends.

Until next time ... be safe out there!

Life's been busy

2009-04-11T18:46:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted in my blog.

So much for keeping up with the detail so here is the Coles Notes version instead.

12-Mar-2009

I did make the trip down to Ain't Louie Fest in TN for Spring Break. The plan was to just drive straight down to Lenoir City, TN and then get ready for a week of boating.

We all know that life is subject to being quite dynamic. After staying at somes friends place in WV, I ended up taking a slight into North Carolina to go boating with some new friends on section 9 of the French Broad. It was a nice run to shake off the cob webs of not being in my boat for four months.

After that we all headed over to TN to get ready for the festivities which unfortunately for me included five days of rain. I am not complaining as it is needed for paddling but sucks when your sleeping in a tent for the week.

It was great to see old friends and meet a whole lot more. Gabe won the award for the furthest drive. He came 2500 miles with his dog to pick up a new boat and have some fun.

I had some excellent boating on Clear Creek (Jett to Lilly), the Little (Sinks to Elbow), Middle Fork of the Little Pieogeon, and Tellico (Below Jarods Knee to Turkey Creek).

Both my body and boat took a beating as I kept pushing myself to the the next level. But my boat did end up losing on the Telico when I end up punching in the front of my boat when Tony decided to go sideways and block the run on the river. Ehhh ... crap happens.

I had originally only planned on paddling up until wednesday and was going to take the thursday off before heading south to Alabama for NAWFest. But enough was enough ... i really need to dry out my gear after all the rain.

18-Mar-2009

I woke up up the wednesday morning and decided to take another day. My friends asked my what I was going to do. I told them I decided to go watch me a sunset in the Gulf of Mexico. I packed up my stuff and drove 8.5 hours to watch the most beautiful sunset to date that I have ever seen on a spit in Pensicola, FL.

After that I grabbed a room for the night to relax, have a nice hot shower, and sleep in a really comfy bed. I sepnt the next morning doing laundry and re-packing my car for the next phase of the trip in Alabama.

I ended up staying with some friends thursday night in Taledaga, AL. I met Joseph and Arlene two summers ago when we were on a white water canoe course together. Dinner was great as was sleeping in a nice comfy bed :).

20-Mar-2009

I left early on the friday morning to head up to the paddling festival a few hours away. It would be day one which included the huckfest off the falls followed by the boater cross. The huckfest was great but the boater cross did not even get started as the local sheriff kicked us off the property due to a supposed land dispute with someone who was claiming to be the land owner but was not. Imagine a couple hundred people being forced to leave all at once standing along the side of a road waiting to get a ride to the parking lot. Not My idea of fun.

After that fiasco Dooley, Memree, and I went for a late lunch in town before I headed off to the main festival site to setup my tent. At least it was hot, sunny, and zero forecast of rain. What more could you ask for as a premise for a kick ass pre-party.

Lots of people were playing in the rodeo hole during dinner. I unfortunately had to re-patch the hole in my boat from TN. Thank god for two part expoxy sticks from Home Depot. Forty minutes later I was in the eddy lineup where i spent over an hour trying to side surf my boat right to the gunnel line and always swimming. But the water was warm and I was paddling in shorts. Well at least I thought it was BALMY but the US boaters thought it was cold .... lol.

Soon it was dark and the pre-party had started.

The plan for staurday was to take photos of the rodeo in the morning and go paddling with Arlene, Joseph, and gang on the saturday afternoon. We ended up running a section of the Warrior Locust Fork. It was a gorgeous day. I kept running non-tradional lines down all the runs and had a blast. We parted ways. My plan was to go back to the campground for the main party and awards ceremony and then head over to Andy and Lynn's place.

The party was great. I was really happy I made the trip to AL. I met lots of new friends and hope to make it back the the festival next year. I said my goodbye and made it to Andys just before midnight and the funny thing was they were just finishing dinner.

22-Mar-2009

We had an early breakfast and then headed out for another day of fun in the sun paddling on the Mulberry river. I was a nice day to wind down before my impending two day roadtrip back to Canada. I spent the night at Arlene and Josephs.

I got up early monday morning and was gone by 4am (Central). I managaed to drive 1120KM in 12.5 hours to my friends place near Lost Creek, WV followed by the an easier 8.5 hour drive home the next day. At least I managed to score a couple of 60 ouncers of Barcardis at the duty free.

I sepnt the wednesday basically doing laundry and catching up on sleep before having to go back to work on thursday.

All in all it was a great time, saw old friends, met new ones, experienced great southern hospitalitys at its best. Would i do it again ... yeppers.

Going on a water therapy road trip to the USA

2009-03-10T09:37:00.003-04:00

Well ... not much has been happening in my life except that work has been super crazy and I am going through paddling withdrawl (4 months has been tooo long).

I have been planning a return trip to TN since I was there a year ago.

The last three weeks have been a blur as I have been checking my gear, fixing what ever, and packing it.

T-2 days and I am gone for 10 days of fun hopefully in the sun paddling.

Roadtrip to Ottawa

2009-02-09T19:44:00.000-05:00

Friday:

I decided to do a roadtrip with a friend to the booming city of Ottawa via a quick side trip to visit my dad and drop off some goodies plus pick up my Thule rooftop carrier.

We also managed to get in a trip to the Costco in Gatineau (it is my mission to visit as many Costco's as possible) for a bear run. You can pick up a 24 of Corona for 33 bucks including deposit and tax. You can also pick up at 55 pack of Coors Light for 55 bucks also including deposit and taxes.

My primarily goal for the trip was to say goodbye to a good friend of mine who was leaving for an extended trip out of country.

Saturday:

After breakfast with and a goodbye hug from my friend ... Mark and I headed off to the new Canadian War Museum as both of us had never been there before.

The museum is definitely worth the visit. More detail can be found here http://www.warmuseum.ca/.

We had dinner and then headed over to the casino in Gatineau for a few hours of excitement. I spent (lost) my pre-set 20 buck limit in about an hour at the slot machines. I spent the rest of the time watching the craps game trying to figure out all the rules. It was an interesting game with too many variations which made it kind of challenging.

After that we stopped in downtown Ottawa to take some photos of the ice sculptures and the National War Memorial.

The rest of the pictures are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157613575971841/

The rest of the pictures are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157613522036364/

January Update

2009-01-31T19:55:00.001-05:00

Holy moly ... I can't believe I have not updated my blog since Xmas.

Not much has happened since then ... just the normal busy at work stuff.

I did manage to do a few more photo shoots of friends.

The first one was of my friend Julie. We had not seen each other in eight months and had been planning it for four months.

The rest of the pics can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157611953486615/

The second one was of my friend Tiffany. I met her back in October while paddling with some friends.

The rest of the pictures are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157612292296475/

The last one was of my friend Victoria. She happened to be home for a two week visit from out west in order to celebrate her birthday and visit friends. This would be the second time I have taken pics of her. First as a blonde and now as a redhead.

The rest of the pictures are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157612833268374/

Xmas Holidays

2008-12-27T07:41:00.000-05:00

This would be the first xmas dinner I have had at my place since the marriage breakup a few years back.

My dad and step-mom showed up on afternoon of the 24th and this would be the first xmas dinner ever at my place for them. We spent the afternoon / early evening putting away all the food, watching movies, and of course munching on finger foods before heading off to bed to await for Santa's arrival.

Just like little kids they were up early xmas morning scurrying around the tree looking at the gifts that Santa had left the night before. Way toooo many to count. After the frenzy of wrapping paper being shredded open and thrown all over the place it was time for breakfast of bacon and eggs to order followed by a cleanup of the mess they made from presents.

The next few hours were spent getting stuff ready for xmas dinner before my sister and bro-inlaw showed up for dinner as well. They finally made it here where the next few hours was spent catching up, pigging out on turkey, ham and the multitude bottles of wine that managed to find their way to the table.

My kids finally showed up late that evening just after my sis/bro-inlaw had left. Magically Santa had left them some presents under the tree and they opened them. After that it was drinks and realxing watching a movie.

Boxing day was basically spent indoors watching more movies and visiting with friends that had dropped by to see my parents.

All in all it was a busy but nice xmas and was great to see everyone from the family together at the same time in the same place!

Second photo shoot in the home studio

2008-12-21T20:59:00.008-05:00

I spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out how to make the new studio a little more functional and spacious. It took a bit but I think I have it all worked out.

I needed to find a friend to do another test run with. I was online one night talking to my friend Kristi and I asked her if she would be interested. She had seen alot of my other photos and like the concept and said sure. The only problem was very small window of time to do the shoot as she is moving out west with her boyfriend at the end of the month and then having to deal with the xmas holidays just complicated even more.

We basically came up with a 2.5 hour window yesterday and all things considered it went very well.

We did a whole pile of low light candle shots followed by some studio umbrella lighting with both flash and non-flash lighting.

Candle light shots:

Umbrella lighting:

I learned a few more things that I have to remember for next time but that is all part of it.

I am always looking for more friends to take pics of so if your interested then let me know so we can set something up.

The rest of the pictures can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157611454543420/

Purge clean of the house

2008-12-14T20:54:00.000-05:00

Well ... I hate to admit it but I am a bit of a packrat when it comes to computer stuff.

It got to the point where it was everywhere I looked.

It took me a few fews but I managed to get rid of the hoards of broken pcs, monitors, and parts that I was thinking I could you someday and never did.

The massive cleanup came down to have I seen or used that in the last five years ... nope ... gone.

This included clothes which are going to be donated ... just need to drop them off somewhere soon.

I lost count after the fourth trip of my back seat and trunkof my car being completely full.

I now have space to properly organize all my remaining stuff which will take some time but I am happy with the progress I have made.

A photo studio in the house

2008-11-25T21:08:00.003-05:00

I had been thinking for a while now about turning the huge empty master bedroom in my house into a photo studio of some type. It was time I added another dimension into my photography realm that is so far removed from my regular sports and nature shots.

So guess what I finally did it. It might not be a professional (as I am not a pro photographer) setup but WTH it is functional.

I had the pleasure of taking some pics of my friend Ashley last sunday as my first run through to see how things would work out with the new setup. She was an absolute sweetheart as worked together to figure out lighting, etc for different possible shots.

She was very pleased with how things went and the in the final outcome.

The rest of the pictures can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157609963636675/

I still have a lit bit of tweaking to make to my setup but I am very happy so far!

Elora Gorge at 40cms

2008-11-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

I went and paddled the Elora Gorge last last saturday with friends.

It was a whopping 40 cms which is way more the the maybe 10 cms I have paddled it in the past.

The river looked so totally different. It was fast moving and huge waves / holes.

It was a wet dreary freezing cold day. I actually had to wear my gloves and that says alot.

We only had one major swimmer during the day. We had a kayaker out of their boiat above the chutes. I ended up having to run the right hand line down the chute to try and catch up to the boat. I punched the first two holes fine and ended up getting pushed over by the last one and swimming with my boat to shore. I ended up banging my knee (which end up being pretty swollen that night) on a rock during my swim.

We did get the kayak back so that was a good thing.

The scenery on the river was amazing when we came up to this huge waterfall coming off the side of the gorge wall. I wish I had my regular camera with me but the weather was to crappy to take pictures anyway.

Everyone made it to the take out safe and sound.

I am glad I made the trip as it gave me and idea of what the Gorge was like in high water but without the ice and snow. I have determined that my cutoff point for running the Gorge will be around 50 cms.

Until next time be safe out there.

Trip to the city of Ottawa to paddle the Pumphouse and potluck dinner

2008-11-10T08:01:00.000-05:00

I spent last weekend doing a roadtrip to the city of Ottawa with my friend Mark.

My goals were to paddle the Pumphouse slalom course and attend the CDB paddling club annual meeting and potluck dinner. Mark was along for the ride to go visit his brother.

We left Mark's place just after 6am on saturday morning and made it to Ottawa just after 12:30ish. This was a pretty good time as we only made three stops, Tims in Bancroft, Foymount for shopping, and the Antrim truck stop for brunch. We managed to briefly run into my dad and step-mom as they just finished having breakfast there. It was a what the hell are you doing here moment as it was totally random and unplanned.

I dropped Mark off at some intersection and headed over to the Pumphouse for some paddling fun. I had never been there before and was really impressed with the facility. It is a great slalom course in the downtown area of Ottawa. Some of the members of the Canadian Olympic Team were there training. I also ran into some of the Junior teamt that I know. I met up with Christian, Paul, and Stephen. We managed to get a couple hour of paddling in and then we headed over to a local pub for a drink before parting ways.

I headed over to MEC before going to Julia's house for the party. The meeting was great and so was the dinner. Here are some pictures from that night http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157608985076314/

I ended up getting voted in as Member at Large which is someone who promotes the club while out and about. The CDB website is http://www.cdb-ottawa.com/

Kelly from the club presented me with a plaqued version of a picture of me running ST-Chute on the Ottawa River. He said is was their way of giving something back to me for sharing all the pictures I take of others.

This is the original picture:

After the party I headed over to Marks brothers place before making the uneventful trip home on sunday.

Lower Madawaska and a trip to the Wilno Tavern

2008-11-03T07:58:00.000-05:00

We met up at the at the Paddler Coop at 11:30. We decdied to run the Lower Madawaska since there was no water on the Middle Mad at MKC. It was running at about 30 cms.

What more could you ask for ... the sun was shinning, the air temperature was cool, and your out paddling with your friends in November.

We only had two swimmers during the day and beers at the takeout before heading off to the cabins to offload our gear and more beers.

Link to pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157608594838922/

So what could make the day any better but a trip to the Wilno Tavern for a late dinner and Blaine was the only Wilno virgin in the group.

Ryan had a brain lapse in judgement and offered to be the DD for the night so we piled into the kid mobile and headed off. The place was busy and we had to wait at the bar for a bit before getting a table. The drinks were definitely free flowing.

Dinner was going great and then it happened ... we met "Mike from Wilno" ... he was definitely a unique character. Ryan was the first to bail from the table to avoid the drunken conversations to stand at the bar and I wasn't too far behind him.

And that is when we met some more of the locals Syliva and Tommy. Sylvia was a throwback to the 60's and was figuring out everyones astrological signs. Tommy was a lumberjack in his little world. We were warned by the the bartender not to armwrestle Tommy as he has put more people in the hospital that way.

The night was kind of blurry for me as Ryan and Greg made sure the drinks were flowing. I lost count after two coolers, one sling, and three vodka shots. I am pretty sure Greg was in the same state of me. I do remember that the discussions were definitely lively.

Soon the night came to an end as we were the lasts one leave Wilno on a saturday night.

Has anyone else met any of the interesting characters at the Wilno?

Been busy paddling

2008-10-15T21:40:00.003-04:00

Alot has happened over the last couple of weeks.

I spent one weekend paddling the Ottawa with Frank, Mike, Ryan, Leah, Blaine, and Kim. The weather was overcast but still relatively warm. We decided not to camp but rented one of Dale Curtis cabins right at the putin. It was better then sleeping out in the tent.

We ran the middle channel on saturday and the main on sunday. My most memorable moment and probably the most sketchiest place I have been in my boat was at leftside Coliseum. I probably spent at least five minutes in oh crap mode as I was in a recirculating eddy trying not to be sucked back into a nasty hole. I managed to pull it off and not have an out of boat experience.

Me in Right Side Horseshoe

Ryan and Frank paddling together

Pictures from that weekend are here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157607586820805/

I ended up spending the following not paddling at all. My neoghbour Bob thought I must have been sick as it was the first time I had been home on a weekend since mid-june. I had alot of yard work to catch up on plus I had to close the pool.

I just spent the last weekend paddling at the Gull River in Minden on the saturday. I managed to run the entire river for the first time ever. I put in the eddy just below the dam and decide what the heck and ran it. I only had to eddy out once to empty some water out of my boat. I also ended up running the falls three times. The weather was great and i was still wearing shorts.

I head out early sunday morning to paddle with Kevin, Miguel, and Val at the Elora Gorge. I was running kind of low but was still fun. After that I head off to Woodstock to spend Thanksgiving dinner with my friend Sarah.

We managed to spend a little bit of time doing a photo shoot before dinner.

Pictures are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157608020300268/

I met her boyfriend, brothers, and mom just before dinner. There was tons of food and lots of wine. Afterwards we played dominos for a few hours while having other drinks as the wine was long gone.

Monday morning was back to paddling at the Gorge with Geoff, Mark, Jim, and Bruce. I managed to catch the top left eddy at the chute which was a feat in itself for me.

Link to the pictures from the Gorge are here

Mine http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157608005256261/

Jim http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157608017701040/

Gauleyfest or bust

2008-09-23T15:56:00.002-04:00

Making the long haul to Summersville, WV for the annual Gauleyfest has been on my bucket list for the last few years. Things finally fell into place and I manage to book some extra time off work in order to make it happen. What even made it better was that I managed to score a spot for a guided tour down the Lower Gauley River on saturday with some of the Jackson Kayak and WorldKayak.com team members. This was organized via Colin Kemp at www.worldkayak.com

I even managed to have my friend Frank ride shotgun as he was too young to drive. Frank emailed me a few weeks back after his contract job in advertising came to an end and he decided he needed a vacation.

The car was packed up on the wednesday night with our gear. I only managed to get a lousy four hours of sleep as my OCD kept me up thinking I forgot some I would most likely need on our journey south.

Thursday:

The only bummer with lack of sleep was that I now had to go to work for 06:30. It was a struggle to stay focussed while patiently waiting for the end of the workday to come along knowing you still had a long drive ahead of you. I also had to worry about Frank as he was still in the car sleeping for the day.

I managed to get away from work around 1pm and the roadtrip was now started with a slight detour to drop off a friends boat on the way before heading off to the border. I We made a quick stop at the duty free for a bottle of Bacardis. As always I end up picking the wrong line for US Customs. I ended up with the 50 million questions guy. I was finally able to leave after the five minute gruelling interview. The only upside of the whole conversation was that he did mention that I had a lovely sticker collection on my boat.

We managed to make it down to Grove City, PA before I started to get tired and decided to get a room for the night. I couldn't afford the extra money for a double and since Frank was recently unemployed and had no money he decided to spend the night in the car while I was snug as a bug in a nice warm bed!

Friday:

We did manage to be able to have breakfast together but I had to make sure no one saw me sharing food with him at the table.

And then we were off to the ASCI park in McHenry, MD. See http://www.adventuresportscenter.com/ for details. We managed to get there around 11am and ran into Andrew, Brian, and Cale from the Kawartha Whitewater Paddlers group. We spent the next few hours having a blast in the park. Frank somehow forgot his PFD and helmet so he had to sit on the shoreline and watch us paddle. I had a few out of boat experiences but that was part of the game. It is a totally amazing place to perfect technical eddy hopping skills and definitely worth the money. Just make sure you phone ahead to reserve a spot and find out when the water is running. There website was not totally accurate for the water relase schedule for september. I pointed it out to the lady in the office and she was totally shocked about the errors. I spent some time after paddling taking pictures of the course before we continued our journey over to Friendsville where we ran into alot of friends that had just finished running the Upper Yough river.

Luckily Frank and I were not pressed for time and only had 1.5 hours of driving left to my friends place near Lost Creek, WV. Pat and Pam treated us to snacks and gourmet chicken Hoagies made from scratch and done on the BBQ. They were totally scrumptious. We spent a few hours catching up before it was time to crash. We had to get up early in the morning to make the rest of the trip down to the meeting place near the Summersville dam.

Saturday:

We left around 05:30 which would give us ample time to get to the meeting point with a quick stop for breakfast at Mabels Truck Stop. I was hoping to get some pictures near dthe dam but it was totally fogged in. Soon people from all over were showing up. I met David and his two sons from Toronto shortly after my arrival. After that it was the JK crew starting with Wesley, Jim, Chris, Clay. We were split into our respective groups while waiting for some of the Jacksons to show up as they were running a little late. We ended up leaving without them in order to get the shuttle sorted out. We had two groups running the Lower Gauley that day and I was in one of them.

We finally make it to the put in road and stopped in the middle of nowhere which kind of freaked me out a bit. I looked over the side of the car and all I saw was a really steep hill full of trees and I am thinking holy crap I got to get my boat down that! It was then I was pointed to this trail which ultimately led down the river via some very steep sketchy wooden steps. I took my boat to the bottom and left it just before the last set of steps and headed back to the car to finish running shuttle to the takeout. I ran into a Don and Jo Beyer who I had met at Nationals back in July. They lived only an hour away and emailed me last week to se if I was coming down to paddle. We made arrangements to meet on sunday to go boating together.

Emily and EJ finally had made it to the putin while the shuttling of the vehicles was going on. It was great to see them again and catch up with Emily as I had not seen her since she had headed off to the World Cup in Europe about two months back.

And then ... finally ... it was boating time. Jim was the lead guide in our group and knew the river well. He would always tell us the preferred lines and what all the hazards were. Koontz Flume was a blast. I ran it down the left and then headed over to 5 Boat Hole for some surfing fun. I managed to get a front surf in on my first ride followed by an excellent side and back surf on my final ride. My boat was basically vertical and full of water but I managed to get out before making my way side surfing in two other spots on my way over to the other side of the river before emptying out. Oh ... I think I forgot to mention that I was the only open boat in the motly crew of kayakers.

At some point in time Dave managed to break half his blade off one side of his paddle. He was pretty upset about this as he just got it back from the manufacture from being broken before. Luckily he had a break down paddled as he would have been severely screw as we were only about a quarter down the river. I ended up carrying the broken paddle in my boat for the rest of the trip.

The rest of the day was a blast. Some of it was just fast flowing "boogey water" and other parts of it were very technical for me as I had to eddy hop around stuff in order not to fill up my boat or hit any of the big freakin rocks in the river. My most memorable moments were running Upper / Lower Mash.

My only out of boat experience came at the last big rapid known as Pure Screaming Hell. I somehow ended up out of my boat above the pour over. I was holding onto it as a extra PFD as I knew the hole was coming up quick. Everyone on shore was screaming swim left but the hole looked fine to me. The two off us went in and I held onto the boat waiting for the pull down followed by push up before letting go. My boat decided to side surf the hole for a bit as I was looking up river during my swim. Some girl threw me a line and I grabbed it only for her to let go as she soon realized that I would have pulled her into the river. Chris had an oh crap moment when he came over the lip of the pour over as he did not realize my boat was there. He ended up penciling straight in and submarine under it while it stayed there for a little bit longer before it decided it was done and came out. The swim wasn't that bad as I have had worse on the Ottawa.

The paddling day was soon over. I gave Emily, EJ, and I think Chris a ride back to the festival site. I had only just parked my car when I heard my name yelled out across the field. It was my friend Bill from Charlotte, NC that I had not seen in a while. I ended up camping near him as I had no clue where the other Canadians were as the place was packed. I managed to get dinner at the Jackson RV complete with wobbly pops in a can. I spent the rest of the evening looking thru the vendor booths. There were great prices for anything from boats to t-shirts with a large smattering of free beer.

I also did my duty and became a American Whitewater member. I was quite surprised in to find a beer ticket in the AW swag bag. I was also really surprised to find a copy of the latest magazine which included one of my pictures of Eli that I had taken at ALF 2008 complete with photo credit. I have finally been published for my second time this year as the first time was in a UK Paddling magazine. I was surprised as to how many people I knew at the festival. It was a great evening. I was getting pretty tired either due to sever lack of sleep or the eight beer I had or a combination of both but ended up going to bed early.

Sunday:

I was up early and headed over to Mabels for another great breakfast. I met Jo and Don at the New River Gorge info centre on the highway. We did the shuttle and hit the river.

Todays river would be the New River Gorge http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_2418_

The only downside was the water was running low but on the upside there was no one else on the river and it was hot and the water was warm.

The low water made the features fun and technical. Don explained the preferred line for each set. They took their lines while I made my own ones. I spent lots of time practicing eddy hopping around rocks, ledges, etc. It was a total blast. They were paddling the same boat as me but in tandem configuration.

At one point Jo said it was so nice to watch me paddle as I actually taking the time to catch the eddies and stuff which was different from their regular crew who only ran the same lines with no deviations. I was making some pretty tight eddies and told them they should start doing the same.

We had a great lunch spot along the way at Lower Keeney where I managed to get out and take some pictures. The rest of the day was spent trying to find new lines where possible. We also managed to find a few surf spots as well.

We finished up around 5:30ish and said our goodbyes but not before discussing the possibility of coming back down next season for fours days of paddling together. I just cant wait until next year as it is absolutely gorgeous paddling in West Virginia.

I made the 1.5 hour trek back to Pat’s place as I had to go back their to crash for the night and pick up the rest of my gear that I stored there for safe keeping.

Monday:

Frank and I left early to make our trek back home. We made a few stops along the way for pictures including the American side of Niagara Falls.

I spent the night at my friends in Toronto to catch up on life before having to go back to work Tuesday morning.

Tandem open boating at Palmer Rapids

2008-09-15T21:00:00.001-04:00

I spent last weekend at Palmer Rapids having a blast introducing my friend Sarah to white water canoeing.

Which way to the river?

I met her coincidentally at Palmer rapids last spring when she was paddling a kayak with the McMaster White Water club.

Our idea of a trip came up a few weeks ago when we were randoming chatting online and she mentioned whe would like to try open boating next summer. I said why wait until next summer and I think her response was "Dude, are you serious" and I said sure why not.

The only problem was trying to find a weekend when we were both free and getting a tandem boat. The date was set and Ryan's boat magically made its way from North Bay to Orillia with the help of a mutual friend Mike who just happened to be going up there for a visit.

So the plan was to to camp at the Paddler Coop but that is when things got better. Blaine and Kim were going up to the cabins and offered us the use of one of the extras. This was pretty sweet as this would be the first time I went paddling for an entire weekend and was not sleeping in a tent and considering it was supposed to rain all weekend.

I left work on friday afternoon and stopped in Norwood to visit Cale and Steph for a couple hours as I had some time to kill before going up to the cabins. I finally made it up there around 11pm and met Kim and Blaine around the fire. Sarah managed to show up some time after midnight as she was coming all the way from Woodstock. I was pretty tired and went to bed.

Saturday:

I made sausages and eggs for breakfast and got the boat ready for paddling. We headed off to Palmer Rapids for a day of fun on the river. It was overcast but fairly warm and that was better than rain. We spent a few hours going over the basics below Jessups chute and then we took a couple of runs thru the chute.

We took on lots of water and were basically full but we were able to handle the boat easily enough. We even took a couple of ferries back and forth just to see how it would be and we managed to do it with no swims.

And then it was time for the lower set where we spent lots of time catching eddies, ferrying, attaining backup river, and basically having lots of fun all around. We had a total blast surfing the boat on the wave at the bottom of the lower set quite a few times before packing it in and heading back to the cabins for dinner.

Dinner was pasta and garlic bread which we ate out on the deck down by the water. Later on dessert was Costco pumpkin pie while there were drinks all around the campfire. Time flew by and it was count sheep time.

Sunday:

After breakfast it was time to clean up the cabin and pack up our extra gear before heading off to the river for another day of fun.

Sarah and I did the same warm up at Jessups before we decided to run the chute. We ended up swimming on the 1st run when we hit a submerged rock. We were laughing our faces off. We emptied out the boat and got back in and paddled back up to the bottom of the chute for more fun. Our second run was fine.

After that it was the lower set (which included a short swim) followed by a couple of hours of surfing at the wave of the bottom set. We also managed to jump into another longer tandem boat for a bit to check out how it handled. Sarah even took Ryan's boat for quite a few solo runs. I think she is hooked.

After that we packed up before it poured rain to head back to the cabins to pick up our stuff and begin the journey back home.

Here is a link to the pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157607313572067/

All over the place ... what else is new

2008-09-11T22:39:00.003-04:00

Well ... its been a busy couple of weeks since I last posted.

I spent couple weekends back taking pictures of some of my friends competing in the Canada Cup rodeo on the Ottawa River on the saturday.

Link to pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157607068308574/

There was a bit of a party saturday night with some of my other paddling friends from all over the place that were up for the weekend.

I managed to spend the Sunday paddling with Terry, Karen, Neil, and Gill before heading off to the Gull River to practice for a slalom race.

Link to pictures are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157607059383806/

I spent last weekend taking pictures at the 2008 Annual Gull River Canoe Slalom Race.

I competed in the regular Mens Solo race and came dead last. I had to pay off my bet of camping fees to Greg as I was hopin to kick his ass but it didn't happen.

It was great to see old friends and meet a couple of new ones.

Yes ... I met some new people ... I don't know everyone yet.

Here are is the link to the pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157607197782450/

Roadtrip to the Minden via Watertown, NY

2008-08-25T14:31:00.005-04:00

Yeah ... I know the title seems a bit misleading but Minden was my ultimate destination via a small slight detour.

I was initially supposed to go paddling with my McMaster University White Water club on the weekend but I also was asked by some of the junior freestyle team to come down to Watertown, NY to take pictures at the Black River Whitewater Challenge.

It was a tough decision which might have ended up in me disappointing friends either way.

So after some deep meditation (yeah right) I came up with a plan that would meet the needs of everyone. It involved going to both events.

I left work friday afternoon and headed off to Kingston. I stayed with Bob and Liz that night. I also managed to go visit Alex at his new place which coincidentally happen to be less than 5 minutes from where I was staying. I scared the crap out of Alex on his front lawn when I yelled at him. It basically came down to a holy crap WTF are you doing here moment.

I told Alex I was going down to Watertown for the event and we decided we were going to travel together. I picked up him early saturday morning at 10am and we headed off to the border with two shiny brand new kayaks on my car ... no none of them were mine. After an easy crossing thru US customs we we in Watertown before noon.

The even was initially supposed to be held at the Route 3 Wave but it was flooded out and the organizers were going to use Holes Borthers as the backup. The Keeners arrived at the same time we did. Alex grabbed his gear and headed right down to the river to get some practice rides in.

I spent some time catching up with some of the Keeners and the OKS staff. I also ran into Josh and Devyn. Devyn was just recently sponsored by Riot Kayaks with some help from me and he want some pictures taken with his new shiny boat. Here is Devyn's boat in a reflection shot from Josh's glasses.

The only problem with taking pictures was how to get down to the shore line as the banks were steep and the easy access was blocked off by the city due to construction. I ended up getting dressed in my paddling gear and walked down an open area that was not blocked off or posted with no trespassing signs. I ended up having to walk up the eddy line in the river to get to the spot I wanted to take pictures from.

I spent the rest of the day taking pictures of the competition while taking some time out to talk to some of the parents I knew from previous events. As usual the competition started late and ran over for time so some of the competitors (including Alex) would have to come back on the sunday. I went back up to my car to change and pack up my gear while Alex got a few more rides in while his mom was watching.

Link to pictures from saturday are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157606962259080/

I left around 7pm with the boats on my car and no Alex. He was going back with his mom. I told him I would drop the boats off in Kingston before continuing my journey. I had the customs guy from hell. It must have been the bring every extra customs guy to that particular border crossing nigh and rip cars apart for something to do. After being grilled for about five minutes I was on my way.

I managed to drop the boats of in Kingston and be at the campfire for beers in Minden just after midnight. Not bad considering I had to have a 20 minute catnap along the way. Things started to die down around 2am and there was no way I felt like setting up my tent. I was just about to crash on a picnic table in my sleeping bag when I found another place to sleep. It was the roof covered playground equipment. It turns out there is enough room for two complete with roll bars so you don't fall out.

I finally got out of my sleep bag around 9am sunday morning and it apparently rained during the night so the picnic table might have been a bad first choice. After a quick breakfast we all headed down to the river where I spent some time taking pictures and going for swmims in the river. I decided I needed a weekend of no paddling and was quite content with floating around being quite relaxing.

Link to pictures for sunday are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157606956444047/

After that it was some good byes before heading home.

Life at Palmer Rapids

2008-08-18T23:05:00.001-04:00

Well ... I don't know where to start but here goes.

Ryan asked me over a month ago if I would have any free time in my busy schedule to paddle with him and his friend Markham Mike. The only catch was I would have to paddle tandem canoe with Mike and he had never done it before.

For some reason I said yes ... could it have been the impending 6 pack of coolers on ice that would eventually make it my way ... possibly so.

I ended up getting to the Paddler Coop around 5:30pm on friday night. I was sitting out in from of the local general store contemplating getting some ice but I could not see the building considering it was 5 feet in front of me due to the frickin rain. This would be just the beginning of the crappy weather for the night. I had to endure another four rain storms during the 45 minute period I was setting up my tarp and tent.

So what was I to do for the night considering I was the only camper in the whole place and all alone waiting for Ryan and Mike to show up at some late hour. I ended up crashing a local house party until 9:30ish and then crashed in my tent for a bit until I heard Ryan shuffling around in the dark about an hour later.

Someone who resembled a person I used to paddle with before he quit his day job and decided to teach paddling also showed up ... some guy name Neil. Well he is not all that bad as between the two of us with the help of some naptha we got the fire going and had a few drinks before Markham Mike showed up. I finally could not stay awake as I had been up at 04:30 and worked a full day and finally crashed around 1:30ish.

Mike made us breakfast saturday morning. Blaine showed up at I don't know what time to come paddling with us and he went to set up his tent and crap while we finished up the dishes and got our paddling gear ready. We finally got on the river around 11ish.

I must say it was different paddling tandem. I was in the stern of Ryans tandem boat and poor Mike was in the front. We did some basic strokes before heading off to the current to practice ferries and s-turns. Thing were great as we had no swims. We decided to finish the day early just before 3pm by running the lower set. Mike and I took our time as we were practicing eddy hopping and ferry all the way down.

The plan for the rest of the afternoon was to pack all the boats in Blaines truck, head off to Foymount for shopping, meet Neil at the icecream truck in Quadville once he was done teaching and run the Lower Mad before dark.

turn Colin's car into a storage faciltity - check
load paddling gear into Blaines truck - check
stop to get beer, coolers, and ice - check
Mike and Ryan make lunch sandwiches on the way to Foymount to feed the starving gang - check
Drop 700 bucks between the 4 of us - check
Get an icecream cone - check
Meet Neil at 5pm - check

So we finally put on the river at 6pm and guess we maybe have 2.5 hours max of daylight. We just almost make it Hass Hole when this fishing boat is going the other way with two paddlers in it. Blaine ran first and did fine. Mike and I tried to catch the eddy on the right but ended up swimming when we hit the shallow rrocks and stuff. Neil and Ryan finally caught up to us after and explained that the paddlers in the boat had an accident as the guy blew out his shoulder. Bummer for him but good for us. They were going to take neils vehicle from the putin to the takeout in order to get their vehicle. One less shuttle for us to do at the end of the day.

We stated boogying down the river. We were having lots of fun on the way down. Mike and I only had two more out of boat experiences. One of them happened to be at Canoe Opener on the second last set. I though we were already past it when I saw this dark shadow coming real close and had a holy crap moment and titled the boat left and just barely missed putting a hole in Ryans newly outfitted tandem boat.

We got to the takeout about 8:30. We still had enough light to walk up that frickin long hill to the parking lot. We put the gear down, changed, and had a few drinks while contemplating what we wer going to do with all the boats. We basically said WTF and shoved everything into the back of Blaines truck ... three open boats and a kayak ... the tandem hung out about 6 feet or so but we but one of those safety vests on it as a flag.

We headed back to the Coop for another round of drinks and a very late dinner of burgers, salad, chilli and more drinks before heading down to the fire for more drinks.

Sunday morning came real early. We headed over to the local restaurant for breakfast before heading off to the river for some more fun. This time everyone was paddling solo as we borrowed an extra boat from Neil. I spent some time thru-out the day taking some pics of the Coop OC and Kayak courses while getting in some of my own fun on the river.

We packed it in around 1pm and I was home back in around 5:30.

I had a fun weekend and the weather managed to acutall be nice for paddling on sat/sun.

Life has been busy

2008-08-08T07:44:00.002-04:00

It has been a while since my last post.

I have been spending all of my free time paddling on the Ottawa River.

I spent the beginning of an 11 day paddling roadtrip including my birthday over at the National Slalom Races at the Gull River and took about 3000 pics in three days. I still need to sort through them be I post them up.

I also managed to take another thing off my paddling list. I ran Horseshoe Falls on the Gull for the first time ever. It was a pretty quick ride.

I have just finished paddling five runs on the Middle Channel of the Ottawa over the last four days and am taking a day off to relax at my dads place before heading of to BeastFeast with the CDB Crew.

Ottawa River

2008-07-20T18:55:00.001-04:00

Friday:

I met up with the Keener group on friday morning and told them I would be meeting them later on to take pictures of their weekly competition. The weather was very grey and humid which would make the photo job really hard.

I had a bit of running around to before putting finally putting on the river at 10:30. I booted it down to the gauge and it was +10. I stopped to check out Little Trickle and decided there was enough flow and ran it clean. I made it to the top wave at Upper No Name is just under an hour from the top which is a record for me.

I tried to drop in on the wave for a side surf but was windowshaded pretty quickly due to too much upstream lean.

The Keeners were doing some practice rides and getting ready for the competition. It took a while to getting the shutter speed, etc right as it was getting darker with the impending storm. I managed to get quite a few great shots of the kids paddling throughout the day.

After lunch and the final runoff we headed down river. I had a swim in Vampire when I was making my run. Little Dane Jackson was bopping around on the second wave and I ended up having to go right into Vampire to avoid running him over.

Other than the couple of swims it was a great day on the river. By the end of the day the level was down to 8.25.

Saturday:

Pat and I put on the river around 08:30 and headed of to Little Trickle. The was even less water at around 9.25 on the gauge. I ran it first clean and then Pat did it.

After that we spent at least an hour by ourselve at Angels Kiss before the first raft showed up. I managed to get some epic side surfs on Angels Kiss.

We ran into Jim and the Esprit gang and headed over to Butterfly. I managed a really good side and back surf at Center Butterfly and a bit of surfing on Leftside Butterfly. After that we headed down river and had lunch with Esprit at their spot on Lower No Name (thanks Jim).

Pat and I were off the river by 1pm. We managed to get more surfing in by paddling early than what would have taken the whole weekend with other paddlers there.

After that I spent some time visiting friends and actually ended up showing one of them how to install a new toilet step-by-step.

After that it was an evening of socializing with other friends at WT.

Sunday:

Met up with some of the CDB crew for another run down the middle. The level was 8.5. I was still able to run Little Trickle clean. I managed to get some side surfing in on Angels Kiss plus a few out of boat experiences.

After that it was back surfing up a storm at the top river left hole of Leftside Butterfly. I had a couple of swims but did not care as the surfing was epic until my last ride. That is when my foam saddle ripped out of my boat.

I am now thinking OH crap I still have Upper / Lower No Name to run old school. I deflated my front airbag and shove the saddle under it re-inflating the bag to hold it in. I headed down river with Eric and he helped me carry my boat around Garvins.

Upper no Name was an easy run. I took the left catch eddy, reun the ledge catch eddy, move right and run the rest of the center line after passing the line accross from Vampire.
It was a farely dry run and I didn't swim so i was happy with that.

Ottawa River - Paddling with the Pros Weekend

2008-06-29T13:22:00.001-04:00

Friday:

I stopped by Matt Troutman’s place in the Burg on Friday afternoon and asked him if he thought anyone would be paddling at Bussy. His answer was yep and the next thing that came out of his mouth was “By Mom” and all his gear was on the top of my car.

We headed over to the river and paddled across to the island. I spent the next couple of hours taking pictures of him, Sam Ewing, Dave Crerar, Stephen Wright, Megan Harpham, Rafas Mexican Buddies, and Jen the photo girl from WT. I still can’t figure out why people want to paddle that thing and get bounced around like a cork but they all had smiles on their faces so I guess it was worth it to them. It was also pretty funny to watch the rafts get totally folded in half.

Soon it was time to leave as we knew the Keeners would be over shortly and the lineup for the tow rope would be huge. We headed back across to the lunch spot and that is when I said hi to Nick, Joel, Rafa, and the keeners.

We ran into Harold Cox and Lisa in the parking lot. He is the manager for the Canadian Freestyle team. I was totally surprised to see him as he had one hell of a drive coming all the way from New Brunswick. After that we headed back to Matt’s place for dinner. I spent about an hour offloading my Bussy pictures and gave Matt his.

I headed over to WT to check in for what I figured would be an entertaining weekend to say the least as I knew there would be at least 30 people for sure. We had a brief meeting with Ryan as to what the schedule would be for Saturday / Sunday before departing ways to setup tents and have a few drinks before crashing for the night.

Saturday:

After breakfast we had another meeting. The group is now at 40 plus 15 of the Canadian Team. Imagine 53 kayakers, 1 C1, and me the token open boater. This was going to be a pretty cool run down the river.

Everyone started loading up their gear onto the huge kayak trailer. Billy was pretty adamant that my boat was not going on that trailer as it was for kayaks. It was the standard Billy / Colin love / hate / poke fun at relationship at its best. Billy won and my boat ended up being shuttled on Harolds truck even though there was room.

We finally made it to the WT putin where it was soon a sea of plastic boats. The weather was starting to crap out on us which would be lousy for pictures but at least we were paddling so no one really cared. I spent some time floating around taking pictures why things were being organized. Soon everyone was broken off into smaller groups and then there was me “open boater party of 1” who floated from group to group.

Nick Troutman came over and decided to grab the front end of my boat and started to do front loops over my boat. It was pretty cool to see. I was hoping to take some pictures but I had the camera put away just incase I ended up going over. Billy decided to come up and start flossing his teeth with my painter line on the front of my boat.

It was great to see the high end paddlers like Billy, Carly, and Nick take the people with less paddling experience down the river.

After a quick warm up we headed over to McKoys. The level was about 14.5 and is the highest I have ever paddled it. We were all going to run the Middle Channel. A lot of people decided to scout this one including me. On my way back up I started to get those butterfly feelings in my stomach and almost heaved. I was pretty nervous to say the least. I started my run down and headed towards Phils. I know there were quite a few of the CDB crew on the sidelines watch my run and I styled it no problem at all. Guillaume said I had a really great line and good boat control as I went through it. I was just happy I didn’t swim. We all walked back up for a group photo before heading down river.

Soon we were coming up to Iron Ring. Pat Camblin ran it in his creeker as some of the gang watched. There was no way I was running that and headed over to scout Little Trickle for a bit as I had never run it before. I asked Guillaume if he thought there was enough water there for me to run it and we agreed there was. I hopped into my boat and started heading down and that is when Katie asked me if I was actually going to run it as I was shaking my head yes. She seemed a bit surprised when I talked to her later that I actually ran it in my boat and I ran it clean with a great line. I took on a bit of water but that was expected and I only had to do a strong low brace at the bottom before making the 90 on the turn before doing the next small drop. I was very happy to say the least!

I tried to catch Angels Kiss on the fly but that ended up in a swim. I tried to surf it a few more times and that also ended up in swims and that is when I decided to get out and take some more pictures before heading down river for a late lunch and some surfing at the bottom channel beside the lunch spot.

Next up was Upper No Name which had a surf spot at the top that I did not bother to try followed by a big wave train. Soon we were at my arch nemesis on the river known as Lower No Name. I hate this rapid as I normally end up getting trashed followed by a long swim. Last season I was 19 for 23 making it thru Phils Hole and probably 12 for 15 swimming Lower No Name. I did not bother getting out to scout it as it would just probably end up freaking me out. I just headed down river for my run. I got to the first wave and went holy crap as about six feet of my boat was probably in the air when I looked forward and seen that another two big waves were still to come. To my surprise I styled it with ease and I was happy that I did not swim. I headed over to shore and started walking up to Big Smoothie to take pictures. Carly Harris was apparently in the eddy when I made my run and she said I did great and had good boat control and this made me happy.

I spent some time of people surfing on Big Smoothie. It was a huge fast wave. There was no way I was getting on that. After that we headed off to the takeout.

I noticed at the takeout that Josh was trying to sneak up on Pikey to make him swim out of his boat. I tried to swim out to him but he started to paddle away. That is when I asked someone for their kayak and paddle and headed out to get him but with using a skirt. I finally caught up to him and grabbed him by his PFD. After a few rolling sessions with me using him as a brace to get back up we came to a dead heat as I could not figure out how to undo his outfitting and he was very tight in his boat. We finally agreed to let go of each other but no I had another problem to contend with as I was about 80 feet from shore and had a boat literally full of water and was paddling it. Soon I was upside down and I wondered if I could actually roll it back up. It took a few times but to mine and the crowds amazement I was back up. I think everyone was pretty surprised that A. I was in a kayak and B. I managed to roll it up full of water. I finally made it back to shore.

Soon it was time to pack up and load the trailers. To Billy’s dismay I finally got my boat on the kayak trailer but it had to be the other one!

Saturday night was sure to be interesting as it was an 80’s night theme party. Not that I had an outfit or anything. The pre-party drinking started in the parking lot. We were waiting for Pat and Steph to crab their car as we were going to drive over and see what Bussy was doing. I spent some time taking pics of Carine and Paul walking on the fence posts. Josh managed to jump over the garbage can which was pretty cool to see.

Pat and Steph were taking for ever and that is when we walked back to where there car was. They found out they could not start their car. It turned out the security system had cut off the ignition system. We spent some time trying various combinations of stuff when I had a brilliant idea and Pat and I went and searched on the internet. Of course during this time the drinking continued. I asked Carine if she want a drink and tried my Nalgene Cooler and showed her where the bar was. We had a couple of options to try and headed back. I disconnected the battery and cleaned off the terminals and waited for twenty minutes but that did not seem to help. We looked for the infamous valet button under the dash but could not find it (Steph found it a couple days later when they had problems at Champlain Bridge).

After a no go we headed back to the main building for some snacks, pool, and partying. Yeah we were kind of lame not being in the 80’s theme but I went over a few times to see how it was going. It was pretty frickin crazy in there for sure. I think I finally went to bed around midnight. I think the party ended sometime round 2:30ish as that is when people were starting to head back to our campground. It was pretty funny when I heard “There are people camping over here in tents … why would people actually want to do that”. City folk you gotta love them.

Sunday:

I woke up with a killer headache thanks to Carine. It turned out the Nalgene Coolers that went down so smooth were pretty strong. I realized that after most of the 40 ouncer was gone and she was the one who took over the bar duties. I am pretty sure there were quite a few paddlers in our group feeling worse than me.

It was pretty much a repeat of Saturday with a few exceptions.

I almost caught Angels Kiss on the fly and managed to get somewhat of a few surfs on it.

I got a couple of half ass surfs at Butterfly as well. I managed to get wedged under a raft when I was trying to go up the line to surf left side and that is when a guide your own raft decided to peel out on top of me.

At the lunch spot Brendan asked if he could try my boat out as he had never been in a canoe before. I said sure and that is when I hopped into a kayak. We both headed down the river to the surf waves. He did great and I got trashed at the last wave and could not roll back up.

On the flat water paddle back to the takeout it was pick on the open boater by the juniors. They saw me paddling my boat standing up and tried to catch up to me to make me swim. I got back down on my knees and strapped into my boat pretty tight. The game was one. Josh and Matt tried to tip my boat every which way to make me swim but no go. I finally popped Matt skirt and that I when Josh decided to try and make him swim. Soon Matt was in behind me in my boat and was going from side to side trying to tip it. He then decided to stand up and try it again and that is when it was all over and I was in the water.

It was an excellent two days of paddling on the river with old friends and new ones. I had a blast and definitely picked up some great tips.

In case your wondering at the end of the day Pat and Steph car decided to start.

Oh I forgot to mention that there were a group of girls that only had about 4 or 5 hours ever in a kayak and they managed to run the river with the help of all the great instructors we had.

The pics can be found here except for the people I don't know they are yet http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157605946832515/

Until next time be safe out there.

Palmer Rapids / Hass Hole

2008-06-24T08:57:00.001-04:00

Well this was an excellent weekend. I could have went paddling with friends at three different places in order of being asked:

Palmer Rapids with the McMaster Whitewater Crew
Valleyfield, QC for the Cornwall CReW rodeo - important note next rodeo is 27-Sep-2008 same place
Ottawa River, The Burg with my son and friends (last minute notice of course)

The McMaster Crew won out as some of them missed me (or my camera skills) and asked me to come paddle / party with them at least over a month or so ago and I really hate changing plans at the last minute.

I arrived at the Paddler-Coop around 4:30ish. I talked to Sasha for a bit and thats when I found out that Alex and the huge Serbian crew where showing up for paddling and a huge pigfest / party like last year.

I then headed down to the river and thinking sweet no one here and I can pick the prime spot only to find a single tent on it. This is when I met Adrian who was an open boater taking a kayaking course. Not sure why anyone would be doing that but apparently his girlfriend is a kayaker and he was being whipped into submission whether he liked it or not.

I staked out a spot for Ryan and myself as he was coming down later in the evening as he could only get a get out of jail free paddling card for saturday / sunday. I had dinner and hang out with Vladimir and gang partaked in a few rum and cokes to pass the time away when this stranger came up to me and said "Hey Bud". It was my long lost paddle buddy Neil. It turnd out he was teaching a course with Jeff this weekend. By the time he had his tent up Ryan showed up and did his thing and then we partook in a few more beverages before heading over to Jessups to track down the MAC Crew for Ryan and I and Jeff for Neil. Neil was the designated DD for the night as I was already in no shape to drive anywhere.

I hung around Jeff's gang for a bit before heading out to find the MAC crew and that is when I got all my where the hell have you been hugs and we had a few more drinks before heading back to the Coop. It didn't take long for me to crash as I had some wicked tent spins. 7am sure came pretty fast and I got up to make sausages, eggs, and toast for breaky. We had to kick Alex's butt out of bed to feed him before he was teaching for the day.

Ryan and I headed over to Jessup's around 9am to go paddling. The MAC crew wasn't even on the water yet. We basically had the river to ourselves as the other paddling groups were starting to do their flatwater training. Piano rock was just under water and the river was zooming around 155ish CMS. It was definitely fun and interesting for surfing and running the chutes. I managed to get out every no and then to take pictures but the lighting sucked and with the higher water it made it difficult to get in close. Ryan was having fun as he managed to get his side surfing down in his Outrage. He also spent some time in my battleship and the Nitro (which we have determined is a very wet boat and not for me or Ryan).

Blaine showed up a little while later with his daughter Payton. She was busy scurring along the shore taking pictures of rocks, trees, bugs, etc while her dad was paddling. I asked her if she wanted to go paddling with me in their tandem boat. After some gentle coaxing she said sure but I did not tell her what she was in for. We hopped in their boat and paddled out to do a jet ferry to the other side. After the screams Blaine was laughing and surprised that we were paddling together. Its been at least 5 or 6 years since I was in a tandem boat and she was soon to be a victim of getting wet followed by more screams as we were side surfing in the wave and the boat was filling up with water. I also took her up closer and closer to the wave at the bottom of the shoots. I do remember her saying "I hate you" blah blah blah but what else is new ... heard it all before. She kept trieng to steer the boat to shore and I kept taking it further into the big stuff. I think we only had one swim the entire time and that is when we finished up.

After that I hopped back into my boat for some more fun. Sometime during the day I managed to take out a few kayakers in the MAC crew when ferrying to the other side or surfing on the wave beside them. Seems a big boat scare the crap out of people. Ryan was kneeling in Blaines Burn and trying to do the C1 thing without outfitting. He was amazingly pretty good at it. After that we went back to the Coop for a late lunch before a whole bunch of us headed over to Hass Hole for a few ours of paddling. Mr and Mrs Hass came down for a ride on their ATV. I went up to say hi and asked them if they were on a date. They laughed and watched us paddle for a while.

Everyone pretty much had a total blast as it was only us on the river. I managed to consistently get great rides on the 1st wave and was totally happy with that. Daryll almost got munched one time when I blew my angle on my ferry and everyone sad Alex screamed like a little girl when he saw me getting close. Later on we both managed to get on the same wave together but with some distance. I was worried that if I slid into a side surf I would have munched him for sure. Ryan managed to take over the camera duties at the end and got some shots of me. Thanks buddy.

After the paddling session we head back to camp. I was supposed to cook dinner but Vladimir and gang had slow roasted a pig on a spit and the food and drinks were on. After that we headed over to party with the MAC Crew but they were dropping off like dead flies. Pretty sad when the older generation outlast the university kids!

I think it was sometime after midight when we got back to camp to crash for the night. I am pretty sure when the thunderstorm and pelting rain started a few hours later everyone when crap my stuff is getting wet! We got up around 7am and packed up camp. We decided the night before to go to the Panckae House for breakfast before heading back to Hass Hole. It rained off an on until we finished breakfast and then the sky was blue and the sun was shining.

We saw Val Popov out on the river when we got their and a short time late Meghan showed up. I did my normal camera routine. Meghan was just ripping it up with spins, front, side, and back surfs. Her mom asked if I could email here my best pick of Meghan. I told here she would be able download them all later on and was very happy with that. I told Meghan she had a pretty smile (she said thanks) before she headed down river with her mom and the rest of their gang.

The rest of us started paddling having lots of fun. I managed to get quite a few epic front / side surfs going on the 1st wave. I also managed to a few back surfs going and was almost vertical on some of them. I had to recover by throwing all my body weight forward and digging in to save my self. I must admit I did have a few swims in the afternoon as I was getting pretty tired. Blaine hopped into my battleship and actually admitted he like paddling it. After all he is an open boater first and kayaker second.

Other groups came and gone throughout the day. We finally packed it in close to 2:30 as we were all wiped. We said goodbye to Kate, Daryll, Blaine and Payton. Payton agreed that we would paddle together again next time we met and I am going to hold here to that. Ryan and I had a quick lunch before heading off and that is when it started pouring. Glad we wern't paddling in that.

All in all I had an excellent time. The weather was great during paddling time and held off for partying / campfire time.

Until next time be safe out there!

Link to the pictures:

McMaster Crew http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157605780805632/

Palmer Saturday http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157605779649004/

Hass Hole Saturday http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157605784317571/

Hass Hole Sunday http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157605758814726/

20080614 Palmer Rapids

2008-06-16T17:05:00.002-04:00

So here goes the trip report without pictures as I have not had time to go through them.

The weather was great and the bugs were buggy. The blackflies sure grew alot in a month.

I managed to get up to the Paddlers Coop around noon and dropped off the Timbits in the office. I was surprised to see Wayne, Dave, and son from Pembroke way pull in the parking lot the same time I did. They saw the post and decided to come out and play.

I headed over to the access point on Dam road and offloaded the boat.

I got the airbags out and installed them into the battle ship and thats where I think the signs of bad things to come started. I am not sure how but the little blue twisty cap on the end of the tube for blowing up one of my air bags was missing. I managed to borrow one off of Waynes old one (still need to give you that back). I blew up both the airbags and got changed to only find my front air bag was leaking bad. I thought I fixed the small leak to only find out that the tube on it had separated from the inside of the bag and I did not have any goop with me. I duct taped it the best I could and crossed my fingers. (glad I was not on the Ottawa).

I finally got on the river basically spent the day playing up at the chutes at Jessups working on eddies, surfing, cross-forward strokes (Perrett was surprised). I also managed to hop out from time to time to take pics of the folks I met that day.

I decided to finally take a run down the river at the end of the day. I was catching eddies no problem at all. Then came the hole at the bottom. I decided to go to the right of it as I really did not feel like getting wet. I went to the right of the hole and it looked like there was ample water flow. Well I guess I was wrong as I came to an immediate full stop with a loud CRUNCH noise after I found the small ledge. The front of my boat is crushed and the royalex is split in a couple of pieces. I paddled to the shoreline and hauled my boat up to the car.

I am now thinking I am heading back home but I had an offer from Steve Tripp to borrow one of his boats on sunday.

I spent the rest of the night sulking and taking pictures of Dave and Alex and one of the students at Hass Hole. The wave was supreme and all I could think about was I should be out there paddling with them but could not.

I spent sunday staying at Jessups as I did not want to break someone elses boat. I did it old school in a 16 foot prospector with no thigh straps, sdalle, knee pads, or floatation. It was a blast. I was still able to make the same moves. I also managed to try a few other boats that day in old school mode as well. I was pretty much beat by noon and had lunch with Steve and his family before heading off home.

I will be fixing my boat and airbags this week before heading back to Palmer this weekend with the McMaster crew.

I passed my exam ... now I get to go paddling again!

2008-06-13T16:08:00.002-04:00

Well after three grueling 14 hour days of non-stop studying I decided WTF and scheduled my exam (costs 150 bucks) for noon friday 13th June. Maybe this would be my lucky day.

I managed to sleep in until 8am which is huge for me.

Had some toast for breaky and skimmed over my study notes and headed over early for my exam.

Luckily I did the construction sucked and some asswipe almost forced me into the ditch when a frickin scquirrel ran across the road. Rule 1 is run it over if lower than your bumper.

The test center logged me in for my exam ... 55 questions in 90 minutes and I had to get 804 point to pass. Things were going well until I got to question 4 where the computer simulation was not working correcly. I put a comment in the comment section and called the test facilitaor over. They were not sure what to do and after 10 minutes I had to say screw it and continue on as the clock was ticking and I now had 70 minutes left. At least I could get a free techinal re-write if I had failed by missing that question.

I did the other 51 questions in 35 minutes including two quite intensive simulations that worked fine. I had a good feeling by the end of the exam and I figured I had passed with flying colours.

I did pass but was disappointed with my score. I managed to only get 1000 out of a possible 1000 points! This would be the first time I ever got a 100 percent on a Cisco network exam.

I am frickin happy. I met my friend Mark and some of his friends at Jask Astors for lunch before heading home to cut the grass and pack up my paddling gear.

I can now relax a bit and get back into my boat as I have not paddled as much as I have wanted to this spring.

Life, Funeral, and mini Vacation

2008-06-11T21:26:00.002-04:00

Well ... it's been really busy the last couple of weeks.

I had a really busy two weeks at work when I found out my Grandma Vicki had died out west in BC.

With the stress of work and a upcoming exam followed by that I decided to make my trip out west into a mini vacation on the back end after the funeral. I figured I needed some time to decompress and re-evaluate life.

On the thursday of my flight out west I was working my butt off at work in downtown Toronto all day up until 3pm and then I had to get over to my office and drop off some gear, get changed, have dinner, and catch my 8pm flight.

The flight was ok except that I could not watch TV or anything as the first 6 rows I was sitting in had busted screens. I ended up doing Suduko puzzles for 4 hours. The guy behind me was trying to keep up with how fast I was doing them as he could not figure out how I was doing them like that. I finally got to my aunt and uncles place in BC around 3am Ontario time and finally crashed around 4am as I only had about 6.5 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. I was pretty screwed up at that point.

I managed to sleep a bit on the friday morning. I went over to my cousin Prescott's place. I figured that his darling wife Linda would be home and she was. We caught up life. She had to get some yard work done so I head off to Cliff Park for a few hours to take pictures of the falls. After that I headed back and went out to dinner with Prescott and the family before heading back to my aunt and uncles place.

Soon it would be saturday morning. I left early in order to head up to Princeton for the wake at Vicki's place as she did not want any kind of funeral services.

I stopped in Hope BC to visit Stacey Gauthier and his family. We were in high school together and head not seen each other since 1983. We spent a few hours catching up before I continued my journey.

I spent a bit of time stopping in various places in Manning Provincial Park to take pictures. I finally arrived in Princeton around 1pm for the festivities. I met lots of various 2nd cousins, etc that I did not know existed. I must admit that the family tree is pretty well screwed up on my mom's side of the family.

The festivities were pretty well starting to break up around 4ish. I decided to head off down to Washington State in order to get a jump on my roadtrip to Montana, I was heading there to meet one of my Flickr photo contacts. Larry does alot of wildlife photography and I told him back in January that I wanted to come out for a photo shoot with him and that he wanted to come out east and do a river trip with me. I got hold of him and asked if he wanted to actually meet up in person. He talked it over with with wife and said sure.

I stopped at the Wallmart in Omak to get a phone card for my Net10 (www.net10.com) US disposable phone card. I was hoping to get a $15 card but they don't sell them. My only option would have been a $30 card until I checked the prices of the phones. Walmart ... you gotta love them price rollbacks ... $19.99 for a new phone with a $30 card included. I ended up getting another phone.

After that I headed off to the Grand Coulee Dam at got there around 9pmish. I managed to get some great night time shots when I was about to leave when a whole bunch of the locals showed up. They informed me that there would be a laser show on the dam starting at 10pm. I stayed to watch the show and it was pretty cool to say the least.

I pushed on and drove for a bit more before I started to get tired. I ended up crashing in the back of the car in my sleeping bag for a few hours before pushing on. I made it to Larry's place in Montana around noon. I spent the afternoon with his wife Dorothy. We went to Costco and she dropped me off at the local river play spot while she continued shopping. I managed to get some pics kayakers playing on Brennans wave. After that it was back to the house where I finally met Larry and his daughter. I managed to get some pics of a hummingbird. Not the greatest but ok. We had a great dinner and came up with the game plan for monday.

We left early monday morning to head over to the Bison range that was about and hour away. We spent the morning / early afternoon taking pictures of bison, deer, antelope, flowers, etc. After that we headed over to Brennans to see if there were any there paddling. There were a couple of people river surfing on the wave. We headed back to Larrys for dinner. Everyone was pretty well bagged and crashed.

Tuesday ended being along day. Plan A was to drive 752 km to North Cascade National Park in Washington State and camp there for the night. I left around 5am after saying goodybye to Larry and Dorothy. The only two places I really want to stop for photos was the Grand Coulee Dam and the North Cascades. I managed to get some great daytime shots of the Grand Coulee. It turns out that this is the highest generating output station in the USA.

I left there and came across the Chief Joseph Dam about an hour away. I was out stretching my legs and reading the sign at the rest stop when I found out that there was a power plant tour at 2pm. I had 30 minutes to go through security and get registered for the tour. I pulled up to the big ass security gate and pushed the button. The guy on the other end was quite surprised I was there for a tour. They opened the gate and I headed toward the guard house when a guy came out and asked me for photo id and then told me where to park my car and wait for my guide.

Soon I was greeted by my guide. I asked her where the others were and she said I was it. It turned out I was the first tour visitor that they have had during the work week in weeks. I guess its not that popular that time of the year. The tour was fantastic. I was able to see extra stuff and was totally amazed with the place. The tour was over and I had to push on. I managed to get to the park around 5pmish. I stopped lots to take pics. It was raining and almost snowing at times. Thats what happens when you go from 300 feet to 5400 feet about sea level. I managed to get some great shots of a bear and some water falls.

I decided not to camp. The weather sucked and it was only about 1 or 2 degrees Celius. Plan A now turned into a plan B drive of 870Km to Burlington, WA where I decided to grab a room for the night.

I slept in a bit on Wednesday morning before heading off to Anacortes and Deception Pass for pictures before heading back up to BC. I stopped at two more Costco's for gas before getting up to the Duty Free at the border. Yes I have a Costco fetish. It's one of my goals to visit as many of them before I die. I found out why Costco has the Kirkland brand. It turns out the first Costco is in Kirkland, WA. I did not have a chance to go to that one as it meant I would have had to travel south towards Seattle and I did not have the time.

I picked up a bottle at the duty free for my cousin. It turns out that they are pretty sticky at the Sumas border crossing for booze. I claimed my bottle plus the bottle of wine I forgot I still had in the trunk from Montana. The lady let me off as I had a good explanation for the second bottle. She was also surprised that I went to Montana and back in three days. I ended up showing here the bear pics as she was interested in them before heading north. I stopped off to pick up an apple pie at another Costco before heading back to Prescott's place around 7pm. We spent some time catching up before I crashed for the night.

Thursday was a crappy weather day. I spent it checking work email and studying for my upcoming exam. I went to Paige's lacrosse game that night. I spent a good part of friday taking pictures at Michael's track and field day. I also managed to get some great shots of Casandra as she did not know I was there taking pics. After that it was back to the house for a bit before I headed off to my uncles for dinner. I managed to get some pics of Alex and Rachel with her friends before heading back to Prescotts.

I got up early saturday and headed up to Squamish area for the day. I managed to get great shots in town, beach area, the spit, and Shannon Falls before heading back to Vancouver. I took some pics at the Lighthouse Park before having a late night dinner with my cousin Mike and his girlfriend Trish. I managed to get back to Prescott's after 11:30pm. The front door was locked and I thought I was going to be scolded like one of the kids for beeing late. Turns out they were all up watching a movie. I watched the last of it with them before going to bed.

Sunday morning was pretty well spent packing up and relaxing. I headed over to my uncles for a visit. My cousin Mike and I went up to Golden Ears Provincial Park before dinner. After dinner it was a movie before heading off to the airport.

The flight was delayed by about an hour and landed in Toronto at 07:30am monday morining. I picked up my luggage and car and headed off to work before heading home to crash. I was pretty well bagged.

Yes it was a busy time out west but it was relaxing for me. I am now in study mode for a Cisco re-certification exam. My three years is almost up and alot of stuff changes. I have done alot of reading over the last two months and it is now crunch time as I have to pass before the 24th of june which means no paddling, pics, etc until it is done.

Pictures can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/

Palmerfest and life

2008-05-26T08:59:00.002-04:00

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

2008-05-11T18:27:00.000-04:00

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

2008-05-10T19:57:00.002-04:00

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.

Level 6 Cup

2008-04-28T15:53:00.002-04:00

Another roadtrip for taking pictures of paddler at the Level 6 Cup.

I left work on friday after around 1pm and managed to get to the Champlain Rapids just after 5pm. I ran into some of the regular crowd with the likes of Billy, Carly, Paul, Matt, Tyler, Mariann, and Paul. The weather was kind of crappy for taking pictures but I still took a few to stake out my spot for the next day.

I was kind of concerned with where I was staying for the night. I had arranged with my friend Geoff to stay at his parents place. Only problem was he was still in Kingston writing an exam the next day and I did not know if it was a done deal or not. To my delight he finally returned my call just as I was turning onto the road to his parents place. He said it was still a go. I met his mom, dad, and sis and we talked for a bit.

I asked if I could offload the boat into their garage for the night and explained that I was leaving for a bit to get some night time shots of downtown Ottawa.

See pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157604731349142/

It was getting late and I had not eaten since 11am. I gave Jen a called and we met for drinks and late night snack at an Irish pub named Darcy Magee's. The food was great. We spent time catching up and then it was real late. I finally got back to Geoff's place just before midnight.

I was up around 7am and packed up my gear. I showed Geoff's dad some pics
Geoff paddling thru out the 2007 season. He mentioned that Geoff was going to Skook soon and I showed him some pics of it as well.

I left around 8am as I want to stake out my picture taking spot for the day. I even marked it with my blue foam pad by attaching it to the fence. All I can say it was a very very long day in the sun taking over 1600 pictures between 9am and 4pm.

I talked to lots of people thru out the day as I was taking the pics and grabbing snacks, drinks, etc. My friends Jim and Ray showed up just after 1pm or so and spend a couple of hours taking pics as well.

Links to the pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157604780125661/

I was hoping to be able to stay until the last finals were done but I had to head off. I was going to meet my regular paddling crew at Palmer Rapids and paddle with them on sunday. I wanted to get there before dark in order to setup my tent and gear. I stopped along the way to pick up desert and ice. I made it in time for dinner. Neil knew I was coming and he saved me some.

Out came the drinks and desert for around the camp fire. I finally had to crash around 10pm as I was beat.

I managed to sleep in until 7am which is huge for me considering I am normally up at 04:30. I went into town for a 5F (number 5 and a flushy) at the local restaurant. Our plan was to leave the Coop at 9am and head over to the Middle Mad. We finally left just before 10.

I could not believe how high the frickin water was. It was zooming and I was starting to regret my choice of boat for the day as I did not have the battleship with me. I was trying out my friends Nitro and it does not exactly have very good initial stability for me.

I managed to get the boat down to just above Staircase. We all got out to take a look. Some of the others made their runs. I decided to do the left sneek route but ended up swimming for maybe 10 feet and self rescuing. I put back in just below a hole after seeing a tandem boat getting sucked into it and losing its center airbag.

I made it down the left side of Staircase fine but barely. Man this boat is way to tippy. I would love to spend more time in it with warmer water but today was just not my day. I finally caught up to where the tandem boat was pinned. It took about an hour to pull the boat off once we setup the rescue gear. The boat came out better then expected with only a broken seat and gunwale plus a few minor other things.

Noel, Paul, and Brenda were finished. The rest of us all headed down to Chalet. This is where I had my second very long swim of the day and that is when I said I was finished. Derek said he would paddle my boat to the takeout. Greg ended up losing his boat. I walked back up to where Neil's truck was and drove down to the takeout.

The others headed down river in search of Greg's boat. I know the other tandem had 3 people paddling. I am not sure of what all the details were but they didn't find the boat when they arrived at the takeout. Derek had paddled a little further down river to search and walked back. I met him on the road and we picked up my boat.

We finally found the boat about an hour or so later on someone's lawn. We wer basically doing a search along peoples property along the river as it was the only place it could end up with the strong winds. Greg was very relieved to get get his boat back.

I finally left for home and stopped off at my friend Marks for dinner and got home around 10pm and went to bed.

Canadian Team Trials

2008-04-23T18:48:00.002-04:00

I decided to head over to Chambly, Quebec to watch / take pcitures of the competitors for the Canadian Freestyle Paddling team for the 2009 worlds.

I figured it was time for another roadtrip to a place I had never been.

I left right from work on friday afternoon. The plan was to head over to Ottawa friday night and stay with my friend Jim. The would be a double duty trip as I had to deliver some boats and gear that I was storing to another friend in Ottawa.

I was going to just head straight across the 401 and up the 416 but that soon changed after I heard the crappy traffic report. I decided to take the Plan B route across the 407 to 7 and go all the way to Ottawa that way instead. I made the trip in five hours which was pretty good considering I stopped a couple of times on the way.

I headed straight to Jim's place. We caught up on life issues and he showed me a little bit about using iPhoto on a MAC. We ended up going out for a late night bite and then I crashed as it had been a long day since I was up at my regular 04:30 time.

I left around 6am saturday morning and made it to Chambly around 08:30. It was great to see old friends and catch up. I met a couple of new people from the BC Boys and others from Quebec that I had only taken pictures of but never talked inperson.

I managed to carve out a pretty sweet vantage point for taking pictures. I had the river bank as a backrest and my blue pad for my butt. I had to move a couple of heavy rocks out of the way but it was worth it in the end run. I took well over 2400 frames that days but ended up with 2254 after the deletions. I was really disappointed that I some how forgot my polarizing filter and had a hell of a time re-adjust for the sunlight bouncing off the wave.

I spent from around 09:30 am until 7:30pm taking pictures. It was a long day in the sun. I managed to get a few breaks in between the heats to chat with the other people around. The competition was fun to watch. It was great to see the upcoming juniors as alot of them have great potential as they continue their training.

Everyone headed over to the Marius for dinner. I started to offload the pics from my camera onto my laptop and it didn't take long for the people to start looking over my shoulder. I spent the rest of the time during dinner catching up with friends on life.

I left Chambly around 10pm and headed back west. I grabbed a room in Cornwall just after midnight. I finally go home just after 1pm and spent the rest of the day relaxing and gettting the pictures organized for uploading to my Flickr site.

Here are the pictures from that day http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157604646157228/

Lower Black River

2008-04-13T21:54:00.001-04:00

Sunday 13-Apr-2008

I got up around 06:30 to re-pack all my paddling gear. I also had to get the rest of the room packed up and put downstairs in storage in order to vacate the room. I started working on Saturdays trip report and had breakfast. I left just after 09:30 as I had to be at the Lower Black putin by 10am. Kevin and Daryl were pulling onto the street as I was pulling out. They did a U-turn and followed me all the way to the lovely town of Queensborough.

Janice and some of the others were already there. The rest of the armada was slowly showing up. Jim Coffey from Esprit had showed up as well. I forgot to mention in Saturdays report that he came up to me part way through the night and asked me what my plans are for Sunday. I told him the Lower Black and asked if he was going to join us. He laughed and said sure as this would be the first time he would ever be in a Colin Moneypenny trip report. I was glad he was there as this brought the open boat numbers up to two.

I was already dressed for paddling. They others started to suit up and then we did the shuttle. I headed off down river to check out one of the two brand new H20 paddles I had borrowed from Steve Horvath. The first section was a really long flat water stretch and it gave me a chance to check out the paddle. I waited just at the bottom of the first set of rapids for the rest of the gang to show up.

We all headed downriver together and came to the first major set which consisted of catch the eddy on right, ferry over to eddy on left and line up to punch through the hole, catch the eddy on the right and line up to run the four foot drop and punch through the hole.

The river would normally be a class 2/3 run but was a 3/4 plus in some parts based on the water levels and the consequences of swimming. I made the run fine. I just had to sit in the eddy’s for a bit to boat scout but I was happy how things went.

Some of the other runs were huge wave trains. I was hoping to take pictures today but I never had a chance to take a single one. We came to the next set. Andrew was walking back to his boat and said you might want to walk this one. We all got out to scout. It was a huge river wide hole with a small line down the right hand side. Most of us walked it. I think Marie was the first to run. I know Jim, Leah, and Scott ran it. Not sure who else did as I was dragging my boat through the trees across the snow to get in the eddy below.

We ran another set of smaller stuff before coming to the set with the falls and that is where my day went to total crap. The start of the run had three huge waves in it. I punched through the first two fine and hit the angle wrong on the third and went over.

This would normally not be a problem as we would swim side by side as I would tow the boat back to shore. But this happend just above the falls on the river which was not a good thing. I had to let go and swim like hell holding onto a brand new demo paddle from H20 that I did not want to end up paying for. I just made it to shore in time. Thanks to Milt for the quick tow and thanks to Janice for the hand back onto shore.

I was feeling fine but my only problem now is where the hell did my boat go. I don’t think any of the others that were ahead of me had either run it or walked around it. I think my boat ended up be the first one to run the falls. I hiked up and over to the eddy below the falls. No boat. I looked further down the river no boat. At this point I figured holy crap I’m screwed and had a long walk out ahead of me. Scott asked me if I wanted to swim behind his boat and he we tow me down the river. Slight problem cold water and no drysuit. I only had dry top and pants. I told him I would be better off walking. At least I was toasty warm and had proper footwear on and had a paddle to probe the snow/water with.

So after hike through waist deep snow, walking up a creek, and through a couple of ponds, onto a snow covered ATV trail which led to a dirt road for a combined total of 3km. I managed to get back to the river and saw Milton. They still had not found my boat. I went back up the hill and Pauline came out of here house and asked me what the scoop was. I explained to her what had happened and she offered me a ride back out to the highway otherwise it would have been another 5KM walk down the dirt road. I graciously accepted.

She dropped me off and I thanked her for the ride. I scurried the banks of the river along the highway hoping to see my boat in the calm part of the bend. No boat. I stopped and talked to Linda who lived on the river. She took my name and number and would call me if it showed up. I also asked her to let other paddlers know I was going back to the car if they came by. I am walking back along the highway when another paddler picks me up. He gave me a ride back to where the car was. A couple of the group was back. Janice was glad to see I made it out of the woods ok.

They actually found my boat just shortly after I got my ride out. It was about 4KM down river from the falls. It had apparently ran the long canyon section and two other sets of rapids all by it self before ending up in an eddy. The pumps were apparently still going and all my gear including the other brand new H20 paddle was still in the boat. Luckily I have an extra bag cage where all the gear gets stored in so it does not dangle below the boat when it is upside down. I would like to know if boat was found right side up or upside down.

Marie had graciously paddled my boat back while someone else towed her kayak. Thanks to all for getting my boat and gear back. Now for the final test. Was the camera ok. I opened the Pelican case and it was bone dry.

I got changed and started saying goodbye to the gang. Jim came over and said it was nice paddling half the river with you. I headed back to Queensborough for some snacks. I bought a whole apple pie and a hamburger. The town folk get together when paddlers show up and make pies and other tasty treats for sale. I ate my hamburger and put the pie in the car to have at home. I talked to some of the other boaters that had run the Upper Black. They said it was full on big fun.

I headed back to the B&B to get the rest of my stuff. I had to totally empty my car onto the driveway. I was going home with more stuff then I came with I was shuttling back some stuff for a friend. The guys at the B&B did not think I would get the big pile of stuff into the car but I am the king of pack.

So all in all paddling was great until the swim.

Lessons learned:

Yes it was a bummer that I had to walk out but at least I had the proper footwear and gear on to do it. It is amazing how many paddlers in the smaller boats are only wearing fleece bottom or minimal footwear not appropriate for walking long distances in.

I was nice and warm. I had food and a lighter in my pfd and a paddle to use as a walking stick. I new which way I had to go and was always aware of where the river was.

I made it back safe and sound to the car. It could have been worse. I could have been stranded or spent the night in the woods.

I told Janice and the others I was going to post the lost boat notice followed up by this report and we could use it as a safety reminder about spring water paddling. I was very surprised when I got a call at home last night from Neil asking me if I was ok … thanks buddy. My thanks also goes out to the others who responded to my post in a positive way.

If anyone else from this trip wants to add their two cents worth about river safety or other concerns then chime in.

Until next time be safe out there.

Salmon River

2008-04-12T21:53:00.000-04:00

Friday 11-Apr-2008:

I left work just at 2pm bound for M.A.C.K.fest (MF) in the lovely town of Marmora. I was worried I was going to get stuck in the crappy 401 traffic. I was driving along minding my own business when the Maggs family passed me. I rolled down the window and asked them where they were going paddling at. They said the Crowe Bride (CB) and then he sped was gone.

I could night drive that fast as I had my battleship and Geoff’s destroyer on the top of the car. I could only do about 110 maybe without getting sucked off the road by the transport trucks whizzing by. I did manage to catch up to them again when there was a traffic slowdown and managed to pass them only to have them catch up again. By this time I had my camera ready and managed to get a picture of Cathy while I was driving and that was the last time I seen them until I got to Marmora.

I stopped off at Reeder’s place in Norwood and talked to Stephanie for a bit and handed over my KWWP membership form. I also asked her for instructions on how to get to the Crowe Bridge and was off to take pictures. I was only there for a few minutes when Rich and Matt showed up. Matt looked at the level and suited up. He mentioned that he had not seen the third wave there in at least 9 years or so but Rich disagreed. I guess they can fight that argument later.

Matt was the only one paddling. I managed to take quite a few pictures of him paddling on the three different waves. It was starting to get dark due the cloud cover and cold (maybe +1C) as it was around 6ish. I asked Rich what the dinner plans were and suggested we go meet at the Train Station Restaurant in Havelock and headed off. I was downloading the pictures to my laptop on the way over as I was hoping to upload them to my Flickr account during dinner.

Link to pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157604531304457/

I was only at the restaurant for a few minutes before Grant and Sherry walked in. A few minutes later Matt and Rich showed up. We ordered dinner and checked emails, etc. The internet connection was kind of sketchy and I was not able to upload the pictures as I was hoping to. After dinner Grant, Sherry, and I headed to Marmora to check in at the B&B. Matt and Rich headed to Cale’s for drinks. We told them we would be over as soon as we can.

Found the B&B ok. It is a lovely old turn of the century home. I had the mini-tour of the place once I got settled in the room. I heard some people up on the third floor above and went up to see who else was here. Wouldn’t you know it, it was the Maggs family. We chatted for a bit.

We finally made the trek over to Cale and Steph’s place. It wasn’t hard to find the place in the dark. You just had to look for all the boats. There were quite a few people there, way too many to list. There was even this imaginary guy named Boydo there who we think is still imaginary. The evening was filled with drinks, snacks, stories, and of course paddling videos. I think we finally made it back to the B&B around midnight. My plan was to meet up with people at the Salmon River put in for 09:15 so I had to be gone by 8am.

Saturday 12-Apr-2008:

I was up at 06:30. Luckily my paddling gear was already packed. I installed the battery into the battleship and loaded up the car with the rest of my gear. I was hoping to install my airbags but I didn’t think anyone would have appreciated the loud high pitch squeal of an air pump going off this early in the morning. I checked my cell phone to see if the rest of the people that were in town had sent me a message only to find out I had no service. I headed over to the Country Style and Scott was coming out. Great there is one of the group. On my way out of the store Daryl was coming in and things were now good.

We parked Scott’s car in the municipal lot and shuffled his boat and gear onto my car. We headed over to Daryl’s place to wait for Kate and Kevin to get their stuff loaded in their vehicle and then we were off. We got to the town of Tamworth just after 9am and started heading up to the putin as there were no boaters in town. I catch up to Derek and Neil on the main road and pass them. We found the putin road no problem and started heading down until we hit our first snag. We came to the first left turn only to find a lake covering the road (see pictures). Neil went through with his jeep no problem but there was no way the cars were going through that. I told Neil to drop off his boats and he could shuttle the rest of the gear with his vehicle. The rest of us goat suited up while waiting for Neil to come back. It took him a while as he apparently got stuck in when his front end sank into the snow.

It wasn’t too long before the others started showing up. Gaetan and the Ottawa Region crew (who were late) and another group showed up. Greg, Ryan, Dan, and Erin showed up a short time later. We set up the shuttle a shuttle while the other got geared up. I think we finally managed to put on the river just after 1015ish.

I paddled ahead with the kayakers in our group on the flat water section as the others were getting warmed up. I told the gang that the open boats will catch up pretty quick as one of the benefits for us is you take one stroke and go 20 feet. We finally made it to the first set of rapids. It was a pretty straight forward run down the left in order to avoid the ledge on the right. The rest of the OC1 gang finally caught up. We had a couple of swimmers but nothing to be worried about after all it was around +1C, snowing/freezing rain, overcast, and the ice had just came out. Typical spring weather for a paddling for a festival. I also had the duties of being the photo guy for the trip.

The rest of this report will be kind of blurry as to the order of events but I will try my best. We finally made it to the next set of rapids that was worth scouting. We all got out on the right to take a look. Dan started his first run and caught the eddy behind a tree. Derek started his run and tried to catch the first eddy on the left only to get pinned on the tree that was just above Dan. Derek’s boat basically sunk and disappeared (see pictures). Greg started his run and ended up beside Derek but at least he didn’t get pinned and pushed off and head down river. Derek managed to get his boat out ok, emptied it out, and then headed down river.

Ryan’s run was fine and same with Scott and Kevin. Neil started his run and ended up at the same tree but as soon and his boat hit it he was able to get out of it and pull his boat out before he got any water in it. My run was fine. Dan found this old Sports Pal boat stuck in the middle of the river and managed to get it out. He dragged it back up to the top of the river and made a run in it. Greg wanted the boat due to salvage rights of it being found in the middle of the river. I told Dan it would be great to see him run the canyon set in it. He said 50 bucks and I said 20 and he said deal.

Daryl and Kate decided to head back to the putin as Kate was getting cold. She did not have her booties on as she could not find them earlier that morning. We still had a couple of hours left on the river. Neil handed over his keys and we parted ways.

We finally made it to the next set with the lovely hole at the bottom. Dan, Greg, Derek, and Neil made it fine. Ryan had made it all the way down thru the hole and let out a big whoo hoo as he thought he was done only to not take the extra paddle stroke and end up swimming (lesson learnt). Dan ran Erin’s boat down and my run was fine. To my sad surprise the Sports Pal did not make it as it apparently was stuck again back up river.

Next was the Canyon run. We all got out to scout. Erin, Kevin, and Ryan elected to walk. This gave Dan and Derek an extra run each. No sense in carrying a boat on the portage when others can run it. Mid way thru our groups run we watched a bunch of kayakers go down with no issues. Greg made his run and ended in a really strong re-circulating eddy on river right. Scott made his run with no problems.

I was the last to go. I ended up in the same re-circulating eddy as Greg. Kevin said I had a worried look on my face for about 10 seconds. I had to get my boat spun around facing up river in order to be able to get up far enough in order to get out. I finally made the boat spin and edged further up along the rock wall and made the move. I had to get out far enough into the river to avoid the rock with the hole behind hit. I finally went and made the rest of the set with no problems. Luckily I had the pumps going.

The rest of the sets were fine. I was paddling ahead of the group and finally got to the one with the large drop / hole. There had to be about 8 to 10 people scouting on the left. I remembered from last year that it was a left hand line run. I boat scouted from the top left eddy for about a minute and headed off. Well let’s just say I was not left enough and ended up taking the meaty middle line. My boat penciled in and disappeared and popped back out full of water and the pumps were going full tilt. I paddled over to the trees in the middle of the river and waited until the water was out of my boat. I headed over to shore and got out the camera gear. Some of the people scouting decided to walk after seeing me go into the hole.

Erin elected to walk. Everyone else ran the line on the left except for Ryan. He took my line, ended going over, but managed to role back up further down river. The Magg’s crew showed up and I took some pictures of them as well. After that it was off to the takeout.

It was a great day on the river even though the weather sucked but any day you paddle and don’t have to go to the hospital is a good day. We headed back to Marmora to get cleaned up and ready for the big party. I finally made it to the hall and ran in the rest of the paddling crew having dinner. The vegetarian chilli was great accompanied by the homemade coolers in my nalgene.

Link to pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157604531304459/

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur as it was busy. I setup my laptop and had a running slideshow of the pictures I had taken on the river that day. I had some nice compliments about that. It was great the faces of all the people I had met over the years (it was a lot) and I met some new ones as well. Alex was back from BC and I bought him the beer I promised to buy him. I also ran into my son and his crew. They were apparently on the Salmon as well but the didn’t get on the river until noon.

I did quite well in the Cale huck prizes into the crowd skirmish. I managed to get a couple of Level 6 kayak blow up things (by doing a big belly flop on the floor) to keep skirts from imploding (gave one to my son and one to Daryl), paddle wax ( gave it to my son), hat, and other stuff.

I also managed to score the book Let It Rain (http://neguidebook.com/) in a silent auction for 45 bucks. I almost ordered it last week online but didn’t bother as I am not a fan of PayPal. I had to start figuring out the game plan for Sundays trip. Derek and Neil wanted to do the Beaver which was way above my skill level so I pointed them towards Milton from the OVKC group for info as they ran it earlier in the day.

I had already decided I wanted to do the Lower Black. I just had to find a crew that was going and that is when I ran into Janice from the OVKC (http://www.ovkc.org/) crew (which I am a paid member of) and they said they were doing it. We decided on meeting 10am at the putin. The rest of the evening was spent partaking in further beverages and enjoying the bands. I had no luck in any of the raffle draws. Sherry managed to win three different times. I think Grant felt sorry for me and gave me one out of the two red paddles that came as a set. Thanks Grant I will keep it as a spare.

I was really hoping to win the grand prize which was a kayak after all what would the chances of an open boater winning a kayak … pretty good considering my luck. I decided to see if I could get into it. It fit me like a glove. Some of the kayakers in the crowd started yelling at me to get out of THEIR boat as they were winning it. That’s when Kevin and Art started heading towards me and I started to ratchet myself in nice and tight because I figured they were up to no good and I was right. They each grabbed and end and lift the boat up and turned it upside down to shake me out. I was in really good and there was no way I was coming out of that boat.

Well … I did not manage to win the boat in the final draw and it was getting late so I walked back to the B&B. Luckily it was all down hill to there.

Busy weekend with a Jays game and gallery show

2008-04-06T20:03:00.002-04:00

I spent friday night at the home opener for the Toronto Blue Jays after doing some shopping at MEC.

I am not sure why I actually went as I am in no shape or form any type of professional sports fan. I think they are all an over paid bunch of babies.

But my folks were in town for a wedding. It turned out that there were about 50 people from the wedding party going to the game. Yes they were all related. Thats what happens when your mom is from a family of 16 kids.

So here I am stuck between my mom and her sister. Talk about embarrasing with all the towel twirls and whoo hoos (probably had something to do with all the beers flying around). The game was just as exciting as watching golf which is just as exciting as watching grass growing.

I left at the beginning of the 9th inning to avoid the stadium rush out of the building. I ended up heading over to a night club a former co-worker of mine owned. I spent a coupe of hours there before finally getting home at 2am.

I must have been pretty tired. I slept in until noon.

I would have been out white water canoeing this weekend but I had a prior commitmentf or a gallery show for my highschool friend Steve. Steve and four of his friends have a photography display on at the Gibson Centre Gallery in Alliston until the 28th of April.

Steve's personal photos can be found on his flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/steven_noseworthy/sets/ .

The show was very interesting. It was first photo show I had ever been to. It was great to get new ideas and techniques.

After the show I went to dinner with Mark at Jack Astors. We had the pleasure of breaking in a new waitress.

After that I went home to spend the rest of the weekend relaxing and uploading more pictures to my Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/

Gull River - Minden, Ontario

2008-03-30T07:46:00.002-04:00

Well today was an interesting day.

It was -11C in Minden when I got up but was +1C when I got there at noon.

The level was guestimated to be about 8.3ish. Lots of snow on the ground and ice here and there on the river.

Quite a few people showed up today: Gary, Martin, Steve, Neil, Derek, Dave, John, Scotty, Mark (spectator), and myself.

Once again Val was a no show (part time wanna be paddler ... Neil made me write that)!

I had already pre-determined that I was only going to do three runs at the most unless I swam and then I would be done for the day and just take pics.

Scotty was apparently playing in Earls when we got there and his dad was doing the video thing.

Everyone else started changing into their paddling gear.

Neil and Derek started below the falls. Steve and Martin ran from the top. I think Dave, Scotty, and John put in below the falls.

Gary and I were the last to put on below the falls. Things were going great for me. I managed to catch a few eddys on the way down. I ran into a big dangling ice chunk with the battleship and ended up running into to poor Steve who then in turn broke some more ice off on the shore line. Sorry about that.

I made it to the foot bridge fine and did the small drop and caught the eddy on river right. Ended up doing a half a$$ ferry and eddy catch on the left. My goal today was not to get pinned on the big rock or get stuck in the ice and sharp rocks on the right.

Made it down to the Otter Slide and set up for my run and thats where my day ended. I ended up hitting the second big diagonal wave after the Otter Slide sideways and went over and ended up swimming. I was really concerned about the huge ice shelf on the left corner rocks and just swam to the middle (see pictures later). I was only in the water for maybe 45 seconds from start to finish. Dave gave me a quick tow back to the eddy. I was fine but embarrased that young Scotty had to tow the battleship back to shore. He thought it was cool when he found the switches for the pumps as he did not have to tow the boat back full. My thanks to Dave and Scotty.

So as per my original plan I decided to end my paddle day. I was still fine, not hurt, and still nice and warm but I stopped anyway.

I talked to Neil and Derek for a bit before heading back to the car to change and grab the camera gear.

Luckily our group was paddling today. I wasn't sure if I was going to put this in the TR or not but I think it is worth mentioning about cold water and its effects. Aparently while I was up at the car, some of the gang had to perform a rescue further down the river in the lake. No the rescue was not for part of our group but for a snow mobiler who thought he could ride is sled across about 700M of open water. The first guy made it fine. The second guy didn't and he and his sled went for the deep dive. The other two supposed buddies where on shore watching all of this.

One of the gang noticed the sled going under and three of our group started paddling over to help out. The guy was now only wearing a t-shirt as he ditched his snowmobile jacket. He was flailing in the water and the only thing most likely keeping his head afloat was the foam in his helmet. They towed him back to shore. He was in stage 2 hypothermia and one of the rescuers figured he would have been dead in another couple of minutes if they had not been there.

During the rescue attempt the first guy to make it across came back across the open water on shis sled and made it to shore (what an idiot). The rescuers told the so called buddies to call 911 for an ambulance. They refused as they were all intoxicated and did not want the cops there. None of these guys had floater suits, etc. Hopefully this guy is still alive and was properly warmed up in time by his so called buddies.

The sled is still somewhere polluting the bottom of the river/lake.

Link to pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157604324165013/

Back to Ontario

2008-03-17T00:48:00.002-04:00

I left Lost Creek around 10am sunday morning.

Six hours later I was in Buffalo making the easiest border crossing I have ever had in my life. It basically came down to two questions ... what nationality are you and do you have anything to declare. I didn't even have to show my id. I guess things were made hectic due to it being the last day of march break. I only had a 5 minute wait.

I then made a stop to visit a friend in Niagra Falls I have not seen since 1988. Jody and I caught up on old times.

After that I visited my Uncle David in St. Kits for a bit before heading off to my friend John in Mississauga for the night.

Visiting Friends in Lost Creek, WV

2008-03-16T00:40:00.000-04:00

I left the JK family ranch at 05:00 saturday morning as I had almost a 850 km drive ahead of me.

I made it to my friends place in Lost Creek close to 4pm.

Pat and I spent some time doing a photoshop lesson on a couple of pictures I had taken.

He had spent some time since my last visit tweaking one of my previous Mount Ranier pictures. I ended up getting a fully matted print as a gift. Pam did the matting herself. I also managed to get some other cards I brought down with me matted as well.

I now have a couple of more pieces of artwork to hang on my wall at home.

We also spent some time taking pictures at of an old cabin a few miles away. I had a more diffcult time as my tripod had broke on me when I was down in Tennessee. I had to get out my mini 4 inch high one. I have not had a chance check them out on the computer yet.

Jackon Kayak - Family Visit

2008-03-15T07:00:00.001-04:00

I spent the last couple of days at the Jackson Family Ranch house in Tennessee.

I managed to get a tour of the factory which is huge. I have never seen so many different styles and colours of boats in my life.

I enjoyed having dinner with the family to celebrate Emily's birthday.

I also managed to take some pictures of Dane, Joel, and Nick at the river in Rock Island. The view of the water falls was amazing.

It was a great way to just relax and decompress after spending the beginning of the week paddling with friends in Tennessee and North Carolina for Ain't Louiefest.

The Jackson's treated me like one of the family and I hope to be able to go back and visit them again sometime soon.

I will see Emily and Nick at the Canadian Team Trials in Chambly, QC in April. Hopefully I will see the rest of the family up at the Ottawa River this summer.

Paddling Trip to Tennessee

2008-03-13T19:42:00.002-04:00

Well ... alot has happened over the last week.

I was hoping to have more indepth updates on my blog on my paddling trip to Ain't Louiefest 2008 in Tennessee but it just didn't happen due to being out late everyday from paddling.
Here is the coles notes version about my trip.

Thursday 06-Mar-2008:

Left work at 2pm and headed of to Grant's place in Dearborn, MI. I crossed the border at Windsor after hitting the duty free shop for party essentials (Malibu, Ameretto, and Peach Snapps).

Grant and Sherry were leaving just as I pulled around the corner. I went oh crap ... how long are they gone for. A few minutes later they came back after they realized I had two canoes on my car and they figured it was me. They were heading out for pizza so I decided to do a Costco run for food supplies for the week.

I finally got back to Grant's and we all caught up on life stories. Sherry was suprised when I gave her a couple of penguins (she collects them) from the Baby Penguin wine I had bought during the xmas holidays.

Friday 07-Mar-2008:

I left Grant's at 5am as I had at least 10 hours of driving to do before getting down to Wears Valley, TN. I finally made it to Knoxville, TN around 3:30pm after a long drive in the rain and some snow in Kentucky. I am glad I left a day earlier than originally planned as I was ahead of the big storm that was coming in.

Here is a great travel tip. I stopped at Wallmart to pickup the rest of the groceries and a Net10 (www.net10.com) celluar phone. I read an article when I was out west a few weeks back about how Canadian cell phone users get severley hosed on calls made in the USA. I bought a phone for just over 32 bucks including taxes. It came with 300 minutes of calling time for anywhere in the USA or 150 minutes if you just made calls to Canada. It was well worth it considering I would have been paying $1.75 per minute with my regular phone. The only downside was you could not use it to send text messages out of the USA.

I made it to the cabin rental place around 5pm and picked up the keys. I did a quick recce to see where the Rich's would be staying before heading off to our cabin. I offloaded my gear into the only bedroom and stocked up the fridge and cupboards with the groceries. I phoned Craig to see where he was. He was glad I phoned him as he forgot the directions on how to get to our cabin at home.

Craig was the first person to show up. He scared the crap out of me as i was just getting into the hot tub. It sure is nice to soak and have drinks in the tub. Craig came all the way from Boston, MA to stay with our group. We got to know each other for a bit before Neil and Derek showed up around 1:30am. I asked if they heard from Dan at all as he was supposed to fly from Buffalo into Knoxville and get to our place around midnight. Turns out the storm hit there pretty bad and all the flights were cancelled and had called Neil to let him know he wasn't coming. Dan was all set to head back home when Derek said why don't you drive down. I think there was a slight pause and he said OK what the hell.

Saturday 08-Mar-2008:

We woke up to a really high wind with horizontal snow flying through the air. We decided against paddling today as the snow storm was supposed to hit us later in the day. The four of us headed into town and went to Knifeworks for a tour. This place had every kind of knife you could imagine. After that it was off to Basspro Shops. Dan finally made it into to town around 2pmish. He was in the front parking lot of the store and came into find us. He was pretty well bagged after being up all day friday and driving through the night with a few hours sleep in the car on the. We went to Bennetts BBQ for a late lunch. Dan and I headed back to the cabin while the others did a road trip around the neighbourhood scouting some of the rivers. We had a late dinner followed by drinks in the hot tub (this was the main theme for the week).

Sunday 09-Mar-2008:

We got up early and did the breakfast thing. We had various discussions on where to go paddling. We decided to do the Little River in the Smokey Mountains which was only about a half hour away. It was a nine mile section of class 2/3 with a smattering of class 4. Paddling down here in TN is different. Lots and I mean lots of rocks and boulders to avoid. It was a great warm up paddle. We met lots of the other Canadians. There had to be at least 20 boaters on the river. It was a great day of paddling. The temperature was about +4C when we started and warmed up a bit. I had three out of boat experiences and ran a few things backwards but I had alot of fun. At one point Neil was in front of me and his boat went sideways across the top of a drop. I ended up running into him and pushed his boat over making him swim the long drop. Sorry buddy. I ended up running it backwards. It was pretty cool out by the time we got to the takeout as the sun was coming down which makes a difference when your paddling in high mountain terrain. Everyone made it off safe and sound. It was back to the cabin for dinner. We did a quick visit over to the Rich's cabin to catch up with them.

Monday10-Mar-2008:

We decided to meet up with the gang and paddle on Clear Creek. We thought we had missed everyone but it turns out that we ended up being the first ones at the putin. In one moment we were the only two vehicles there and it was like the cavarly came into town and the parking lot was over filled. Most of the gang paddled from Barnett Bridge to Jett which was a class 1/2 five mile run. We had a few of the younger paddlers with us (11 years old and under). Our group and some of the others decided to continue on and paddle the Jett to Lilly section as well. It was a class 2/3 two mile run. The last set of rapids was extremely fun and challenging.

Tuesday 11-Mar-2008:

Our group decided to head over to the meeting place in Lenoir City ( one hour away) at the Dinner Bell restaurant. It was great to meet the US boaters who we had only heard about and never met in person. Our initial plans was to run the Lower Tellico River but that soon changed when the others decided to head over to the Cheoah which was back towards where we had just came from but on the other side of the Smokies in North Carolina. The convoy of 24 boats headed east. We ended up driving along the side of the river and I basically went holy crap ... there is no way I am running that boulder field. I explained to the others when we stopped that there was no hope in hell of me making it down that river in one piece. So that left 22 boats consisting of 21 Canadians and Louie as the only US paddler in the group which is kind of funny considering this is a US paddling festival.

Craig and I left the gang and headed over to the Nantahala which was another 30 minutes down the road. We did not know what we were going to do for the shuttle. We just put in and started paddling and would figure it out at the end if we had to hitch hike back or not for the truck. It was a 8.5 mile run to the bottom. We managed to do most of it in just under two hours. We were relieved when we ran into some of the other Canadians on the river which ended our dilema on how we would get the truck back.

We met up with the others back at the cabin. I gave them a call when we were about 15 minutes out so they could start dinner. I told Derek we had a great day of paddling except that we had to hitch hike back to the truck. It was until later that night after i offloaded the pictures from the day that he realized we did not hitch hike at all. The others said they had a really excellent challenging day of paddling. They all agreed that I would not have had a great time on that river with my big boat.

Wednesday 12-Mar-2008:

Dan, Derek, and Neil left at 6am to go back home. Craig and I headed over to meet everyone at the Tellico River for noon. There was going to be a huge armada of open boats running Baby Falls. We met up with some people from Kingston. Craig decided to run the river with them and I would run part of the river with Gail and gang after the huckfest as I really wanted to take pictures of the others. The two hour wait was worth for the pictures I took. I did a short one mile run on the Tellico from below Jarods Knee to Turkey Creek. It was pretty challenging. I had to chase Liz's boat when she ended up going for a swim. I ended up with one out of boat experience after leaning the wrong way after going over a small pour but I quickly did a self rescue and got back into my boat. I ended up running the drop at Bounce of Bob rock backwards after just missing the upper eddy. I did it with style and finished it still in my boat. I managed to hitch a ride back up to the top to get Craig's truck and picked him up at his takeout further down the river. After that we hit the Tellico Beach roadside food establishment for some excellent burgers and fries. Whe got back to the cabin late. I spent the evening doing laundry and packing up my stuff as i was leaving the next morning. I offloaded my pics of the day and showed them to Craig. I managed to get a visit over to say goodbye to the Rich's and Greve's.

Edmonton days 5 thru 8

2008-02-28T19:05:00.003-05:00

Time has blurred over the last few days.

The entertainment system is assembled and and tweaked.

We had our first movie night on monday night.

My task list is now completed.

My claim to fame this week is I have now been to every Costco in Edmonton. All four of them.

I spent Tuesday night / early Wednesday morning taking pictures of downtown Edmonton.

Its pretty amazing the people you see out and about at 1am. You just have to keep looking over you shoulder while taking the pictures. I tried to take some pictures of the oil refinery as it was pretty cool to see all lit up at night but was asked by the boys in blue to keep going as you were not allowed to stop.

I spent the afternoon with cousin Michelle. We did a roadtrip to Elk Island National Park sans kids. I managed to get a few pics of the Bison.

Here is a link to the pictures I managed to take over the last couple of days http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157603997929190/

I had dinner at my cousin Tamara's place on wednesday night.

My plan A for my Calgary trip has changed. I won't be seeing Marieke and Anke as the are going skiing in Fernie for the weekend. But I now have a plan B which still allows me to stay in Calgary friday night at Michelle's brother-in-laws place. I plan to drive the entire Banff/Jasper corridor on saturday and was hoping to get a room in Jasper but I will have to settle for a room in Hinton which is 80KM east of Jasper. Oh well ... but at least I am still doing the roadtrip and hope to take lots of pictures on the way.

I will be visiting Deanna (haven't seen her in 24 years) plus Denis who I met paddling on the Ottawa River last summer on friday in Calgary. I hope to see Brad at the Olympic Park as well but not sure if I will have enough time. I will also be stopping in Red Deer to visit Kathie for a bit.

I spent today doing some laundry and chilling. I am heading off to the shooting range shortly to blow crap up with my friend Mike before heading off to his place for the night.

Edmonton Day 4

2008-02-24T21:54:00.002-05:00

I had the house to myself for most of the day.

I ended up finishing up the Vista machine with the printers that I networked.

I also re-formatted a laptop and desktop from scratch with XP.

Time flew by and the rest of the clan came home around 4pmish.

I started putting together the new TV stand before dinner and have it almost done but have stopped for the night to enjoy some drinks.

I will finish the rest of it on monday and get the new electronics hooked up on it.

Edmonton Day 3

2008-02-23T21:45:00.001-05:00

Well ... today would be my do nothing day.

My cousin and family decided to go to Calgary for a party.

I figured I would take a break and go visit friends an relatives.

I met up with Brian Cryer from high school. We haven't seen each other since 1984. I met him and his girfriend Sandy at a badminton tournament. We talked for quite a while in between Sandy's tournament.

After that I went to MEC and Costco of course to pickup a strawberry cheesecake for desert.

I went and visited my cousin Tamara at her place before heading off to my aunt and uncles place for dinner. I found out that I like Vanilla flavoured Kahlua on the rocks. I also found out a few days ago I like Amaretto on the rocks.

I ended up going to bed early well late in Ontario time.

Edmonton day 2

2008-02-22T23:40:00.001-05:00

Spent the day working on a couple of computers (what else is new).

Went shopping with Michelle for some new electronics for the house. I get to hook up the new stuff on sunday when things will be quieter.

I plan on just hacking around Edmonton for the day on saturday to visit friends and other relatives.

I have seem to misplaced my infrared remote for my camera. Most likely in the car or at John's place in Toronto. Will have to check when I get back.

On vacation in Edmonton

2008-02-21T19:20:00.004-05:00

I stayed at a friends place in Toronto last night and took pictures of the eclipse in the -13C temperature. It got way to cold after 90 minutes and did not get pics of the change back to normal.

See pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157603955510217/

I left Toronto at -20C this morning and landed in a balmy +8 or so in Edmonton. I am only wearing my T-shirt outside (and pants).

I am visiting my cousin Michelle's family giving them a hand around the house. This is only fair as they paid for the ticket. I picked them up a screaming fast desktop computer in Toronto and brought it with me as checked luggage.

I just finished running some network cable and am now having a few drinks. Nothing like having a 2 year old helping you drill a hole through the wall by pressing the button while your holding it. He can run the vacuum cleaner pretty good as well.

I think we are having chilli for dinner so let the farting begin!

Anyway got to go figure out what my task list is for the week.

More frickin snow

2008-02-07T07:26:00.000-05:00

Ok I do realize it is still winter.

My question is how does a forecast of 4cm snow overnight equate to this?

I think those highly educated weather people should get their money back!

Cooking tip on how not to make poached eggs

2008-02-03T11:12:00.000-05:00

Well ... I was really looking forward to poached eggs for breakfast.

I had a slight problem

Important tip ... don't under estimate how much time it takes for the water to evapourate while you go and watch your friends latest video posted on FaceBook.

The pot is salvagable and if not them at least the glass lid fits my rice cooker as it broke a few weeks ago when it slipped off the counter and onto the floor.

Does anyone have any extra egg poaching cups they are not using?

Plan B is now special K!

Not much going on these days

2008-02-03T09:07:00.000-05:00

The weather has basically sucked on and off for the week with snow.

The house is a disaster as I have been ripping it apart to look for old photo negatives from my childhood.

I have spent the last couple of days uploading paddling pics from last season onto my Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/12726359@N08/sets/.

I have also be scanning negatives from the old days and posting them on FaceBook. I am slowly tracking down friends I used to be in cadets, reserves, and school with.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86950&l=09010&id=679800461

On a good note I am going out to Edmonton in a few weeks to visit my cousins and do a side trip to Calgary to visit some friends. Then back to work for a week and off to paddle in Tennesee for a week.

After that I will be stuck in the office for a while as it will be my co-workers turn to disappear for three weeks of vacation.

Whitewater Ontario Meeting

2008-01-26T18:04:00.000-05:00

Today I went to Peterborough with Bob Jung to attend the second strategic planning session for Whitewater Ontario. I was pretty amazed at the turnout. We had people from Hamilton to Ottawa and in between. There had to be about 25 people. Most of the people were there by 09:30.

It was really nice to see some friendly faces of people I had not paddled with since the fall. I had paddled with or at least new everyone in the room except for one person. I finally had the chance to meet John Mason in person.

We got straight to work after some short introductions and some review from the last planning session. We spent the morning working on the vision statement.

After lunch we split off into groups to work out ideas for membership, programs, and communications. I was in the communications group. We kicked around ideas on how to get the word out to the general paddling community. It was decided that we would start by posting press releases on the WO website every couple of weeks and posting up messages on other boards to let people know they were available. Jeff and Gary had mentioned that the current WO website was being overhauled and would be up and running shortly.

We all re-grouped and talked about the different ideas the three groups came up with. There is still alot of work to be done by the groups. We will be spending time over the next few months working within our subgroups via emails, etc working on our objectives.

We finished the meeting at 4pm and headed our separate ways.

Bob and I stopped at his daughters place in Lindsay for a visit which included a lovely roast beef dinner with all the fixings.

I finally got home just after midnight. It was a very long day and time for bed.

Trip to North Bay

2008-01-21T11:04:00.000-05:00

I went up to North Bay to visit one of my paddling buddies Ryan and his family. It turned out that Ryan's lovely bride was ditching him for a weekend of shopping out with her girlfriends and family in Toronto.

My trip up on friday afternoon was ok until I ended up following a snow plow for what seemed like forever only doing 40 KMH. I stopped in Washago to take some pictures of the river and finally made it to North Bay around 7:30ish. It was nice to finally actually meet the rest of his family as this trip was supposed to happen at New Years but got cancelled at the last minute.

I made the kids breakfast on saturday morning. Ryan looked pretty tired as the youngest girl Regan was up really early. We headed out to their family cottage for the day. It was a fairly cool day out. Especially if you had to go to the bathroom. I have never seen an outhouse with hardwood floors and running water before. But what else you you expect for a North Bay crapper.

I spent some time looking at the decorations on the front porch. I can't imagine how much time was spent consuming beer over the last few years.

We spent some time going for a walk around the property before having lunch.

Ryan and Regan

Hailey

Regan

We headed back to Ryan's place for dinner. We played with the kids for a bit and then it was bath time ... not for me but the kids! I spent some time checking out some computer problems and re-programming a generic remote for the TV before checking out some paddling DVD's.

Sunday morning was spent doing the big tour of North Bay after we hit up the No Frill's for some groceries. We also had to drop Hailey of for a birthday party. I ended up leaving around 3:30ish and got back to the Barrie area around 6pm. I had a great time during the visit and Ryan was glad i was there to give him a hand with the girls.

I will definitely be going back up for another visit soon as he mentioned they wanted to have a huge bonfire at the cottage some weekend. The pile of stuff to burn was pretty big.

Gull River

2008-01-13T22:21:00.000-05:00

Well today would be the first coldwater paddle day of 2008. The paddlers of the day started out with Dan, Derek, Geoff, Neil, and I.

I really have to apologize to Geoff. We all met at the putin around 10am. He was hoping to be on the water by 10:30 and be off by noon due to some school work he had to do (teacher). Well we ended up scouting the river and we did not get gear up and paddling until sometime after 11ish or later which only gave him one run down the river before he had to leave.

Ok back to scouting. Derek, Neil, and I basically went holy $h1t when we saw the level. It was almost 8.8 on the gauge which would make it the highest that we had ever paddled it. We took a look at the river from the top all the way to the bottom. Everything above the falls including the falls looked really pushy and scary. I opted to leave my camera in the car for the first run as I wasn’t sure if it would end up in a swim or not.

We had a little safety briefing going over what would happen in the event of a swimmer. I really did not want to swim as I was the only one not in a drysuit. Basically it came down to swim like hell to the closest shoreline and don’t worry about your gear. We decided to put in just below the falls.

I think Derek, Neil, and I were very surprised at how pushy the water was on our first run. I told the others that the first run down scared the $h1t out of me more than my paddling day on the Ottawa back in November. I did not try and catch too many eddies or play much as I was more concerned about staying upright and dry as possible.

Everyone but me decided to play at the bottom wave for a bit. I walked back up to the car to get my camera and that is when I ran into Val. I went back down to take pictures of the gang. Dan ended up swimming down as far as the river left summer tree strainer. I know that Derek and Neil ended up going for swims as well. The three of them set up a safety system where there was someone down below on both sides of the river while the other played on the wave. They took their turns playing and rotating through the safety net. It was better to be safe then sorry when it came to swimming with the possibility of getting hypothermia.

The four of us headed back up to the foot bridge with our boats. We then headed up to the cars to figure out lunch. The others headed into town to pickup subs and would bring mine back. I stayed to keep an eye out for Val when I noticed that Martin had showed up to paddle as well. Martin and Val putin just below the falls.

I headed down to the bottom to get setup for pictures. It was then I saw Val standing on river left way below the last surf wave with no boat. He was blowing his whistle. Martin started looking up stream as he thought I blew the whistle until he realized it was Val. He paddled over to talk to him. I saw his boat way down in the lake. I went back and hoped into my boat and ran the river from the foot bridge out to the bay to get Val’s boat. Martin was already there with his boat in tow. I asked if he wanted me to tow it in but he said he was fine. I was totally amazed at how fast Martin could paddle in his glass C1 slalom boat. Val’s boat and paddle won todays swimming for distance award. Val got his boat back and paddled back over. He got out on shore and said he was done as it was not his day to paddle. It turns out he swam down the Otter Slide which was at a real high level. He also said he had a hard time pulling his skirt off as he had mitts on and ended up having to take one off while floating upside down at a high rate of speed in order to pull his skirt. I don’t blame him for packing it in as I would have done the same.

The rest of the gang had just got back with lunch and we chowed down. Dan and Martin decided to do another run while we finished lunch. We put back in and paddled across the pond to put in at Cave Eddy. Dan and Martin came up for another run with us. Neil decided that he was going to take some video of the next run. Dan, Derek, and I were waiting in a holding pattern waiting for Martin to get back into his C1 while being bumped up and down as it was push. It was entertaining to say the least as he was slumped over a tree with his body trying to get his safety belt and skirt back onto the boat. Well it wasn’t funny as he was really trying very hard but water kept getting in to the point he said screw it and fell over getting out of his boat and getting back into it up on shore.

I ran first. I ended up trying to get in the first river left eddy and I actually ended up doing a whole bunch of cross forward strokes which surprised both Derek and Neil to say the least. I did not get into the eddy fully enough before sliding back a bit and then I headed down river trying to make the last river right eddy by the foot bridge and waited there. I think Dan was next and he did fine as usual.

Derek was next and was doing better then me catching eddys until he ended up swimming into the last river left eddy before the drop at the foot bridge. I did a quick ferry across to see if he was ok only to have too much tilt and ended up out of my boat in the same eddy. Emptied up the boat with my pumps and jumped back in. Derek and I headed down to just below the foot bridge and then he said he was done. I waited for Dan and Martin to catch up before completing the rest of the run with no problems.

I decided to pack it in as my feet were getting cold and headed back up to the car to change. I met another kayaker who just arrived in the parking lot (forgot his name). All the others were coming back up to change. Dan decided to stay and run the river with the other kayaker as safety of two is better than one.

Derek, Martin, Neil, and I headed off to Tim Hortons for a hot chocolate. Thanks Martin for treating us to a hot drink.

All in all it was a great day to go paddling. It would have been nice to get some night skiing in but the conditions for that totally sucked.

Link to pictures

Finally back in Canada

2008-01-06T19:44:00.000-05:00

The drive back from West Virginia was un-eventful. We got back to Matt’s place in Jamestown, NY around 14:30. I left about an hour later and ended up stopping at my friends place in Mississauga for the night. There was no sense in getting home late and just end up sleeping and coming back to the city to work on Monday morning.

The road trip was a blast. I would definitely do it again in a heartbeat.