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.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Utah
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.
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.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
New Mexico and Arizona
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Paddling in Alabama and the drive out west
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.
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.
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