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.

Paddling in North Carolina and Tennessee

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

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

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