Roadtrip to Gull and Ottawa River and to USA

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

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

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

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.