I am not surprised that it has taken me this long to make another update. But here I am, two dogs staring intently at me and a cup of coffee. I am officially settled into Ukee (only for another month + a few days) and for once in my life have arm muscles (thank you sea kayaking). My last post left me back in the 'Loops finishing up classroom courses. Now I can confidently say first year of the Adventure Management Diploma is complete and with the sun finally shining, summer has started!
THE UPDATE
Once classroom courses were complete at the end of February it was time for more roadtrips and field courses.
On my birthday (and an early morning start after birthday partying), a group of first and second years headed down to the San Juan Islands in Washington to do a little bit of paddling. Winter paddling is always challenging with the low pressure systems (=gross weather) moving in and staying for a few days so we ended up doing a three day, two night paddling trip. After waiting for two hours at the boarder for the 'international' car to be searched and the occupants (Kat, Lorenzo and Thordur) to be questioned we drove on into Washington to experience blundery, winter conditions that are not the norm. Our first night, after running into problems with launching from Lummi Island, was spent in the State Park with snow on the ground. Note to paddlers, do not use the Lummi Island Reserve as a launching place, unless you want to park your car next to cars that have slashed tires, broken windows and a missing interior. It was a wonderful three days of paddling filled with grand memories (thanks to bags of wine), especially of the scary, threatening dalmatian.
Then in mid-March, my friend Travis and I headed out to Tofino and Ucluelet for the Pacific Rim Whale Festival for a whale of a good time. Thanks to some of Travis' awesome friends we had a roof over our heads instead of canvas and got to experience the place that I would soon call home. The highlight of Whale Fest for me was probably the Chowder Chow Down, where a bunch of the local restaurants pull out all the stops and submit their chowders for public approval. It was delicious and I highly recommend that anyone who is able, should make the journey for Whale Fest each year!
Travis left me in Tofino and the craziness that was my field course schedule started. I met a group of students and instructors in Tofino for Sea Kayak 1. No, I did not have to re-take this course, but I was lucky enough to log more days on the water and 'assist' on this course. It was rad. Observing two new instructors was amazing, I learned a lot from Angela Buekert and Laurel Archer. I think the highlights of the course were rainbowing my paddle float rescue and paddling the west side of Wik Island in a double with Andreas (you're a tough cookie!). Sea kayak 1 started field courses that would not end until mid April giving me no more than two days in a row off to recover, pack and head out again.
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| Jessie showing her excitement for paddling. |
After Sea Kayak 1 was Swift Water Rescue Technician (SRT) followed by Rock 1 and Kayak 2 rapped up my field courses for the first year of the program.
SRT was an amazing course. We found ourselves learning how to self-rescue and rescue others in water up to class III white water.This meant learning how to properly swim rapids, seal launching, contact swimming, tethered swimming, tension diagonals and my personal favorite...throw bagging. Since I was the star player on my childhood, adolescent and young-adult baseball team I had no problems with throw bagging! Just jokes, I barely ever threw any types of balls growing up so throw bagging was challenging for me and I actually had to re-test a month later after excessive practicing in the back yard. But I am now a certified Swiftwater/ Floodwater Technician!
Rock 1 found us in Skaha near Penticton for eight days of rock climbing. It was amazing to be back on rock after paddling so much. Made me miss the Rockies a little bit! I was lucky enough to have famed ACMG guide Chris Miller and Russ Turner (owner and founder of Skaha Rock Adventures Inc) as instructors. The course was great. Learned only a few new things and solidified everything. The pace was a little slow due to my past experience but great because climbing has gone to the way-side for me.
After spending one night in my comfy bed we were headed out for some white water road trippin' on Kayak 2. Now, Kayak 2 was the LAST course I thought I would ever be on, especially after my Kayak 1 experience, where I spent more time upside down than right side up and being saved by Geoff using the hand of God. However, I put a lot of time on the river over the winter and felt more prepared to tackle Kayak 2. As if we weren't already sick and tired of the Chilliwack River (I think I ran it like five times in January/ February and the entire SRT course was there) we spent our first day on the Chilli. After that we packed ourselves into the vans again and headed down to Washington in search of appropriate water levels. Winter seemed to hang around for a VERY long time and water levels we super low, so my group spent the next three days on the Skykomish River in Washington and ended up on the Thompson River near Lytton for the last day. I am definitely no pro at white water kayaking but I do love it a lot. I am not ready to give up my white water paddling yet. I have been extremely lucky to have amazing, patient friends willing to safety boat my ass down rivers. I am most appreciative of Geoff Price and won't know what to do with myself when one day we can run a river together without having him watching my back the entire time.
With Kayak 2 concluding my field courses for the year, I headed back to Lacombe to spend Easter with my family before heading off onto Expedition.
EXPEDITION
In order to graduate from the Adventure program, each student has to participate in an expedition. The expedition must be at minimum 14-days in length and is all student planned. Naturally, I signed myself up for the sea kayak expedition and the special thing with this expedition is that Dave, our instructor, requires it to be planned for 21-days. He says it takes 21-days to create a habit. So after extensive planning throughout the winter and spring, 9 students and 2 instructors set out on the Wild Pacific Paddle 2011 for 21-days on the Pacific Ocean.
We launched from Port Hardy and over the next couple of weeks paddled up as far north as the Attenbroke Lighthouse which is on the mainland across from Calvert Island. Noteable landmarks and waterways include: Nakwakto Rapids, Slingsby Channel, Burnett Beach, Cape Caution, Clam Shell Beach, Dawson's Landing and the Attenbroke Lighthouse. It was a memorable 21-days, full of learning about the sea, friends, yourself and your dreams. Thank you to the wonderful people who made the trip what it was: Melissa, Josiane, Danielle, Cody, Adam, Rodrigo, Joel, Simon, Dave and Joel.
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| An adventure house in pre-expedition mode. Ski and sea kayak expedition food prep! |
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| Sea cucumbers and a blood star! |
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| Camping- wild pacific style! |
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| Just another intertidal day! |
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| Bull kelp- when I remembered I had a waterproof camera! |
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| Lucky ducks got to sail for an entire day! |
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| First thing up and last thing down! |
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| Sun star! My favorite, if their millions of eggs weren't eaten they would take over the world! |
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| The crew + the lighthouse keepers at Attenbroke Lighthouse. A required stop! |
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| Nakwakto Rapid! World's fastest tidal rapid reaching 16 knots! |
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| At Burnett Bay after the Wild Pacific Scavenger Hunt! |
SUMMER
Giving ourselves only a couple of days between arriving back in the 'Loops and heading back to the coast, my friend Simon and I made our way to Tofino and Ucluelet to start our summer jobs at Paddle West Kayaking. Making a couple of detours, my muffler rusted out the Coquihalla and the Puntledge River Festival, along the way.
Since mid-June I have been the number 1 guide for the Ucluelet branch of Paddle West Kayaking. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing guide, Cody, to show me the ropes and ins-and-outs of commercial day guiding. Through his quiet wisdom and gentle hand I have learned a ton, the little things that you cannot learn from guiding a group of your peers. I am also finally trained to do the Tofino tours as well. Both the Tofino and Ucluelet Harbours offer amazing day tripping experiences but I am partial to the open-waters that are accessible to Ucluelet Harbour. I guides guests regularly around boulder gardens, rocky cliffs and avoid the beautiful and daunting boomers.
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| Paddle West Kayaking paddle-shack in Tofino |
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| Looking NW from the George Fraser lagoon- typical paddling for a day trip. |
Life in Ucluelet is refreshing. For the past few years I felt like I was slowly making my way to the coast and finally I am here. The pace of life in Ukee is slow, laid back and easy. Work has been pretty quiet which has finally allowed me to slow down fully. It is amazing for me to look back at my life in second year of university and how busy I had made my life and then compare it to here. Now I wake up in the morning not feeling like I have to get up and go-go-go to make sure there is enough time in the day to do everything, instead I bought my first ever bag of coffee beans and use a beautiful perculator to create a delicious cup of coffee each morning. Further, I am a dog owner for the first time in my life! Ginger is actually my Ukee roommate's dog, and he took off to the Yukon for the remainder of the summer, so I get Ginger. It is a great intro to what it takes to own a dog.
The summer so far has been blessed with visits from family and friends. My parent's started the visits. Coming out with my Aunt and Uncle for four days over the Canada Day weekend. We got to explore the beaches, do a little bit of paddling and eat a ridiculous amount of fresh fish!
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| At Tonquin Beach in Tofino |
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| Yes, Pops even got into a kayak! |
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| At the Beg Islands for a sunset crackers and cheese! |
The next visit was from Janice, my bestie from Colorado, hot on my parents heels. Her journey to see me was quite the adventure. Somehow she thought that a plane, a train, a taxi, a ferry and a bus was an appropriate way to get to the edge of Canada. Arriving at the ferry terminal in time to see her ferry float away, J spent a night in a hotel in Nanimo and then continued her journey west the next day via my parents car. It was incredibly good to see J again and do a little bit of adventuring. We managed to paddle out the Broken Group Islands for a night. They are incredibly beautiful and stunning. We camped on the beach at Clark Island, explored the island and had a beautiful campfire to watch the sun go down. It was sad to see her go, but I look forward to my next trip out to CO!
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| Clark Island, Broken Group Islands- July 2011 |
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| J! |
The most recent visitors I had was Jackie, a friend from school, and her friend Mary. It was an incredible wet west coast experience. We proceeded to get soaking wet trying to find treehouses on day and then get soaking wet again paddling and exploring the open coast. The weekend rounded out with an amazing ska reggae dance party at the Tofino Legion with Sock Monkey.
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| Mary and Jackie in Wet West Coast Adventure! |
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| After the paddle! |
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| SockMonkey! I lost him this evening to the ocean :( |
PARTING WORDS
The first year of the adventure program is over. I learned a lot about adventure, myself and life. The year was filled with great people, amazing memories and a bazillion adventures. It is sad to say goodbye to people who will not be returning next year but there is excitement for the fresh meat that will move to Kamloops in search of adventure. The twists and turns of life are amazing, seeing how last summer I was pushing myself up mountains at every opportunity, spending money of quickdraws, climbing ropes and contemplating which rock climbing shoes I should purchase. Now I spend my time on the ocean, following the weather and looking for the next big swell, spending my money on paddles, spray skirts and dry suits. Its true, I am a water person with a side of mountains. I don't know if I have figured out the secret to life or where exactly my life is going but I wouldn't be anywhere else while trying to figure it out.
There is still one month + a few days of summer and my time in Ukee left so please come visit. I have a floor for you to stay on and we can probably swing some free paddling.
Hugs and kisses (xoxo)
K
