It is a perfect day to do the blog update I have been putting off for about four months. It was raining this morning and the funny thing is I cannot remember the last time it actually rained. Sure we had a few grey days and lots of foggy mornings but actual rain, its been awhile. For those of you who know the west coast, no rain is strange!
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| Time to blog! |
There are two parts to this update. The first part is what I was up to this Spring (in the classroom and in the field) followed by my experience on the 2012 Pacific Northwest White Water Expedition.
SPRING
This spring may have been one of the most spectacular. I left Banff and headed straight back to the classroom to complete a couple of courses. I completed: Legal Liability & Risk Management, and Emergency Situation, Search & Rescue Management. Both courses were extremely interesting to me as it was extremely detail oriented and lots of logistic planning. The little details. However, there are a limited number of synonyms for risk, hazard, analysis, and mitigation, so I was all too happy to hand in the 30 page Risk Management and Emergency Response plans at the beginning of March and get out into the field.
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| Odo Chao case study- defined Legal Liability and Risk Management |
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| Chris improving the shot-ski, making it worthy of celebrating two years of ADVG studies! |
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| The shot-ski at work. |
And it was the beginning, the beginning of my seven months straight of paddling.
The first course on the plate was Sea Kayak 2. The course all of us sea kayakers had been waiting for. It was time to head to Quadra Island for six days, five nights of paddling in currents and tidal rapids. Bring on Okisollo rapids, Surge and Seymour Narrows. Waves to surf, eddies to cross, and whirlpools to spin in. Two highlights for me were: the amazing visit to Rob and Laurie's homestead (working the garden in the sun, and philosophy) and being sucked into a whirlpool with Jessie (a rescue gone wrong? or perhaps right?).
Photos courtesy of Josiane Briggs.
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| The Sea Kayak 2 Group at our first campsite! |
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| The view from the first campsite. |
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| Rob and Laurie's homestead and the garden that a few of us turned. |
And we were off, five duckies (Jessie, Gaddi, Frank, Matt, and myself) with three instructors (Sharman, Ang, and Flo) for an epic five days of white-water paddling in Washington. We were joined by Chris Ryman from Endless Adventures and was a fantastic addition to the TRU instructors. Water levels were manageable and perfect for preparing ourselves for our L2, I2 CanoeKayakBC certification. Jessie and I wrote an incredible document about our kayak 4 experience. So I thought I would post just a few of the highlights of the course. By far one of the best courses of my TRU ADVG experience.
Photos courtesy of Chris Ryman, Endless Adventures.
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| Chilling on the Skykomish. |
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| Ang during a mini surf lesson. |
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| Not a bad classroom. Frank ferrying at the base of Mt. Index. |
``By the time we are on the water it is 5pm and the snow has started to fall. The clinicing at the beginning was kept short and Sharman tried his best to keep things succinct.``
``After a very rainy night at the Turlo campsite we were all eager to leave that area behind. It was an 8 am departure time, we, the students, were in the van, buckled and ready to go at 7:45am, waiting patiently for the instructors to disassemble their camp. Not to mention, all the while listening to the grumbles about the rain...meow.``
``I just remember that we took off around 5:45pm and there were absolutely NO cars at the take out and we were not going to make our movie time.``
``The instructors had promised to be there to answer questions for us but instead went to a movie...meow. But do not fear, we second year students were resourceful and found the instructor manual and that helped us prepare the content for these presentations. However, it would have been nice to be eating buttered popcorn while sitting in a warm movie theatre! Meow.``
``Then it was time to run Powerline. No I did not keep my head dry in the rapid today but I GOT MY COMBAT ROLL IN THE MEAT OF THE RAPID! Hurrayyy!!!``
``I am greatly appreciative of all of the instructor’s patience and wisdom. Flo and Sharman have been with me from the beginning, Ang is fast becoming a huge part of my progression and on this course Chris was a much appreciated addition. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to accomplish what I have in white water kayaking without the above dedicated instructors. I can only hope that all students who have the pleasure of their wisdom and guidance appreciate as much. Further, the kayak 4 group has been awesome. These four people make boating fun and entertaining, teaching me a wide variety of lessons on and off the river. I am going to miss this group moving forward and away from TRU. All the best to you guys! I am excited for our five year reunion!``
Kayak 4 finished on the Skykomish, we then proceeded to drive back to Kamloops for 12 hours to unpack, wash gear, and re-pack. Then it was time to head back to Washington to assist on Kayak 2. Such a great experience. One last time to Cultus Lake campground and the Chilliwack followed by a day on the Stillaguamish and three days on the Skykomish. The kayak 2 group this year has some mad skills and I was well prepared for them to save me, instead of me saving them.
Photos courtesy of Ben Goossen.
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| Setting safety at Boulder Drop rapid on the Skykomish River. |
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| Our absolutely positively most favourite kayak shelter in Gold Bar, WA. |
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| The most important skill we learn in the kayak program at TRU is how to load the trailer. |
After kayak 2 a few of us got our first day off in 21 days and boy were we grateful. Next up was the SRT Ropes course or to the Justice Institute of B.C., the Rope Team Member course. It was a fun course, all land based, and one I felt like I just went through the motions with. I do not gain pleasure in playing with ropes (those are rock climbers) and I was ready to be finished courses. But cert obtained, party on.
Next it was time off before the white-water expedition. This consisted of a trip to Vancouver, climbing in Skaha with Jessie, and packing up my life in Kamloops.
2012 PACIFIC NORTHWEST WHITE WATER EXPEDITION
Somewhere along my journey at TRU I became obsessed with white water kayaking. It was probably because I was amazingly terrible at it. Looking back to when Geoff had to hand-of-God me multiple times a day on kayak 1 back in Fall 2010 I never thought I would get back in a white-water kayak. Then after sea kayaking, I decided I had to get back in a white water boat and become a better boater. And I became driven. Giving into Sharman's (and TRU's) progression model, the 2012 white water expedition was the final piece of the pie. After completing all the TRU white water courses and an endless number of personal days, I would test what I had learned out on the 21-day expedition. Little did I expect how challenging it would be, but I am a better person and a better boater because of it.
The numbers:
03/05/2012- 25/05/2012
10 students (9 males: Kade, Kyle, Keiran, Ben, Connor, Russell, Rapha, Frank, Matty and 1 female: me)
2 instructors (Sharman and Ang)
3 states (Washington, Oregon, Idaho)
14 rivers (North Fork of the Santiam, Breitenbush, East Fork of the Lewis, Sandy, Clackamas, West Fork of the Hood River, Upper Wind River, South Fork of the Payette, Bladder Wave on the Main Payette, Swamp Creek, Marsh Creek, Middle Fork of the Salmon, Main Salmon, Lochsa)
Class III/III+/IV
20 swims
1 day with no swimming
2 waterfalls
10 campsites
2 hotels
6 poop tubes, 1 poop bag
1 bush plane flight
1 dented boat
1 blown out trailer tire
1 broken trailer wheel well
countless number of older women Connor hit on
What I remember:
- challenging my paddling skills the entire trip
- feeling like an improved paddler but never confident
- my mantra after day 3 of paddling was: "I can paddle"
- finding out just how determined I can be and that it takes a lot for me to give up
- learning about different styles of rivers and that each piece of white water has a different personality
- Hood River, Oregon is THE shit
- the Upper Wind River is an amazing piece of whitewater, even though it was well beyond my abilities and I swam almost every rapid
- experiencing the "float" culture on American rivers
- living the definition of "hucking" waterfalls
- that success feels amazing, failure is just another swim (sometimes it is more)
- swimming big water in flood is unpleasant
- paddling with amazing people and talented paddlers that have my back when I need it (which was a lot)
Finally, the title of my journal from the trip was "Confessions of a Class II Boater". I named it that, because in my mind, I was only completely confident in class II water, and I knew that I was about to be paddling with some very talented boaters. On our second day of paddling I was faced with my first class IV rapid and realized that I was going to have to dramatically change my mindset. I was no longer in my safe zone of class II/III water. At the time of the journal entry a little piece of wisdom from Geoff Price was going through my head. Most people do not associate wisdom with Geoff Price, but in this moment, he was wise.
His advice to me prior to the expedition was, "open your mind to new things." With that in mind this is what I learned in the face of a class IV rapid as a class II boater:
- forget about labels
- see it as a challenge instead of resigning yourself to failure
- go aggressively
- have confidence
- grow a pair
Photos courtesy of Ben Goossen, Sharman Learie and Francois Brassard.
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| Doing what TRU paddlers do best: letting the day warm up. Mill City, Oregon. |
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| Rapha and Ang running the Niagara rapid on the North Santiam, Oregon. This is the section we were scouting with the above signs. |
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| Team work at the Slot rapid on the Breitenbush River, Oregon. |
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| Russell running Sunset Falls on the East Fork of the Lewis, Washington. Sunset was my first ever waterfall, I did it twice! |
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| Ben running Sunset Falls. |
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| Rapha doing what he does best on the East Fork of the Lewis. It was a lovely swim I took here. |
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| Horseshoe Falls, East Fork of the Lewis. My third huck of the day. |
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| There may have been a dance party on the van roof in Hood River prior to running the West Fork of the Hood River, Oregon. |
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| One of many photos of Russell's beatdown in a hole on the Slalom rapid on the South Fork of the Payette, Idaho. |
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| The blown out tire we sustained while driving to Stanley, Idaho to put onto the Middle Fork of the Salmon. |
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| Last night prior to putting onto Swamp Creek to start our multi-day on the Middle Fork of the Salmon. |
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| The first decent of Swamp Creek, Idaho. This led us to Marsh Creek and then onto the Middle Fork of the Salmon river. I don't think we could have gotten any closer to the source of the Salmon River. |
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| Corn Creek, Idaho. A group photo after they got of the main Salmon after five days. |
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| Rapha and Frank on the Lochsa, the last river of the expedition. |
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| It was Ang's birthday! after a long day of driving and the realization we were not going to make it back to Kamloops in a day we bought Ang an ice cream cake and added horses to it! |
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| Back from expedition, gear all cleaned, it was time to face the music and do booty beers. After a touching speech from Frank, I did one booty beer to represent the 20 swims I took on expedition. The perfect ending to my Adventure Management Diploma. |
In short though, in the next month I am coming to a town near you. Guiding is pretty much over so its time to play. At the end of October I will be making my way back to the Canadian Rockies for the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, so if you are in Vancouver or Kamloops or anywhere in between lets grab a beer.
Ciao,
K
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