RAFTING BLOG
just some stuff that happens on the river ...June 3, 2008 So Friends of the River sued their ass and the ACLU and the Karuk Tribe are happier than heck that Judge Henry Breithaupt wrote in his opinion that Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon "TriMet" has violated both the Oregon Constitution and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Judge Breithaupt stated that the "decision was made on the basis of the nature of this message rather than any risks or limitations expressed in its standards."
An appeal is expected. The Portland area residents that are getting their electricity from the Klamath dams deserve to know that dam removal can save them money on their utility bills. FOR's Hydropower Policy Advocate Kelly Catlett said today, "?We are pleased that the judge upheld the rights of Pacific Power?s customers to hear that dam removal can save them a significant amount of money.?
Friends of the River has been working to remove obsolete dams on the Klamath River. In my opinion, the lawsuit they brought is a significant one. At least the Klamath community will now have the right to decide for themselves. And those who mute or censor the information will now think twice.
Thanks to Friends of the River for this information! ...and F.O.R.... give 'em hell!
May 31, 2008, 2008 May 8, 2008 It's not usual to be able to do all three forks of the American River at any time of the year. River flows depend on so many variables that usually only two of the forks are running. Every spring, though, there are a few weeks where it is possible for W.E.T. to have a triple crew working on all three American River whitewater trips in one day.
Big Poppa thought, "Hey, why not try and do all three whitewater rivers in one day with one crew?"
Aieeee! Carumba! Yeah... a very good idea, indeed.
Kudos to the Sacramento Bee writer, Gina Kim and river photographer, Randy Pench for their awesome participation on this project. Even more thanks goes to W.E.T. River Trips' own staff member Ryan MacPherson, professional documentary filmmaker for creating the video for the Sacramento Bee. Ryan and his Blood Good Productions company lent us a hand in creating the media for this three rivers in one day project. Thanks bro!
But the crew with the most, W.E.T. River Trips... gawd, you guys rawk so hard I can't even begin to tell you guys what you really accomplished. From the North Fork American start at 7ish in the morning with a take-out at 8am, put-in on the Middle Fork American at 9ish, take-out at 12ish and finally a put-in at the South Fork American around 2ish and take-out at Salmon Falls around 5ish... dudes... you could have done this in waaaaay less time than 12 hours... you guys were moving that fast!
Ok... so definitely, the W.E.T. team is honed and ready to roll for the 2008 whitewater rafting season. Look out peeps... 'cause W.E.T. is on a rampage!
SACRAMENTO BEE: April 30, 2008
Yes, the W.E.T. River Trips team got off the couch (not really... we've been out running rivers almost every day for the past five weeks... everyone except Sollie and Harpo.)
Sollie flew up at 8 am on race day from Newport Beach to Sacramento, and we were shuttled to the river by Jason (oh yeah, he was off the couch, too) to make our rendezvous in Auburn where Maggie was waiting (oh ye ... she was off the couch).
The rest of the team had just returned from (6) consecutive days of guide school, commercial trips, and side adventures on the North Fork American, South Fork American, Cal Salmon, the "Ikes" section of the Klamath, and Burnt Ranch Gorge (more on that trip next... it needs serious edification).
Anyway....back to the race: We entered two raft teams. One was comprised of the "old" guides and the second raft was made up of "noobies" (they are all under 30 years old). The old guys dominated all other commerical raft teams and came in behind two "competitive" teams that dedicate themselves to racing. (Note from W.E.T.; the pro teams came with pro racing gear and are sponsored... W.E.T. crew on the other hand, rolled out with pure commercial rafting gear.)
Team W.E.T. River Trips remains dedicated to simply running rivers for fun, for work, for you and just because...
Sollie, Jason, Andrew, Harpo, and Justin (ok he's under 30) showed the pups (Maggie, Wolf, Dax, Country Mike ...he's over 30, Ninja Shanahan) the "way." If you shut your eyes and listen... you can probably still hear the echo of Andrew's boasts and the re-telling of the glory, the thrill, the strategy, the effort, and the pleasure of kickin' down some smack to the rest of the whitewater rafting companies.
Sollie flew to Singapore the next day and was still sore three days later as he searched the city for jaywalkers in hopes of seeing a "caning" or two. Advil did the trick for the rest of the crew.
April 10, 2008 Yet another amazing Sacramento House Show the other night featuring a very special guest percussionist hailing from Pennsylvania. Taysuya Nakatani was creating some of the most amazing sounds I have ever heard. All by himself, he creates music with a drum kit that you could carry in a large backpack aside from the 3' gong.
The nights other performances included Kevin Corcoran who is also a solo improv drummer worth checking out. Kevin and Chad Stockdale have a seven-inch that they recorded together on clear yellow vinyl that is definitely worth the loot. And my buddies from Hexlove winding up the night with an amazing loop pedal, keys and drums... fun fun. It was a good night... woot!
I went to an amazing party the other night at the Horse Cow Gallery to check out my girlfriend in a fashion show featuring local designer Amy Hemmens among others. There was also live music from Night Nurse, the beautifully noisy brainchild of Sacramento's own Hailey Chase featuring one of my favorite Sacramento saxaphone dogs Chad Stockdale.
Now, everybody must get blown away by Animal Collective's newest release, the Water Curses EP which is being released by Domino Records on vinyl and cd.
If you are living near Sacramento, you should also be very excited about all the awesome shows coming up in the next couple of months. We are soooo lucky that bands such as Mutators, Shearing Pinx, Modern Creatures, Mae Shi, Pre, Uneasy, and Magick Daggers are going to be passing through our city.
Also be expecting a new EP from Prints out soon... I think it's going to have a DFA remix on it.
MORE MUSIC RESOURCES FOR RAFTING TRIPS:
Oh yeh, WhiteLite, our fav music blogger has a cool announcement: Mutators and Modern Creatures are playing with WhiteLite's band at Funcastle on the May 4th! Congrats, dude... I'll be there. April 1, 2008 Heffe, Wolf, Justin, Dax, Greg, and Bird also took a day off to drop in on North Fork American Giant's Gap (the non-commercial Class 5 section above the Chamberlain Falls run).
After a night of camping near Baxter, the crew took the 1,500 ft. descent in to the canyon on the single-track foot path while they carried the raft and kayaks on their shoulders. The day was perfect and all came back safe and a little sore. They could have done a North Fork run to cap the day; but, they were just too tired....Wah! Wah! F'n Wah!
We hit the North Fork again today for even a better flow and more big fun! Our clients and guides exited the river with big smiles and bigger stories about Chamberlain Falls, Staircase, Bogus Falls and everything in between and beyond.
Those Golden Poppies were blazing up the hillsides in bright orange and the Redbud has made an appearance while marking the canyon with patches of magenta while surrounded by at-least four shades of green and the blue-green clarity of the North Fork's water....except those blasts of foaming whitewater!
The North Fork of the American is a Class 4+ jewel that only appears for a short time each year with rafting flows. This year promises to be one of the most predictable and reliable flows that we have ever seen. Heffe, Justin, Wolf, Greg D., Chris Z., Andrew, Maggie, Country Mike, Saul, Booty, Dax, and Mack are ready!
Big Poppa Post from the North Fork American take-out via wireless aircard! Woot! March 11, 2008 Today was sunny and 75 degrees and so was yesterday.
While rafting down the North Fork American in late March and throughout April, even the most jaded river guide and client is blown away when they look beyond the river. Look to the sides of the canyon (look upstream on river left just above Staircase) and you'll see an intense blanket of neon orange from a huge tightly packed field of Poppies. Along the trails and roads on the ride out on the March 6, 2008 For me it's really annoying, 'cause I love to buy new music fairly regularly. So to get my fix, it usually requires making a trip to the Bay Area to dig around in the bins at Amoeba Records store in San Francisco and Berkeley. I recently found some great albums for super cheap. Titles such as CARIBOU's new album "Andorra" is out now on Merge Records and DAN DEACON's "Spider Man of the Rings" on Carpark Records. Both albums are totally amazing if you are into electronic music or trance.
Another outstanding release from last year is the MAGIK MARKERS album "Boss" on Ecstatic Peace. This is a band that I can't get enough of and is highly recommended especially to fans of SONIC YOUTH. Some other albums to check out are BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW's "Dandeloin Gum", Japanese band OOIOO's "Taiga", and for the noisier side of life, check out anything and everything on Load Records; especially KITES.
RESOURCES FOR WHITE WATER RAFTING MUSIC from W.E.T. River Trips:
Peace ps! WhiteLite just introduced us to Zach Nelson from albums Who's Your Favorite Son God, HexLove and Prints! He is sooo ridiculously cute! Yoko Tuttle from Fatal Insomia says of his music "This sounds like right now!" Woot!
February 26, 2008
DAY 1: Sollie arrives at Sacramento International Airport at 1:00 PM Sollie bought a fluorescent orange fleece "Elmer Fudd" hat. Justin showed up at 9 pm and he off-loaded Bird to my truck after Bird power-smoked at least four cigarettes and bought his body weight in candy. We rolled out of Petro with Sollie, Heffe, Wolf, and Bird in the Dodge and Justin, Brian, and Little Alex following in the shiny, Black Toyota (important detail for later). We drove Hwy 299 to Hwy 101 (with an obligatory stop in Willow Creek and the tempting prospect of buying the only piece of Chester-Fried chicken: a cold wing). We arrived at Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park at 3:30 AM... stoked.
Day 2: I roused the camp up with some coffee
(hot water for Heffe & Sollie...Metro-tea boyz)
We head to the Oregon Hole Run After the boys did the run twice with multiple swimmers and a near flip at the Hole, the consensus dictated a quick run on the South Fork and a chance to run class 4+ "Grandma's Pantry." All went well and smooth except for Big Poppa getting in the grill of a local "Game Warden" who thought it prudent to educate our guides on commercial operations and permits. He left by telling me to "talk to the tire" under his breath. He refused to clarify his comments as he loaded into his navy blue Silverado. (nice, Big Poppa... bite the hand that feeds us...) Sun: Out of camp by 8:45 AM without a problem
Headed south to Orick
Took a Wolf-inspired Short cut to the Klamath River via Bald Mountain Road (why oh, why does anyone follow Wolf on these short cuts?)
This is an incredible road. Views of everything and everywhere unfolded of huge redwoods, amazing meadows, and the bonus of an un-tracked snowfield on the summit that Sollie made a first D on in Heffe's kayak with a last ditch bail-out 10 yards from the tree line at 30mph. Well done. We continued on a single track dirt road lined by snow fences getting both trucks filthy...that's why I go with White (remember the shiny new black truck). We hit a detour about five miles from the end of the line (we knew it was a possibility) and we took a detour through Hoopa and back out to the Klamath.
The boys put in at Nordheimer at 2:30 and made a run to "Freight Train." At "Whirling Dervish" the newbie-rookies opted out and Sollie, Justin, Little Alex, and Wolf took on new "Freight Train" and nailed it. Camp was awesome with a great fire and a tepid scuffed bottle of Early Times floating a dark-stick.
Monday: Woke up to find everything covered in ice
About 20 degrees Farenheit
Butler run on Cal Salmon with a put-in at 35 degrees
Everyone nailed it and we were on the road by 11:45 AM. We delivered Sollie to the Sacramento International Airport at 5:15 PM in time for his flight back to Newport Beach.
About 950 miles, 3 days, five different river runs, sunny skies, and a quarter full plastic, half-gallon bottle of Early times for the warehouse refrigerator. A great Winter rafting trip that will be hard to match or beat. We'll try.
Trains hittin' Berkeley... next stop Emeryville... see ya. North Fork American in 2 weeks puppies! February 19, 2008 While moments like these are personally significant, I was also able to take part in some pioneering raft lines last summer as well. On the Middle Fork American the infamous Tunnel Chute is an ever-changing rapid.
Rarely run in the rivers early commercial history, the rapid has become So what’s next?
I have always been a little anxious about running Tunnel Chute in a gear boat because it is kind of like driving a bus on skies down a snow hill. You have lots of momentum, no turning, and no breaks. To say the least, the Chute has caused problems for guides in the past.
So Probably the hardest part of the rapid is the entry where there are a few guard rocks that could cause problems if the bumped you in a wrong direction. Other than these few rocks, once you make the squeeze into the top of the slide, the boat gets right into the rapid and its over before you know it.
As an added bonus, the heft of a loaded gear boat usually sends you fairly deep on the landing as well.
Probably the most hazardous aspect of the rapid in an oar frame is watching your oars in the tight river channel, but this is really no different than the normal “right” line at Tunnel Chute. Needless to say the left chute goes. I had the satisfaction of running the left a few more times last summer with similar success;— a highlight run occurring during another outfitter's scout of the Chute. Since last summer, the only other person I have ever heard of attempting the oar-frame descent, is the world renowned Wolf, who had a successful run in August. I think the more water the better for this line. When the gauge got down to 11.4, it becomes pretty boney.
Post by: "Little Alex" from University of California at Berkeley:: UCB
Big thanks to Hotshot Imaging in Coloma, California for this series of photographs of W.E.T. River Trips through Tunnel Chute rapid on the Middle Fork American River.
Also, big thanks to Bill Tuttle and his awesome website at CACreeks.com! He's got a blow by blow description of all the runs in California.
February 12, 2008 Missing in action, we got a message recently from Wolfe. Where did he go? Well, the mystery was recently solved with this email to the office:
"Hi, guys! I got a new email address, and (I) am currently in Tena, Ecuador. I´ve been here for three days and boated (kayaking, rafting) every single day so far. It's been a very good time. Lots of kayakers and rivers all over the place. Every direction you look, there is a .
A2 and I, have been playing it very safe and getting accustomed to the rivers before we step it up and start running harder stuff, but it has been fruitful and impossible to not go boating every day. The locals are all very nice, but the beer is "muy malo."
We managed to get our play boats on the plane. We have been doing all these creek runs in the Today, we were waiting for our shuttle driver after doing a class 4 river and the river came up like three feet while we were hanging out. So, we got a taxi, and we did the run again at flood stages, and then, never had to pay for our initial shuttle!
For four kayakers to go 30-miles into the mountains and do two runs, and it only cost us 7 dollars total. I could do this for a while. Anyway, Volvo is almost all put back together. It's minus a valve cover because when I got the head machined, the machine shop lost a tiny plastic grommet that I had to order. She´ll be up and running though as soon as I get back in mid February in time for some more white water trips. Hope all's well with you guys, Peace. "
Come back soon Wolfie! Time for the the North Fork American... How about that January of WET -ness? Living in Sacramento, felt like being in Seattle, and being in the Sierras, was a taste of being above the Arctic Circle; except with a lot more snow!!!
January 1st, I went on on a group trip, motorcycle ride with the Gold Country Dual Support Riders on the venerable and exalted W.E.T. River Trips shuttle conveyance: the 2006 Anyway, I took an awesome 230-mile ride with a great group of like-minded dual-purpose riders with a collection of bikes that ranged from a lone Harley to the lone Moto Guzzi with the in-fill populated by a batch of KTM's, BMW's, and the reliable KLR 650. The ride back was a different route and we road at a much more brisk pace. The whole time, my white water rafting and snowboarding brain was twitching... everything was super dry: no puddles, mud, dry grasses, and a minimalist Lake Berryessa combined with a trickle called Putah Creek.
I haven't ridden anything beyond a quick couple of 50 milers since ... why?: IT'S BEEN FREAKIN' RAINING AND SNOWING!!!!!!! The lakes and rivers have been transformed and there is as much as 30-feet on snow in the Sierra waiting to come down... and it will! February has started out with a vengeance of cold, wet storms and has added to the DWR snow survey done last week at the end of January that showed the watershed of the popular class 4+ North Fork American, Middle Fork and So, I'm calling it, and it is ON! The whitewater rafting season will be amazing. The W.E.T. River Trips crew plans to rally after Valentine's Day (so that Heffe and Bird can protect their domestic Bliss.. shhhhhh) and we can take advantage of President's Day. We're shooting for our annual Smith River, Oregon Hole, Jedidiah Redwood State Park, Hiouchi Rendezvous. Might as well, we tee-off the season in mid-March... so hit the slopes, get off the couch and let me get in some last rides on the KLR before it becomes part of the job... yeah right.
For more resources on the KLR 650 ultimate shuttle vehicle for rafting and river trips: Post by: Big Poppa, Road Warrior and King of the River!
January 22, 2008 Theo is in New York City. I can not imagine a more misplaced guy. He's a kayaker, guide and whitewater instructor, and he has worked for W.E.T. River Trips for a long time. He and his significant other are in NYC experiencing the world class city together. He sent this post to let us know how he was doing. We miss you Theo. Season starts in a couple more weeks. He promises to get back to California for the rafting trips. Here are his words and observations...
The opportunity to live and work in New York City was one that my love and myself could not pass up. Coming from California to the East Coast provided great change. There are many things that we find ourselves still taking in and will be, I am sure, for some time. One of those changes, however, makes itself more noticeable on a day-to-day basis; that is transportation. For me, walking to get to and from where I need to go has replaced driving. Thus, the daily commute is partially done on foot, walking to the next train, bus or taxi, which will take you to your destination of choice. More commonly than not, I find myself using the subway system to get from place to place. This is where a unique world makes itself apparent, where every man and woman seemingly regards one another as equal, and where performing arts create the mood. My main point in this blog is to reflect on what happens in the New York City Subway, specifically relating to the people, for whatever motive, who are performing, educating, making a buck or perhaps just passing the time. As a newcomer to New York City, it is a challenge to be another expressionless New Yorker when I hear the powerful sound of a group of musicians creating music. Certainly, the energy provided makes the transit more exciting. Some of the performances that I have witnessed are as follows:
Two mime interpretations; one of a ballet dancer and the other of a clown A one-man band; playing a guitar, with a harmonica in the mouth, and still having the rhythm to use his feet on a contraption that adds value to his musical sound Man with a guitar and microphone singing Man singing; not a great voice, but consistent, as I saw him more than once in the same spot
Asian man playing what I believe to be a Chinese instrument Several guitar players Poetry and songs on the S or Shuttle Train; a train that goes back and forth between Grand Central Station and 42nd Street/ Port Authority
Group on foreign instruments (to me) playing beautiful seasonal music
Mariachi on the moving train; really.
A large group of Quakers (I believe) singing January 15, 2008 I am in Ottawa. It's beautiful, if snow is your thing. They have been having an especially cold winter and have already received 162 centimeters of snow - whatever that is (Americans... we use parts of our body for measurement.. ha!). It's actually pretty cool... they plow the streets and as a result there are giant snow walls on either side. So when you come to a intersection, you cannot see any cars coming until you creep out midway. Not that your brakes work anyway.
Otherwise, things are great, and best of all, we will be going curling in two days! These Canadians are walking with a certain air of cockiness thanks to their superior dollar exchange. It's a bit humbling. Come on Rob! Can't you win the presidency so we can re-establish our world dominance!!
Rene's niece and nephew are 4 and 7 and were just giddy about Christmas. So was I. I have been especially good this year, and I got everything I wanted on my list. (Did you get a new kayak?)
We had an uneventful flight out here except a small delay at the California Orange County Airport, and the delay at Chicago, causing us to land in Ottawa at 3 am. So it was a long day. Thanks to Rene's frequent flier status, they bumped us to first class which made it tolerable.
Other than that, Rene and I are going to be celebrating our first wedding anniversary in a few days. We must be having fun, as it seems like just yesterday when we were in Maui with everybody eating those 4-foot burritos and sailing with the humpback whales.
We will be flying to Miami to meet up with Gee and Fit, and from there, flying to Panama City to board the Melody with Bor and Nig for a few days. We will be cruising around the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama... supposed to be the best fishing in the Pacific. And the white sandy and vacated beaches and snorkeling are as nice as the rumors told.
Much love to everyone for this 2008 new year! (it's holiday for me, I'm still vacationing!)
Note from staff: Gee Sollie, rub it in! Remember W.E.T. river trips are starting in 3 weeks!!!!
January 7, 2008 UPDATE: Kirkwood Ski Resort just got 11 feet of new snow, puppies!
Post by Big Poppa... hey, how come the SEO staff didn't get invited? Blah on you guys!
Thanks to Wikipedia for the (ahem) tasty photo! Yum!
December 18, 2007 We have various tags or labels for each post since we seem to blog about everything including our rafting trips. But here's what's happened to this blog: it's become a lifestyle blog for our rafting company and has become bigger than just outdoor recreation. The young bloggers who blog about college life, extreme sports and the adversity of young adulthood are also, heavily into the music scene.
All of us listen to music on the way to river trips or traveling and working to the mundane chores of life. Music, like recreation is a way of life. Our young bloggers want to let you know about the coolest music that they love and they want to share it with you, our paddling and rafting friends. We welcome WhiteLite to the team, an artist, a musician and a passionate advocate for music. Here is his first post...
All right dudes check it out! Two new really awesome albums that are out on Paw-Tracks Records are Eric Copeland's "Hermaphrodite" and Animal Collective's "Strawberry Jam", the hit "Peace Bone" on Strawberry Jam is particularly awesome, even my mother likes it. The music video that you can find on YouTube is disgustingly magical.
Another magnificent release to check out on Paw-Tracks is the latest Black Dice album "Load Blown." I saw these guys live with the band f*ckwolf (note from W.E.T. River Trips; sorry parents, but some bands like to shock with just their name) a couple weekends ago at San Francisco's 12 Galaxies, and they really know how to put on a show. Their music is mesmerizing.
Another very respectable artist to pay attention to is Ariel Pink who is currently touring the East Coast. His music is a classic pop song washed out in a mess of psychedelic effects.
Last month, I went to Big Sur to see him play at the Folk Ya Music Festival. The festival ended up being a piece of sh*t and made me want to barf after seeing so many terrible bands. Ariel Pink was good as usual, and he even artistically shaved his legs on stage while singing. The only other entertaining act to play that festival out of the 20 terrible bands was Lucky Dragons. This two-piece band from LA was whimsical and original .
If you live in Sacramento, about 45 minutes from the American River whitewater, or happened to catch Hella's last tour, you probably witnessed co-touring band Who's Your Favorite Son God an awesome band featuring some of Sacramento's best musicians.
The drummer Zach Nelson also has three other equally as rad projects including his collaboration with Kinseth from the band Pinback called "Prints". The project Prints is out on Temporary Residence records. Zach Nelson's other projects include Chant'os with Sacramento local pianist Carson McWhirter from Hella, and his solo project Fahlouah.
Last, but not least, I also found myself dancing to Cornelius. He is labeled the "Japanese Beck", and for good reasons. His evaluation of a pop song is the closest thing to perfect. Check out his hit "Smoke" off his album Point.
Check out our Second Life rafting avatar myspace site, too. She's gotta lot of music friends...
Post by WhiteLite... more to come!
December 13, 2007 To stay current in marketing, I attended a session on Internet Marketing Tips. The session was interesting, validating, and featured (surprise) the W.E.T. River Trips California Whitewater Rafting Blog site! We were the premier example of Blog use! We've been blogging for years as a way to stay in touch, to vent, and refresh our information. It was way cool to see our website blown up to a 20' projection screen in front of an audience comprised of over 400 of our industry peers. I think we'll keep blogging!
The most controversial topic of the conference dealt with the Forest Service's proposal to completely change the Nation-wide permitting system. (W.E.T. River Trips operates on the California Salmon, Scott, and Klamath River under USDA/Forest Service permits). The Forest Service is the largest regulatory system in the United States for the whitewater rafting industry and sweeping changes to the system are a truly hot topic. When all was said and done, our industry has adopted a policy of: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" The system truly isn't "broken" and problems in the system seem to be limited to very small regions of the Forest Service's over-view (ergo: the Six Rivers National Forest where we operate is just fine, Thank You!). The discussion isn't over and the debate will continue with very strong opinions coming from outfitters in Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and beyond.
The highlight of the Confluence is always the Banquet/Party/Auction that was held Thursday night. Thanks to Zach and Steve, the party was complete with a "mineshaft theme"... think headlamps, helmets, and glow-sticks...?! The food was great, the auction brought in some serious cash, and the beer wasn't bad (at least, I was told so...I had to drive).
After 30 years in the business, I've run into an amazing collection of folks. It was awesome to re-connect with so many of them: Donna, Marty, Roger, Nate, Bill M, Dick, Scott, Dr. Bert, Jason from Hyside, George from Maravia, Bill McG, Lorraine, Zach, and my first employers in the industry John and Sharon. There were many others old and new... One of the truly great things about our industry are the people involved in it. Although we compete for clients, jockey for user days and permits, and generally mess with each other... we all know that if we ever need help or advice, there will always be a welcome hand extended and a sympathetic ear from someone in our industry of whitewater outfitters.
After the party, we drove back over the Sierra with chain controls on Interstate 80 from Truckee to Alta! The entire Sierra was completely blanketed with fresh snow and some results collected over 18 inches of snow and the valley received over two inches of rain. The whitewater season starts in less than four months (although we all know that W.E.T. guides will be out there in just weeks... Smith River in February? South on New Year's day?). Bring it! In the meantime, let's snowboard, ski, ice climb, mountain bike, and ride motorcycles! ...Happy ChrismaKahAnza!
Posted by Big Poppa!
Note from the young blogging staff: Thanks Big Poppa 4 not yelling at us for missing the 8:30am meeting on Thurs morning; we partied too hard on Wed night!
November 26, 2007 We didn't leave Auburn until 9 pm or so. Wolf said it would be a two hour drive to take-out. The nice thing about the North Fork of the Feather is that take-out is very hard to find. It is not marked in anyway. After driving for about three or so hours, we finally made it to where the pavement ends and the unmarked forest roads starts. We started searching for the takeout.
Driving aimlessly in the woods for about two or so hours, we finally decided to leave our shuttle vehicle (Wolf's less than adequate mountain bike) at the Golden Trout Crossing. The bridge crosses the correct river, just not at the right takeout. Ha ha ha. Then off to the put-in or ingress point which we arrived at about 2:30 AM. We both fell asleep very quickly and slept tight through the night.
In the morning, we took our time getting ready, in hopes that another group of paddlers would come along to help us with our shuttle. (... love this advanced planning mode...) There?s also safety in numbers when paddling, especially difficult rivers like this one.
Wolf had been down the run once, so we had a little information, but a lot of unknowns in the missing sections. The other rafting info we had was that the run was a very long. We did not put on early since there was a strong possibility of us spending the night on the river. (Note from W.E.T. River Trips: exploratory whitewater rafting requires a paddler to be ready to camp in the river corridor due to unknown circumstances and emergencies...) Armed with that info we knew we could and should not wait too long to ingress.
So after slowly getting ready in the morning and making a hot breakfast, we put on the river at ten thirty. Almost immediately after getting on the river, the first big was right before us. The rapid was fairly straight forward but with a big consequence if the kayak was near the right side. I decided to portage down about five feet and get back on in a narrow slot of water, missing any major obstacles. I was full of hesitation before the run, now I was just very nervous.
Immediately following that rapid, is a mandatory portage of a 30-foot waterfall that drops into a very shallow pool. We also walked around the next small boof because of the consequences of missing the boof stroke and swimming (capsizing). That?s really all the details I remember, but the rest of the river turns out to be an amazing.
The river canyon is very deep and remote with very little human impact. There are so many high quality white water rapids on this stretch, that I can not remember them all. So as the day was coming to an end, our minds again turned to the set which we had half-way done. Our plan was to just paddle the remaining miles to the bridge, but the egress is a diversion dam. To our dismay, the dam was robbing the 300cfs that we were on and leaving us with 10cfs below the dam. Paddling was out of the question.
The walk to the car was about five Wolf miles, and if you know Wolf that could be six miles or it could be fifteen miles. So Wolf took off walking, and I just stayed and tried to stay warm. Well, as it turns out, lucky karma Wolf (extreme ray of sunshine) caught a ride, and was back within two hours! I was very glad to be putting on warm clothes.
After looking back on the trip, that river is one of the prettiest river canyons in all of California. The South Fork of the Feather had turned out to be one of the most difficult rivers in my very short river running career. I am looking forward to visiting more of California rivers very soon!
Post by Heffe... mentoring with Wolf is an adventure in itself... we guarantee it!
November 19, 2007
A first personal descent (river, snow slope, mountain bike trail, ocean wave, skate ramp, or twisty mountain road) is always a notch up on the fun meter. The added bonus of a first-personal This rafting season started early with a first personal descent of the Smith River with clear sunny weather in February. The Smith is a crystal clear stream running through the redwoods along the California Oregon border and is a sister river to the Klamath, Salmon, and Trinity. I've run over 17 rivers in California and the Smith is on the top of the heap and not for whitewater... the rapids were great; however, the water, the rocks, and the surrounding old-growth redwoods made the trip (also Vladimir's, another old fart, mid-night escapades!).
The season continued on with a hectic Middle Fork American and South Fork American River season that ended the first week of October. But, the season didn't end until Country Mike rallied us up for a first personal (for all of us) first-descent on Silver Creek that helps to form the headwaters of the South Fork American.
The trip was a constant surprise of sights and rapids at every bend and through every log-jam portage. It didn't matter that I was approaching retirement age and 30 pounds heavier than I was in '77.
I shared the day with 10 of W.E.T. River Trips guides that ranged in age from 20 to 42 years old (not counting myself). We ran the same rapids, we saw the same sights, we were all cold. At the end of the day, we all smiled and no one had regrets. We all knew the same things: It was a great day.
Let it snow! I'll be back for more.
Note from W.E.T. River Trips: Posted by an Old Fart! Just kidding... Big Poppa rocks! The ol' man hit the whitewater with us... he did good! Hehehehehe...
"Just wanted you to know we all had a great trip today. Three plus me headed up to CB (Chili Bar on the South Fork American) to see if the flow was good. Looked like about 1300 (cfs). Had a solid surf at the hole (Chili Bar hole; home of the annual Kayak Rodeo) and headed down river. The day was great. One yakker (kayaker) at CB and three at 1st threat (popular class 3+ rapid with a big standing wave). Only people on the river. Great wildlife with deer, buck and wife, swimming across below Coloma Lake. Right after that, a great looking blue heron was on shore and flying around... very cool."
"We cruised through TM (Troublemaker Rapid, class 3+ to a class 4) and I said, 'Hey, lets carry back up shore and try to surf the hole.' I was trying to sucker the guys (his personal friends) into some carnage. One fella opted out, so the rest of us carried up and dropped in the peanut gallery eddy (favorite spot for photographers)."
"Could not get enough mo (movement) going back up river from a dead stop, so the current spun us around right into the proper grove for another perfect run left of Gunsight (easy rapid but a common wrap rock). A rare opportunity to hit it twice in a raft in about 15 minutes. Shortly after, it was off to the Sierra Nevada House for some gold kayaks (mixed drink), food and laughs."
"Anyway, the most important part is a big thank you goes out to (W.E.T. River Trips) for the opportunity to be on the river with friends to enjoy such perfect weather and setting."
"Again, it is appreciated. All the best and the happiest of holidays if we do not talk!"
Country Mike (Already a seasoned guide...)
Note from W.E.T. River Trips: hmmmm, how about a Christmas run to close out the year, people???
November 7, 2007 Every time I heard the term, I would think of my dad or an older adult who lives it up on the weekends. Someone who works 10 hour days Monday through Friday and has 14-hour adventures on the weekends. The past couple years of my life, I thought I would always be able to go skateboard, hang out with my friends, go on road trips, and even party everyday; no matter what day.
The last couple of weeks have sure proved me wrong. Being a full-time student and a part time employee, had to buckle down a little, tighten the notches on the belt so to speak. My social life dwindled, and I started to become MIA (missing in action). I was also recently given the opportunity to interview for a personal assistant job with a financial brokerage house. Being the adventure seeker, I am, I thought to myself... hey, maybe there is a future in this, and it's probably good money, so I jumped right on it.
I am very confident and obviously I love to talk, I am a people person, that's what I am. The interview went well and I was offered the job on the spot. So, I took it. After a few days of work, I realized I got myself in over my head. Two part-time jobs, a full load of school, and a social life... well, lack of social life that is. I now work and go to school Monday through Friday from 8am to 6pm. Whether it be from work to work or school to work, I am on the run constantly. The longest break I have is a half hour for lunch and a half hour to drive from one destination to another.
My body is exhausted from no sleep and perpetual brain functioning. I verve and run around strictly on two things, coffee and cigarettes. Both which are absolutely HORRID habits of mine that I would like to break everyday, but at this time in my life, they help me get by. I'm hoping that my routine will become habitual and my lifestyle will serve me well in the long run. I was tired of being a poor college student and had to start building my bank account up again. I just didn't realize how hard it was to do just that.
Most people who have graduated from college tell me, "I have one thing to say... stay in school as long as you can..." But why would I want to be a poor college student for as long as I can? No way, I want a degree and I want it fast. This leads to another problem with people my age. Our minds change everyday, and it's hard to stick with one subject of study. I, myself, still have no idea what I'm in school for but I'm on my way to figuring it out.
So back to my daily routine. Once I'm done with work and out of school, I'm way too burned out to get to any of my social life or skateboarding. I can't even start to begin how many phone calls I get asking, "Where have you been? Come hang out?" My response, "Sorry guys and girls, I have to be a Big Boy now and take care of my priorities." Most of my friends don't understand. The few that do, I respect them for understanding that sooner or later, we all have to grow up. Hence, the "Weekend Warrior" term.
I now look forward to living to the utmost on the weekends. It's seriously the only time I can sit and relax and be on my own time... K-Dog time... I like that. Most people go through a phase like mine, and yes; it's a challenge. Personally, I like a challenge to see what I am really made of, and what I can prove to myself. I'm not going to lie though; this is one of my biggest challenges I have yet to deal with in my life.
There is no telling if I will continue to work both jobs and stay in school, but for the time being, I plan to do so. A lot of people say that they are waiting for their "big break" if you know what I mean. Yea, I used to wait around for that to; someone to come up to you and offer you the job of a lifetime or a opportunity of a lifetime. But, NEWS FLASH everyone!!! It's not going to happen!!! Sometimes you just have to go out there and take life by the horns, grab them, and hold on tight to the bull. It's a wild ride and you might get bucked off but you gotta get back on and give it your all.
My two jobs are the horns and college is the bull that I am sitting on in my life right now. If I fail this time, at least I know to approach the bull a different way next time I go on for a ride.
I'm going to leave everyone with one last quote by the infamous Shane Cross... rip...
"LET'S LIVE".
K-Dog Post... he's growing up folks...
Note from W.E.T.'s teen blogging staff: hey, parents, we do finally grow up...
November 1, 2007 Country Mike of Gold River, Saul of Newport Beach, Jason of Marin, Nate of Lake Tahoe, Andrew of Lotus, Wolf & Little Alex of Auburn, Justin and his brother from Grass Valley, Ryan Mac of Lotus/Rio Vista, Alex H. of Berkeley, and Big Poppa from Sactown got together for our collective first-ever run on the elusive (10 boatable days in 2 years) Silver Creek flowing out of Ice House Reservoir and eventually contributing to the South Fork of the American.
We started out with a leisurely load and a caravan to breakfast in Placerville as we then traveled to Ice House where we met Nate and a friend of his from Kirkwood. We launched 3 rafts and three kayaks at the base of the Ice House dam where 500 cfs blasted 75 yards into the canyon at the lip of a class 4 rapid... nice start. The day was incredible with beautiful fall colors, old growth trees that were saved from the massive Ice House fire 20 years ago and a non-stop read-and-run day of whitewater.
The day included some big whitewater fun with 4 portages around log jams and Country Mike wrapping on a log jam (saved by Nate who literally walked on water and when called on his miracle... he calmly responded that he is a Jewish carpenter... makes sense - ha!).
The 11 mile run ranged from fast flats, steep creeking, limbo moves under massive old-growth logs, and the bonus surroundings of high Sierra geology, and forestation that glowed in oranges, yellows, reds, and every conceivable shade of green.
Beautiful, precious day... just cold as F'n Hell... Bonus: we were met at the takeout by Bird and Heffe and we handed off a raft so that they could make the run on Sunday (they had just been hired at the Sierra Ski Ranch job fair... lift tickets, anyone?). Also... mad props to the kayakers that built the fire at take-out... the warm was another bonus....
Unless something else pops up, our 2007 season started the first week of February on the Smith River and finished on the Silver Creek in October... ten months and 11 rivers over countless days and miles in three States... nice, nice, very nice!
October 29, 2007 Wolf, Alex, Bird, Justin, Heffe, and some stragglers made the trip. Alex guided the Burnt Ranch section for the first time and styled it.
Later, he commented that the Class 5 run at 650 cfs was more like "whitewater gymnastics."
Sunny skies and a great Saturday night party with the Cali Crew made the trip even more awesome than the runs.
Wolf competed in the kayak race with an old-school Pirouette (long and fast)... He pulled down a fifth place while competing against Cali's best... well done, dude!
Charlie Center dropped in with first-place to continue to cement his "legend" status.... for Wolf's sake, Charlie, go back to Law School.
And last week, Team W.E.T. hit the demo run on the lower Silver Fork out of Ice House! More on that tomorrow...
A Big Poppa Post
October 9, 2007 As we witness the young group, as they deal with their loss of a dear friend, we can't help but wonder how this affects their young minds. I mentioned this loss this morning to a colleague... first thing out of their mouth was, "Was it a car accident?"
Sure, the young group have had losses before... brutal car accidents taking their best friends, weird circumstances related to stupid or dumb decisions (guns, anyone?) ... that's how young people die; but this is not suppose to happen to a vibrant person like Michael... not freakin' cancer.
Creative and artistic, the loss of his life just proves how we all must hold our loved ones as close as possible. And please, all adults... keep in mind that our young adults and teens face the same ugly and sad issues that we face everyday.
Myspace entries throughout the group will be riddled with accolades, memories, pictures and good talks among us all. Michael, if you can hear us... make the best freakin' angel clothes ever... heaven will be lining up for your designs.
September 5, 2007 I didn?t get to find out exactly what they were worshiping on my bike ride out into the desert... whatever it is, it is sic! To be able to endure, for however many days those people spend out there, is remarkable in itself. The fine, salty sand flies everywhere, blasting all in the desert heat. There is no cover or shelter other than what was transported by the Burners to the burn party. It is a logistical marvel on how the event gets put on so successfully. And, I must give mad props to their skills at keeping people much like myself from being able to just walk right in and join the show.
My bike ride was quite a killer adventure in itself for me as I had never rode a bicycle more than 30 miles before, and I was attempting 119 miles in pretty heinous conditions. No shade, food or water... just desert out there, and me cruising on a sweet road bike that I had just purchased from friends in Reno.
After getting lost in Reno in the middle of the day on Monday, I finally made it to the Pyramid Highway and through Sparks. The desert out there is way cool and my bike was fast, so I made good time and was pushing to get as far as I could on day one. I was pretty wasted by the time I made it to Pyramid Lake and took a breather.
So many people were cruising to Burning Man, that I knew I was going the right direction for sure. Cars loaded to the max, working way harder than I was to get out there with all their bottled water and extra bicycles, I could tell those bikes really wanted to be ridden to the The Man rather than carried. My bicycle and I were quickly becoming good friends, as I mastered the shifter knobs and pumped those pedals in my spandex getup. (Note from W.E.T. River Trips; folks the picture is sic... next post, we promise... Wolfe looks pretty good in spandex...)
After my rest at the lake I cruised into Nixon, all pumped to finally be able to get some more water, as I had already drank more than a gallon in my first 5 hours of riding. Here is where all the real Burners were converging, and I tried to not act cooler than them, but it was hard not to in my sick ass outfit and bicycle transporter.
I have greater appreciation for bikers now, but would rather spend life on a bicycle that's partaking in some hedonistic party lifestyle... so yeah, I was feeling pretty righteous. It was good to know that I had ridden my bike this far.
I was tired, so I bought some coffee, filled water bottles, and continued my assault on the BRC via some crazy highway filled with peeps driving way to close to my edge of the world. This white edge is a very thin edge sometimes, and holding my breath, as I was getting passed, became the routine. Semi?s, u-haul?s, and mad trailers were buzzing by me in colorful gasoline powered streams of consciousness.
Right after sunset, on my first day of riding, I was thankful to find a makeshift Indian Taco stand on the side of the road, set-up to accommodate the Burners and their hunger for fry bread. A mom and daughter were running this operation out of an old RV and immediately invited me to stay the night there, as the road was getting increasingly more and more busy and filled with headlights.
I met quite a few Burners here and they helped me to get a better idea of who was going to this festival of desert carnage. It seemed like everyone. Even the ladies who ran the taco stand were going to go this year... their first ever. Veggie powered buses were shuttling in people from Reno, Volkswagon Bugs converted to RV?s, and lots of people who were driving rentals into the party. There was a majority of the people I met from California, but everyone else was from elsewhere. I love Indian Tacos...
More to come... and Wolfe's pic of his spandex outfit... ala Jonny "skirt" ... W.E.T. River Trips
August 28, 2007 He calls Maggie to arrange to buy an awesome bicycle from her shop. Maggie, Mz extreme bike rider helped to customize Wolfe's bike to his specifications. He gets a ride up to Reno to pick up the bike and then decides he's not going to take a car ride back to Foresthill near the Middle Fork American, where he's scheduled to work as a whitewater guide on the river today.
Oh, we got the call late yesterday afternoon. "Duuuuuude, I'm going to ride the bike back to Auburn... it'll be so sweeeeet!" Ok. It's not the distance, but all the detours. You can't ride a bicycle on the freeway from Reno to Auburn. So he was going to have to take the mountain roads. Awesome... dude is definitely extreme...
So we're all at the W.E.T. River Trip's office, rooting for his ride and thinking... he'll make it... he'll be there for the trip tomorrow... two hours later... another call.... "Duuuuude, the spirits are calling me... I'm going to Burning Man!" Dude. Serious? We all started cracking up. That's Wolfe... extreme liver of life. There are not many times in a life that anyone can just up and go on a whim. I envy him... and his incredible energy. So far, this weekend, several of our crew members and network team are going to the ultimate celebratory post-Woodstock event in the West... Burning Man. So Wolfe, Daveed, Kev, Shawny and K-dog are all there this weekend. I hope they survive...
August 18, 2007 Commercial rafting trips kick in around mid-March for W.E.T. on the North Fork American and rafting continues through September. That's a lot of river miles for any crew. Everyday; different people, same spiel, same route. By August, the crew is spent. Angry August sets in and so does the anticipation of the season ending, school starting and looking for a job. So, why not have a company party?
Second party of the season will be celebrated this Sunday after the day's trips. For the first time, the crew chose not to go to a restaurant or party place to celebrate. They are having the party at Camp Lotus. Yeh, you heard right... the camp. And they want Big Poppa to bbq the food. Ha! It was explained this way... that no one would be driving (hmmm... that's why the kegs are there...) and no one had to get dressed up (wha'? board shorts and t-shirt, ain't dressed up?) and that the crew could have W.E.T.'s famous "Camp Olympics" going full bore... (now, I see why).
Sollie is flying in from Newport Beach, Wolfie cancelled his concert in Marysville to come and even some of the blogging crew are coming. Only one missing in action will be Mac... he's in love and floating the Green with a new friend... but I heard that Mac's latest film production will be shown.
Prizes for the contest will be lucrative... cash, baby... no trinkets. I can see it now... Drew will be devastated if he loses the Horseshoe Tournament... he'll be hell to deal with all this week... go easy on him, young guns... heheheheh.
But we all have to do it sooner or later. I came back and have been searching for a job, a living situation, and trying to figure out school for next semester. I have now realized how important it is to plan ahead and have short term goals so you don't get in a rut. As most teenagers, we are working hard to do right when we're are having fun partying and not taking care of business.
Not only is it tough to do this, but another member of the Euro crew, Zee, came home to a big decision and responsibility of her own. To go to college here in town or in the Bay Area... going to the Bay Area school on a scholarship and for something that can line up her future as an artist... whatever she may choose will be a stressful decision, but hopefully work for the better.
All the stress of a teenager and growing up can be extremely hard on young adults... that's why we need our friends and families for support. Personally, I think the best support is, that whatever we do, our friends and parents just want us to be safe and be happy with our lives. Yea... it might take a few of us a few years to figure out if school is the right choice, but so be it.
School is not for everyone, but if we are happy and content with our lives, that's all that should matter... if you want me to elaborate more, let me know; just writing this was stressful haha... K
Parents... listen carefully... words from a wise soul on the torture of teen angst... believe us, when we say, their lives are filled with enormous pressure. Facing real life decisions with a teen brain has got to be intense...
your friends, W.E.T. River Trips
July 30, 2007
I've been watching and reading the missives from Friends of the River in California about the bus company up in Oregon that refused to run an ad for the Klamath Salmon. Yeh, the fish. The bus company refused to post the ad on the bus. Why? Because of the political nature of the ad; not because it was pornographic or violent or subject to any strange interpretations. The ad simply says, "Salmon shouldn't run up your electric bill... They should run up the Klamath River."
Whoa... that's quite risque, isn't it? The picture shows three salmon fish swimming towards a barrier of electrical outlets. The bottom of the ad has a website address for the Salmon for Savings program. WOW. This ad could definitely offend... maybe a politician.
Connections and relationships are what this world is all about right? So, when my one of my sisters best friends took care of us upon moving to NYC, we were stoked. She had been in NYC for 5 years; had come to go to Columbia University and then had worked for a year after school to figure out what the next step in her life would be. The time finally came for her to leave and in doing so, she gave us a sweet present.
Thai is some of our favorite food to go eat consistently. Last Friday night, Maria and I decided to meet at Columbus Circle and walk to one of the recommended Thai Restaurants. The restaurant is called Pam Real Thai and is on what I understand to be the Hell's Kitchen District of New York City, close to midtown on 49th Street in between 9th and 10th Avenue.
Coming from California and being used to a plentiful taqueria scene with amazing Mexican cuisine at our fingertips, for a good cost, we were a bit saddened. I chose to go for the Chimichanga and Maria went for a salad with chicken. The Chimichanga was $15 and the salad was $13. We made sure to drink water and stick to only one basket of chips, as each additional was $2.50. Certainly, the prices were high, but the restaurants intention was to have the trendy vibe make up for that. My hope was that the portions would be good sized. The service was efficient and the food did not take too long.
Shhhhh... oh yeah, I forgot to leak this news. W.E.T. River Trips and the W.E.T. crew came up with a funny idea a few weeks ago... well, actually, Big Poppa thought it up.
http://www.sacbee.com/107/story/921289.html (story)
GOOD BLOOD PRODUCTIONS: http://goodbloodproductions.com (Ryan MacPherson videos)
TRADING MARKETS: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1520075/ (story)
Team W.E.T. River Trips: 1st place commercial raft in the 1st annual Nork Fork American River race held a couple weeks ago.
Events, parties and everything California, the sun is shining here! Our rafting trips are going full bore now with daily trips available from now until the end of September. Group rafting trips are being organized everywhere, and they are coming to go rafting with W.E.T. River Trips. Woot people for bachelor/bachelorette parties, birthdays, anniversaries, reunions... you name it. Cap that party or event with a whitewater rafting trip with us... make it truely memorable.
The North Fork American has arrived for the Spring of 2008... with W.E.T. River Trips on the first commercial rafting trip of the year on a beautiful 75 degree day without another boat in sight. Our clients and guides had the entire river to themselves! The North Fork American season should be solid until mid to late May (weather willing!).
Thank you Ryan for the video... ps welcome back from Brasil!
Yo! On my way to rafting trips, I have to listen to my tunes. Especially if you are heading for the Class 4 stuff like the North Fork American... so close to home! If you live in California's great valley around state capitol Sacramento, then I'm sure you know how hard it is to purchase good music around here without having to order from online distros and such.
WhiteLite:::: more rafting music coming from my homies at W.E.T. River Trips!
UPDATE about a recent W.E.T. River Trips Rafting Adventure
Country Mike wrote:
Here's Sollie's first webcam from the helmet... I got dizzy watching it!
Meets Heffe at warehouse to load after picking up the W.E.T. rafting truck
Bird goes Frisbee golfing with Wolf
(freshly back from Ecuador)
I ride my motorcycle home from Oakland to beat the traffic
I lane-split the entire ride and arrive at Save-Mart at 5:15 PM to meet Sollie for a food buy
Final pack and load
We then meet up with Bird, Wolf, and Heffe at my house
Waited until 7pm for Justin and his Bro stuck in traffic coming from UC Berkeley
Little Alex was stuck in the same traffic so Justin stayed back to wait for Little Alex
(He was carrying Bird and his Bro Brian as well)
We agreed to meet at Petro on I-5
Petro became an opportunity for Heffe to drink a 32 oz Miller High Life
We had ample opportunities to shop the wares at Petro...
Last summer, brought copious rafting adventures my way. A late June South Silver run with some of the W.E.T. River Trips crew was definitely a highpoint; the bedrock slides and pour-overs surpassed all expectations and left me itching to get back there for some more teacups. In another instance, I was lucky enough to have a chance to run the bulk of the lower class 4 section of the Middle Fork American at a healthy fish flow. The 350cfs experience— complete with a California sunset— was a high point in my time on the Middle Fork American River.
a staple of the Middle Fork over the years. Recently, Middle Fork legends such as Mack have pushed the evolution of Tunnel Chute even further by running the once class VI “left” line in paddle boats. Since the high water in 2006, the left line at the Chute has become more class 4+ ish, eroding into a fun, super-steep, 20-yard slide that kicks off a six-footer at the bottom into the pool. While still consequential, this line has been run successfully by many paddle boats.
this year I thought about stepping it up a notch and going where (to my knowledge) no one had gone before in a gear boat, and headed over to the left line of the Chute. I had done my homework, and knew more or less what to expect, the entry move, and what the locked-in downhill slide felt like. In July I made my 1st D in an oarboat and had great success.
In the future, it could be possible that the Chute’s left line becomes more commonly run for both paddle boats and gear boats. I look at it somewhat like the “fish ladder” skirt of Rainy Falls on the Rogue River. While I could be the first to run in a gear boat, I don’'t think I will be the last.
river flowing into the Napo that has whitewater
play boats making things very interesting. Weather is warm, and when it rains, the rivers shoot way up (in flow) and then drop off quickly.
Kawasaki KLR 650 ...yes, the most popular dual-purpose (or, as we "fans" call the designation: "Multi-surface") motorcycle in the world since 1983... yes, there is passion for the pig of a bike that is heavy, under-powered, ugly, purposeful, durable, and the chosen motorcycle of the USMC (except the US Marines go a step further and convert to diesel... yes, Bio-Diesel compatible!).
Hi everyone!
I was dreaming of a White Christmas. And, I did see Santa head south just before the big day - he was headed for the North Pole! Oh, he was. As I sit on the computer, I glance outside. Today is cold. Not like yesterday which was "warm." I can't tell the difference, but that is what they tell me. (Thanks Sollie for the dream... we just got a major snow storm out here in California!)
Poutine (french fries covered in gravy and cheese curds). Luckily, he's now on his way to the Bay of Panama to celebrate his anniversary and New Year's in hot, tropical weather (mmmmm....more Poutine!).
Recently, we were reviewed by internet marketers as a prime example of blogging and marketing. The California whitewater rafting blog is really old. Started as a journal on our original website on Geocities as a way to get our passion for rafting and whitewater out to the public, we are now part of Blogger, a division of Google.
Last Wednesday, I took the drive over the then snow-barren Sierra to Reno to attend the annual International conference (Confluence '07) for America Outdoors. The Confluence is an annual 3-day conference that invites over 400 outfitters and whitewater equipment vendors from the United States, Canada, Europe, China, Thailand, Korea, Panama, Costa Rica, Peru, Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador. The "Confluence" provides a venue for industry in-service opportunities, marketing, sales, operations, government/regulatory changes, equipment innovation, and networking.
I was very excited about my first trip to the South Fork Feather. I had just recently come off the North Fork on the Tobin and Lobin sections. The Lobin had been one of the most intense stretches of river I had ever experienced. Lobin was only about a mile... maybe a little longer, but it was continuous whitewater with many boos in the 3-6 foot range, with lots of gnarly consequences. From what I had heard, the North Fork of the Feather was a very burly run. I was pretty nervous, but I was with my close friend Wolf who is the definition of gnarl.
Since the spring of 1977, I have been a whitewater rafting professional (guide, outfitter, shuttle-driver, food-buyer, shuttle-vehicle mechanic, equipment manager, and camp chef... and most of the time, the tasks have been assigned simultaneously). The past few years have seen me rarely on the river; but, this year has been different. 
descent is the heightened awareness of your surroundings: colors, vegetation, rock formations, and those amazing whitewater rapids!
After a wild early season filled with a full menu of South Fork, Middle Fork, and North Fork American River trips and the ensuing milieu of shuttles, food-buys, trip logistics, and guides in need of parenting, I was able to run off to Idaho and work as a guide on a 6-day trip followed by an amazing 800-mile motorcycle ride back to Sacramento, California on a KLR 650 with fresh knobbies... huge fun at 80 mph across Nevada! 
Country Mike is one of our newer guides for W.E.T. River Trips. Not a young buck, but a professional banker addicted to whitewater rafting in a big way. He started river rafting with our company a few years ago, got hooked and proceeded to rope in every river in California. Those trips that we didn't do, we sent him over to our favorite competitors so that he could do more esoteric river trips throughout the state. Like Heffe exclaims in a recent message to our myspace blogger... 2007 season ain't done yet! And Mike just verified this in an email to me on Sunday...
Nowadays, you hear the term, "Weekend Warrior" more and more. What is it you ask? Someone who takes care of business and responsibilities Monday through Friday and on the weekends... well we will get to that...
On October 20th, W.E.T. River Trips whitewater guides rallied up for the pure air of the high Sierra's and the unique opportunity to run the Silver Creek: one of the tributaries to the South Fork American that flows from Ice House Reservior. PG & E (Pacific Gas & Electric) is providing test flows of 500 cfs for 10 days and we hit it!
End of 2007 Season
A Big Poppa Post
October 10 - 13th, the team for W.E.T. River Trips turned out for the "Cali-Burns" Burnt Ranch Race on the Trinity River.
Our young staff members are grieving big time over Michael's death last night. None of us thought he was losing his battle with cancer. He was in remission, damn it. Only 18 years old. My heart is breaking for our young members of the W.E.T. rafting blog. And so are we, the older members on staff.
Wolf, whitewater master, has just made it back to Reno after experiencing the Black Rock Desert first hand. The place is a sight to behold filled with nothing but crazy ass folks that think they know how to throw a party. I don?t know how many, but people were saying about 40,000 kooks in the same desert with all their RV?s, art cars, bicycles, moving vans, and golf carts on the same flat desert enjoying the same hot sun all as one tribe.
We've said it before and we'll say it again. Wolfe is an extreme ray of sunshine...
"Angry August..." said one of the crew members from Idaho, as he explained the grumpy mood of a colleague. Yeh, we know that feeling on the California rafting trips. W.E.T. River Trips knows well the feeling of August. The California crew has been pumping out the whitewater trips since February... that's when we all went up to do the Northern rivers this past spring.
August 5, 2007
After the 3 week trip to Europe, my friends and I returned home to our home town. What a relief it was to be home to feel comfortable again, see our families, friends and get back to our lives. It took me about 4 days before I realized how much real life and growing up is a pain in the ass.
Last week was really strange... we had two weird situations that we have never experienced before... and on two separate occasions. Here's what happened on the South Fork American river trip last week...