Last weekend, Neil, Bren and myself headed over to the Trinity River for a weekend of paddling. The weekend started out auspiciously with a huge thunderstorm Friday night. Luckily we didn't leave until early Saturday morning. Our first day on the river started out great. The Pigeon Point Surf hole was perfect for surfing and Neil and I played it up on the wave. You can tell from the videos that Neil is a much better Surfer than I am. Once I get on the wave, all I can think about is not flipping over and getting walloped by the river.
Here is a video of Neil surfin' it up on the Pigeon Hole
My feable attempt at surfin'
The river gets the best of me here:
After playing in the Pigeon Hole for awhile, we ran the rest of the run. It's a great stretch of river that is mostly class 3 with forgiving rapids for the most part. We saw two bald eagles on the Sat. run. Below are some of the rapids and videos of us running them.
Thegroup's run through Hell Hole.
Fishtail rapid.
I will have more videos uploaded soon. Saturday after our run down the river, Neil took Bren and was teaching her how to roll a kayak back upright in a river. It's an essential tool if you want to stay in your boat once you flip over. He set her paddle down in the water and was helping her with positioning when the paddle began to float away. Because he was only in three feet of water he did not have a life jacket or dry top on. Well he went after the paddle (which was Teresa's) and grabbed about 2/3's of the way across the river. Now the water in the Trinity is extremely cold and it started to take its toll. He couldn't make it back to shore carrying the paddle and swimming at the same time. So he made a wise decision and ditched the paddle and was barely able to grab a branch that was sticking out of the bank.
Once he was able to catch his breath he ran to camp and told me what happened. We jumped in my truck to go look for the paddle and soon realized there was no way to find it in the darkening canyon. We went back to camp and decided to look for it on our run the next day.
Well just out of camp in a side channel I found the paddle wedged in a bush. It was definitely a great start to the day. It's amazing how quickly really cold water can tire you out while swimming. that's why it's so important to have life jackets and cold water gear while paddling the rivers up here or in the Sierras.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Salmon River Rafting
We got back last night from an amazing weekend on the Salmon River in Northern California. The company I work for, Winzler and Kelly, pay for a rafting trip every year for the employees and Patrick is gracious enough to organize the event. He did a great job of getting all the logistics out there and making sure everyone knew what to expect.
For the Saturday run, Bio Bio Expiditions
brought the rafts and the guides. The two owners of Bio Bio Exp. are Mark and Lawrence, two really close friends of Patrick and it was great to see them all guiding boats together. Today at work Patrick showed me a photo album of himself, Mark, and Lawrence rafting and kayaking all over the world when they were younger. A couple of people drove up Friday after work at camped at Nordheimer campground. The road to the camp took us right past our run for the next day so needless to say it was hard to keep my eyes on the very narrow road. Here are some pics of the river canyon:
In the morning we met the rest of the group at the put in at Butler Creek for the safety talk and the sorting of the gear:
we had four rafts for the day and two kayakers. Teresa kayaked this section which was a solid class 4. It was great to see her do so well. Below are some pics of the first day and some video as well.
This is a shot of Dave running the Big Ike on the Klamath. It's a beautiful rapid.
Patrick taking his crew through Big Ike. I am really lucky to work with a great group of people. Those are my two bosses in the raft. Pat in the white hat and Steve in the front of the raft on the right. They were both on the Mt. Shasta trip with me as well. Below is a video of our boat running the Ikes:
This is a video of a cliff jump we did into the Salmon:
After the run most of the group went back to camp and we had a great time by the fire drinking and eating. Travis and Beth brought an outdoor boccie ball game which was a blast. I went to bed that night with a lot of nervous anticipation for the gnarly Class 5 section we were planning on doing the next day. A couple of the guides from Saturday wanted to kayak, which meant we had more paddlers than guides. Teresa volunteered to guide one of the rafts for the day. She had never guided a raft on a class 5 river, let alone one she had never seen before. It took a lot of soul searching for her to decide that she wanted to do it. I am very impressed with her ability to weigh risk and decide how many chances to take. Neil drove down to the Salmon from Happy Camp and went in the raft with Tony myself and Teresa.
This is Patrick's boat on Sunday with Travis and Beth in it.
Jorge in his kayak running the Class 5 Cascade Falls. He is a guide from Costa Rica and was great to have on the river.
This is the rest of Cascade Falls, a great rapid and a ton of fun.
This is Paul kayaking Cascade falls and boofing a nice line through the middle.
It was a great trip and one of if not the prettiest river I have ever been on. A big thanks to Patrick for putting the trip together and Bio Bio Expiditions for doing the outfitting. I also wanted to thank Teresa for a bunch of the pics and video and for guiding our boat perfectly on Sunday. It was a great time and I can't wait to go back.
For the Saturday run, Bio Bio Expiditions
brought the rafts and the guides. The two owners of Bio Bio Exp. are Mark and Lawrence, two really close friends of Patrick and it was great to see them all guiding boats together. Today at work Patrick showed me a photo album of himself, Mark, and Lawrence rafting and kayaking all over the world when they were younger. A couple of people drove up Friday after work at camped at Nordheimer campground. The road to the camp took us right past our run for the next day so needless to say it was hard to keep my eyes on the very narrow road. Here are some pics of the river canyon:
In the morning we met the rest of the group at the put in at Butler Creek for the safety talk and the sorting of the gear:
we had four rafts for the day and two kayakers. Teresa kayaked this section which was a solid class 4. It was great to see her do so well. Below are some pics of the first day and some video as well.
This is a shot of Dave running the Big Ike on the Klamath. It's a beautiful rapid.
Patrick taking his crew through Big Ike. I am really lucky to work with a great group of people. Those are my two bosses in the raft. Pat in the white hat and Steve in the front of the raft on the right. They were both on the Mt. Shasta trip with me as well. Below is a video of our boat running the Ikes:This is a video of a cliff jump we did into the Salmon:
After the run most of the group went back to camp and we had a great time by the fire drinking and eating. Travis and Beth brought an outdoor boccie ball game which was a blast. I went to bed that night with a lot of nervous anticipation for the gnarly Class 5 section we were planning on doing the next day. A couple of the guides from Saturday wanted to kayak, which meant we had more paddlers than guides. Teresa volunteered to guide one of the rafts for the day. She had never guided a raft on a class 5 river, let alone one she had never seen before. It took a lot of soul searching for her to decide that she wanted to do it. I am very impressed with her ability to weigh risk and decide how many chances to take. Neil drove down to the Salmon from Happy Camp and went in the raft with Tony myself and Teresa.
This is Patrick's boat on Sunday with Travis and Beth in it.
Jorge in his kayak running the Class 5 Cascade Falls. He is a guide from Costa Rica and was great to have on the river.
This is the rest of Cascade Falls, a great rapid and a ton of fun.This is Paul kayaking Cascade falls and boofing a nice line through the middle.
It was a great trip and one of if not the prettiest river I have ever been on. A big thanks to Patrick for putting the trip together and Bio Bio Expiditions for doing the outfitting. I also wanted to thank Teresa for a bunch of the pics and video and for guiding our boat perfectly on Sunday. It was a great time and I can't wait to go back.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
NCA Hero of the Month Award
The first ever NCA Hero of the Month Award goes to my roommate Neil and his special lady friend Bren. Congratulations Neil and Bren on a job well done. On the way home from work yesterday I got a call from Neil telling me there was a fire in the canyon where Teresa's mom lives in Chico. Neil and Bren were heading there to stay for the week and look after the dogs. Well, with the road being closed and no access to the house, Neil thought quickly and had Animal Control go pick up the dogs and bring them out. There is a nice map of the fire's path posted here and articles about the fire here. Teresa's house is just east of the red skinny part of the map.
If the wind continues to blow to the Southwest, then it will likely miss the house, but if there is any kind of shift it might get dicey. As far as the dogs go, they are happily headed to Happy Camp in Northern California. Neil and Bren are taking them to her parent's house for a little R and R. After their vacation stay there, the dogs will come stay with us in Humboldt. At some point we will bring them over to Chico when all the smoke clears.
Thanks for all the support from family and friends and let's just hope that the wind gods decide to take it easy for a while.
If the wind continues to blow to the Southwest, then it will likely miss the house, but if there is any kind of shift it might get dicey. As far as the dogs go, they are happily headed to Happy Camp in Northern California. Neil and Bren are taking them to her parent's house for a little R and R. After their vacation stay there, the dogs will come stay with us in Humboldt. At some point we will bring them over to Chico when all the smoke clears.
Thanks for all the support from family and friends and let's just hope that the wind gods decide to take it easy for a while.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Week in Review
I had a great weekend in Chico with my parents. Teresa and I drove over on Friday morning and met my parents at Marcia's (Teresa's mom) house in Chico. Marcia lives right at the confluence of two beautiful creeks and it was great to relax and watch the salmon jump all weekend. I have no idea why the salmon are jumping, they stop feeding as soon as they hit freshwater from the ocean. I will be doing some research and writing about their life cycle in the next blog. Sat. morning I took my dad out golfing for Father's Day. We had a great time. There's something about golfing with my dad that makes how poorly I'm playing irrelevant.
My mom had a great time bird watching and reading by the creek. She had a new book that was causing her to laugh out loud constantly. It must be a really funny book. Maybe she can let us know the name of it. My mom and Teresa went to the Farmer's Market on Sat. morning and brought home a ton of fresh fruit and Greek flat bread. They made a great lunch. Overall it was a very nice weekend. Thanks to Marcia for letting us stay and for my parents for making the drive all the way up to Chico.
I will be heading to the Salmon River on Friday for a rafting trip. Winzler and Kelly puts a trip on every year and Bio Bio Expiditions are the guides. They are based out of Chile and are first class. The Salmon river is another of the undamned rivers we have up here and is absolutely amazing. The headwaters are all in wilderness areas which means crystal clear water and beautiful scenery. The Sat. trip will be on a class 4 section while on Sun. we will be doing the class 5 Nordheimer section. Darin Mcquoid has a really cool site called Jefferson State Creekin with a great writeup about the Cal Salmon. I will have a full writeup with pics when we get back from the trip.
My mom had a great time bird watching and reading by the creek. She had a new book that was causing her to laugh out loud constantly. It must be a really funny book. Maybe she can let us know the name of it. My mom and Teresa went to the Farmer's Market on Sat. morning and brought home a ton of fresh fruit and Greek flat bread. They made a great lunch. Overall it was a very nice weekend. Thanks to Marcia for letting us stay and for my parents for making the drive all the way up to Chico.
I will be heading to the Salmon River on Friday for a rafting trip. Winzler and Kelly puts a trip on every year and Bio Bio Expiditions are the guides. They are based out of Chile and are first class. The Salmon river is another of the undamned rivers we have up here and is absolutely amazing. The headwaters are all in wilderness areas which means crystal clear water and beautiful scenery. The Sat. trip will be on a class 4 section while on Sun. we will be doing the class 5 Nordheimer section. Darin Mcquoid has a really cool site called Jefferson State Creekin with a great writeup about the Cal Salmon. I will have a full writeup with pics when we get back from the trip.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Paying at the Pump
While driving to Chico this past weekend, I got an idea for my next blog topic, GAS PRICES. More importantly, the real impact they have on our pocketbooks. In order to analyze and compare various vehicles and their associated fuel costs, I did what I have been doing in school for the past four-eight years, I made a bunch of assumptions. I actually did not make that many, but they are listed below:
It's pretty amazing how much is spent per day just on fuel for driving. This does not include insurance, maitnence, or the car itself. It costs a little over $12 to drive the Landruiser per day. Pretty amazing. In contrast, the Honda Civic costs about $5 a day. The next figure shows annual cost for fuel based on 15,000 miles per year.
This figure really puts into perspective what we pay for fuel. My Tacoma costs about $3,500 in gas each year, whereas the Outback costs about $2500 a year. That is a savings of $1000 a year. That is pretty significant considering I made $12, 000 last year in income. If someone were to trade their SUV for a commuter car like a Civic, the savings are even larger, $2,100 a year.
I hope this helps other people analyze their fuel costs a little better. This was a strict economic analysis of gas prices. I have not mentioned the environmental impact of each car and I won't get into that here. You can safely assume that more gas burned would equate to more emissions. I rode my bike to work today and saved about $9. That's enough for a six pack of the good stuff. Let me know if there are other vehicles you would like me to add, or if you would like me to change some of my assumed values.
- Average round trip commute of 40 miles
- Average miles per gallon (mpg) for each vehicle came from truedelta.com
- Annual mileage based on 15,000 miles per year.
- I used $4.40 for the cost of a gallon of gas. This is less than what I pay in Humboldt but about what you pay in the Bay Area.
It's pretty amazing how much is spent per day just on fuel for driving. This does not include insurance, maitnence, or the car itself. It costs a little over $12 to drive the Landruiser per day. Pretty amazing. In contrast, the Honda Civic costs about $5 a day. The next figure shows annual cost for fuel based on 15,000 miles per year.
This figure really puts into perspective what we pay for fuel. My Tacoma costs about $3,500 in gas each year, whereas the Outback costs about $2500 a year. That is a savings of $1000 a year. That is pretty significant considering I made $12, 000 last year in income. If someone were to trade their SUV for a commuter car like a Civic, the savings are even larger, $2,100 a year. I hope this helps other people analyze their fuel costs a little better. This was a strict economic analysis of gas prices. I have not mentioned the environmental impact of each car and I won't get into that here. You can safely assume that more gas burned would equate to more emissions. I rode my bike to work today and saved about $9. That's enough for a six pack of the good stuff. Let me know if there are other vehicles you would like me to add, or if you would like me to change some of my assumed values.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Mt. Shast Trip
I just got back from a great trip on Mt. Shasta. I took some friends and coworkers up Avalanche Gulch on Mt. Shasta this past weekend. The weather was great and the snow conditions were perfect. We were concerned there wasn't going to be enough snow to climb safely, but it just so happened to snow a couple of feet a week before we got there.
Teresa and I met the group at a coffee shop in Mt. Shasta Sat. morning and made sure we were all properly caffeinated. We then made our way over to Shasta Base Camp to pick up the rental gear and get some last minute odds and ends. Mt. Shasta is lucky to have two really nice mountaineering shops in town, Shasta Base Camp and The Fifth Season. After doing a last gear check we made out way to Bunny Flat to start the walk into Horse camp.
The walk in to Horse Camp was a nice warmup and the views were excellent.
After setting up camp, we got suited up for Snow School. This is my favorite part of the trip because it prepares the group for climbing the mountain and gives them the tools to safely do a trip on their own. It's also nice to see the smiles when someone gets to glissade for the first time. Below is a video of Beth self arresting from an upside down position.
After snow school it we rested and hydrated and ate an early dinner. The afternoon clouds really started to build and a lite rain fell for a couple of hours. Everyone hit the sleeping bags pretty early and tried to get some sleep before the 1 am alarm went off. Some slept better than others, but everyone was ready to go once 2 am rolled around. About a half hour out of Horse Camp we stopped to put crampons on.
There are few skylines better than the sunrising over the Trinity Alps and Klamath Mountain Range. This is the view from above Lake Helen around 11,ooo ft.
Here is another shot of Teresa and I just after the sun started to make an appearance.
About a thousand feet above this picture, I got altitude sickness pretty bad. I decided to call it quits. Teresa kept going to Red Banks, which is the horizon line in the last pic. She did a great job and I am really proud of her. Merritt and Lia continued on to the summit. They were really moving fast and did an amazing job working their way through some pretty technical terrain. Here is a pic looking down Misery hill.
It was a great trip and I wanted to thank Steve, Pat, Lia, Merritt, Beth, Travis, and Teresa for making it so much fun. I also wanted to thank the group for all the pics and video.
Trip Part 2
On the way back to Arcata Travis, Lia, Beth, and myself stopped at Pigeon Point on the Trinity River to camp for the night. My roomate Neil met us out there. The next day Neil and I ran the Pigeon Point run on the Trinity River in our kayaks. It was amazing. The flows were three times higher than I was used to and it was intense. The hydraulics of the river were so chaotic you could never relax and just float. All the rapids were huge with giant waves and macking holes. Neil was in a new kayak for the first time and did a great job negotiating the whirlpools and boils that constantly tried to grab your boat and take it under. I had a graet time and it was a perfect way to end a great weekend.
Teresa and I met the group at a coffee shop in Mt. Shasta Sat. morning and made sure we were all properly caffeinated. We then made our way over to Shasta Base Camp to pick up the rental gear and get some last minute odds and ends. Mt. Shasta is lucky to have two really nice mountaineering shops in town, Shasta Base Camp and The Fifth Season. After doing a last gear check we made out way to Bunny Flat to start the walk into Horse camp.
The crew at the trailhead
The walk in to Horse Camp was a nice warmup and the views were excellent.
After setting up camp, we got suited up for Snow School. This is my favorite part of the trip because it prepares the group for climbing the mountain and gives them the tools to safely do a trip on their own. It's also nice to see the smiles when someone gets to glissade for the first time. Below is a video of Beth self arresting from an upside down position.
After snow school it we rested and hydrated and ate an early dinner. The afternoon clouds really started to build and a lite rain fell for a couple of hours. Everyone hit the sleeping bags pretty early and tried to get some sleep before the 1 am alarm went off. Some slept better than others, but everyone was ready to go once 2 am rolled around. About a half hour out of Horse Camp we stopped to put crampons on.
There are few skylines better than the sunrising over the Trinity Alps and Klamath Mountain Range. This is the view from above Lake Helen around 11,ooo ft.
Here is another shot of Teresa and I just after the sun started to make an appearance.
About a thousand feet above this picture, I got altitude sickness pretty bad. I decided to call it quits. Teresa kept going to Red Banks, which is the horizon line in the last pic. She did a great job and I am really proud of her. Merritt and Lia continued on to the summit. They were really moving fast and did an amazing job working their way through some pretty technical terrain. Here is a pic looking down Misery hill.
It was a great trip and I wanted to thank Steve, Pat, Lia, Merritt, Beth, Travis, and Teresa for making it so much fun. I also wanted to thank the group for all the pics and video.
Trip Part 2
On the way back to Arcata Travis, Lia, Beth, and myself stopped at Pigeon Point on the Trinity River to camp for the night. My roomate Neil met us out there. The next day Neil and I ran the Pigeon Point run on the Trinity River in our kayaks. It was amazing. The flows were three times higher than I was used to and it was intense. The hydraulics of the river were so chaotic you could never relax and just float. All the rapids were huge with giant waves and macking holes. Neil was in a new kayak for the first time and did a great job negotiating the whirlpools and boils that constantly tried to grab your boat and take it under. I had a graet time and it was a perfect way to end a great weekend.
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