Kettle Day

Great day on the Kettle with Dennis, Nora, Bill, Jade, Brian G, Bobzilla, Stretch, and Monkey Boy. The level was good and the main wave in Blueberry was like surfing silk. Really fun. I tried a couple blunts but couldn't stick 'em. A few people got spins on the wave, and everybody got some good carving in. There's a video of a short surf Dennis had toward the bottom of this page - you can see how smooth the wave is. We also spent some time wheeling (and endering) at Last Chance Ledge. Then, Brian and Jade got to hit their first waterfalls on Wolf Creek. You can see the video of Nora running it at the bottom of the post. Great fall paddling day. I tossed some more videos on my YouTube page, and got the Web album uploaded so that you can download the full size files. Check the links to the Web Albums and YouTube.

Knife and Baby Lester

Here's some more pics. It really was an awesome day. Big thanks to Dennis for taking the pics at the Lester. Both fortunately and unfortunately it was getting a bit dark by then, so some of the shots have a cool blur to them, but some awesome shots got a bit too blurred out. If you haven't done so yet, check the "more to come" post below this one for the video and filmstrip sequences from the Knife. Also, Check Nora's blog for shots from their run. She's got some cool ones of Fish falls from above, as well as some more from the Lester.

**** If you want to see all of the pics I have from that day and be able to download them, I put them in an online album. go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/Faceplant010
The only catch is that the Slideshow function only works with certain browsers (i.e. it doesn't work when I use Netscape, but does when I use Internet Explorer). If the slideshow doesn't work for you, you can click on the large box in the upper right corner where it says "Size" and that will at least give you big thumbnails.

More to Come...

OK, here's the first of the pics from yesterday. Click on the filmstrips to enlarge them - there's one of each of us. It was truly one of the best paddling days I've had. The weather was beautiful and the water was up. We ran the Knife and baby section of the Lester and had a thoroughly great time. It was Caleb, Dennis, Bill, Graeme, and I on the Knife, then we met up with Nora when we went over to the lester. The Knife was amazing, with a little bit of everything - a bit of technical water, a ton of waves, and some great holes to surf. The pics are from Fish Falls, which is the largest drop on the river. Bill, Caleb, and Graeme all made clean runs with huge endings as they rocketed up out of the water. Dennis had a good line, but got sucked back in and beaten pretty thoroughly (see filmstrip #4). To his credit he took it like a man, rolling up twice in the curtain before swimming. Props to Graeme for jumping in his boat to chase Dennis's down a difficult rapid. Also props to Caleb for coming up with the Carabiner-on-a-stick contraption that we used to free Dennis's boat from the rock it was stuck on. After that, we went back to the falls and Bill let me borrow his Burn to run the drop (big thanks). I made it pretty clean, but definitely needed a good stroke or two at the bottom to avoid getting sucked back in. After that, it was cruising through the waves and surfing some holes. Great river. We also did a class II-III section of the Lester as a cool down, which was a bit of splashy fun. I've got loads of great pictures from both rivers, so be patient and I'll get them posted as soon as I can. Check back for updates.

PASSED!

I found out yesterday that I passed the Bar Exam! Woo-Hoo! The good news is that I won't have to go through that again, the bad news is that I now have to charge $3 per minute any time someone calls me and $2 per minute to answer e-mails. OK, maybe not. Hopefully it will lead to some gainful employment, however, which would be very handy. Huge congratulations to Nate G, who also passed. Way to go man! Hopefully the other Mitchell kids did well also.