Baptism!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything! It was an amazing summer, with too much going on to even bother trying to sum up. Of all the great things, though, the best was when my beautiful girlfriend of nearly 5 years and I said "I do" on a gorgeous fall day in October. When we get all the pics back, there will be a post, but for now, here's something that I do have some pics of:

The huge storms that rocked the entire state sent the Kettle River soaring to over 9,000 CFS and the North Shore creeks into flood. Luckily, the rain fell on a Tuesday, so by Saturday the Baptism gauge was lookin' good!

We spent the night in Two Harbors, then met Dan, Dave, Andy and for the run Saturday morning. Joi and her husband were nice enough to come along as drivers and photographers for us. The new gauge for the river said 12.7', which was supposed to correlate to 2.7' on the old gauge. That would be a nice, moderate level and keep the river at mostly manageable class IV run. More importantly, it would give me my first shot at running 35' Illgen falls.

We didn't have to get far down the river, however, to find out that the correlation is not very accurate. The river was definitely higher than 2.7, making everything bigger, faster, and pushier.

Confinement Canyon had some nice big waves and a big pourover towards the end of it that forced the boater to make a very quick S-turn to avoid getting sucked into the hole. It looked like a good boof would have allowed a kayak to fly right over the hole, but I was too rusty to give it a shot. That rapid went fine, though there was a scary moment when Dave got his leg caught in the rigging of OC-1 and was getting swirly-ed by an eddy. He made it out, though, and we continued on.

There was lots of class II-III boogey water until we made it to Kramer's choice, where the river is split around a car-sized rock in the middle. At this level, the flow funnels right into a very large wave/hole about 5 feet upstream from the rock. With the water moving extremely fast and so little room to maneuver, we decided to walk it.

Just downstream was Gustafson Falls, where the river falls over several big rocks into a hole in the middle. We hiked down and took a look, then Dan gave it a go in his canoe. He had a great line right down a tongue through the rocks, then his OC-1 floated over the hole like it was no big deal. It was pretty fun to watch. There was a kayak line along the river left, but nobody was feeling ambitious enough to bring down the boat and give it a shot. In hindsight, I would have liked to have run it, but at the time it seemed smarter to move on downstream.

After more class II-III, we came to Illgen Falls. It was a beautiful, thundering sight to behold. At that level, the entire pool is filled with the boiling, churning outwash. The force of the water looked strong enough to just about rip a boater in half if they wound up in the curtain. Since none of us had ever run it before, we decided it was a bit crazy to try at this level. I've since heard that the super-aerated boils make the drop boof-able at that level, but that's a big chance to take for a first try. I definitely want to run it, but I'm willing to wait for a level that I can tuck and huck.

After seeing the river level, we decided that the lower sections would be lots of portaging for very little paddling and so we called it a day. Despite the short day, it was a really great experience. The scenery was gorgeous, I got to put the boat on a new river, and I got to paddle with a great group of friends. I had a smile on my face all the way home.

Crazy Times

The last 10 days or so have seen some crazy weather and some crazy water. Getting major thunderstorms every couple days around the metro has pushed the Verm to levels that have not been seen in the 10 years that I've been kayaking. It peaked a couple of days ago at over 1,200 cfs. If you're not familiar, the normal level for this time is less than 60 cfs. And of course, I don't have the helmet cam anymore.

I had the rare pleasure of paddling it last Friday at around 700cfs and found it to be a high-speed ride through some pretty crazy stuff. I had paddled it at a similar level many years ago when I was just a newbie and it had scared the living daylights out of me. This time around, it was fun to just marvel at the speed the water carries you as you try to dodge the nasty spots.

Speaking of nasty spots, there are two to be avoided at that level. Railroad is big and powerful, but can be avoided on river right. I don't think it would hold you that long if you were caught in it, but it would be a wild ride. The trick with Railroad is that Triple is high-speed, large-scale chaos leading right up to it. Things happen so fast that if you get flipped or otherwise find yourself off-line, you may find yourself in the maw of it before you even realize where you are.

The second, nastier feature is the ledge into Fisherman's. At this level and above it's a huge, extremely retentive hole that takes up the entire center section of the river. It can be snuck along the right or left shore, but only right along the shore. As was kindly demonstrated by a certain paddler on Friday, going into it leads to a very long and violent surf that I'm pretty sure is inescapable right side up.

Finally, the river at this level is generally lined with undercut walls. I mean they're literally everywhere. You don't notice them at normal levels because they're above your head, but now they're right at the surface and we saw boats and boaters get pulled under them. Luckily on the shallow ones, but something to be aware of.

I uploaded the only picture that I got that really shows anything useful. It's the railroad pool from the bridge. You'll notice the rock is nearly under and the downstream flow now spans the whole valley. A photo I tried to get but failed was the river flowing right over the ledge on river left after S-bend. You can paddle right off of it now. I also threw up a shot of the gauge just for fun.


This weekend's the Midwest Freestyle Championships, so we'll see how I do after being absent from the course all summer. At least I know it will be fun, even I bomb in the comp. Looking forward to it.

Diving Weekend

I skipped Wausau again this weekend. As much fun as I have out there, I've felt drawn to other things more strongly this summer, and this weekend was no exception. Instead of the 3+ hour drive out there, I made a much shorter journey with Nick to Stillwater to dive in Square Lake.

Square Lake has a large area designed for divers, with 4 underwater platforms and various other things to discover like the tail section of a plane, a sunken canoe, some fish crates, and other fun things. The platforms even have different things on them, including the "scuba biffy" in case you've really gotta go.

The water was warm and the visibility wasn't too bad. We got to play with lots of panfish and a few largemouth bass, but over half of our time under was spent searching for one of two things. The first was a pair of Fossil sunglasses that was dropped by one of the swimmers above us. He gave us a pretty good idea of where they'd be, and it didn't take us too long to find them.

That's when the second item became lost. Apparently when I came up and took my mask off to tell the guy that I found his glasses, my helmet cam fell off. I had never worn it scuba diving, but figured it might be fun to try out. Since I wasn't wearing a helmet, I had it hooked to a head strap that came with it. We searched for a very long time, but never found it. I'll have to head out there again soon and try again, but for now it's gone. : (
It really sucks to lose, but on a lot of levels I was shocked that I was able to have it for so long without losing or breaking it. It suffered several kayaking rock blows, spent some time snow kiting, went snorkeling and more. If I can't find mine, I'm definitely getting another.

On a happier note, Kim also did some diving this weekend, although not with me. She did her classroom and pool training for her certification and it sounds like she had a great time. She'll do her open water dives later this month, then she'll be fully certified and ready for some diving!

Crazy, fun weekend!

The first order of the weekend was the RedBull Flugtag on the Mississippi River in St. Paul. For those who don't know, it's a contest in which home made, human-powered flying machines get launched off a 30' high platform over water. Some flop, some drift down, and one flew. We got to see Major Trouble and the Dirty Dixies (the pic that looks like a WWII bomber) break the all-time world record with a flight of 207 feet. Luckily, it was well witnessed as the party down on the river was 90,000 people strong.

From Weekend

From Weekend

From Weekend

After Flugtag, Dennis and I headed down to the Verm for a fun evening run. The features seem to change every time I've been there this year, and this trip was no different. There was wave surfing in Triple Drop, fast and bouncy spins in Railroad, great blasts in S-turn, and a crazy day down in Donut.

To add to the fun, we ran into Mike L down there, who I hadn't seen since Sturgeon more than a year ago. He was ripping the hole up and it was great to see him again.

From Weekend

On Sunday, there was no time wasted getting back to the fun stuff. We headed out to Corcoran for the Muddy Sunday volleyball tournament. Yup, it's about like it sounds. Lots of mud with lots people diving around in it. Our team did well, coming 4th out of 40 teams. The problem is that by winning we had to keep playing - over 20 games in about 7 hours. By the end we were filthy and exhausted but had an awesome day. Definitely going back next year. These are the before and after pics, plus one of the tug-of-war contest.

From Weekend

From Weekend

2nd Annual Mississippi River Paddle

1 big river, 5 Americans, 2 Irish visitors, a car accident, and an extremely ornery tugboat operator; those was the makings of the 2nd annual voyage through the locks on the Mississippi. Among the awesome group of boaters was Kim, who I'm convinced is becoming hooked on kayaking! Well, at least hooked on kayaking once a year on flatwater, but it's a start!

From Mississippi 2010

We put in at Boom Island on the North side of Minneapolis around 11am, but not before we had a small fender-bender while running the shuttle.

From Mississippi 2010

We had a couple first-time kayakers and even more first-time on the river kayakers. Within a couple minutes of leaving the island, though, everyone was gliding along past the downtown skyline like old pros.

We made it straight into the first two locks without even having to wait - it was reeeallly nice after having some delays last year. We even had a nice chat with the lock operator at the second one, who told us all about the lock and the new hydro plant they're installing next to it. Meanwhile there were Egrets fishing from the pools of water that form on the lock gate as the water drops.

From Mississippi 2010

From there it was several miles of scenic flatwater as we passed below the 35W bridge and past the U of M's Minneapolis campus. We stopped for a snack at about the halfway point, but were back on our way pretty quickly. We had awesome weather (86 degrees and partly cloudy) and we didn't want to waste it!

From Mississippi 2010

About a half mile before the Ford dam and lock, we noticed there was a barge some distance behind us. We were about 1/2 way between the lock and the barge. Judging by the distance to the lock and the distance from the barge, we knew that we could make it without interfering with his travels, so we just picked up our pace a bit and made it to the lock well ahead of him. The lock was closed and filling when we arrived, so we and the barge all had to wait for it to open. When it did, the barge entered and we waited for the next cycle. That didn't stop the barge driver, however, from yelling various curses at us for being in his way. This is still somewhat of a mystery to me, as he had to change neither course nor speed for us and we did not delay him at all. But, he did manage to make himself look rather ridiculous as he threw his little tantrum from the top of his decending boat.

From Mississippi 2010

All obnoxious boat captains aside, we finished our voyage just downstream from the dam at Hidden Falls Park in about 4 hours. The Irish folks, unfortunately, finished the day with not only the experience of a day on the river, but a good dose of sunburn to remember it by. Everyone else came through unscathed, and I definitely think that this year counts as another great success. Here's to next year!

From Mississippi 2010

Continuum Weekend!

From Continuum

We had an awesome and groundbreaking group for the Canoe U Continuum this year! They flew through all the skills we could teach them with time to spare. So, with the extra time, we decided to run them down sections that (to my knowledge at least) no Canoe U class has done before.

From Continuum

We spent both days practicing on the Lower Louey, using our normal stomping grounds above and below the 210 bridge to work on some skills. For the first time, though, we had students running over Tablesaw to start their runs off. Everyone did great, and even a boater that slid off kept his cool and dug his way out of the eddy jail on river left.

From Continuum

More significantly, though, was what we did downstream. Normally we do some work at Big Glassy and take out after that. With this group, however, we were able to actually run both First and Second Sister! First sister was particularly difficult at the low levels we had, but the students were charging it! Most people were taking the left line down and going for a boof over the hole. There were a couple flips but to my happy amazement those students just picked up their boats, took a second shot, and conquered it! It was great to see that level of enthusiasm and drive.

From Continuum

We walked Octopus and made our way to the bone yard where the students got a trial-by fire on choosing lines, technical maneuvering, and dealing with rock pins.

From Continuum

Finally, we scouted Swinging Bridge though the students decided to save that for another day. Something to look forward to! After a long weekend in which we pushed them hard, it was good to see that they weren't afraid to exercise judgment and make the call to save that one for later.

From Continuum

In all, it was a great weekend with awesome students. I've come to love Canoe U because the students have such awesome stoke that you can't help but catch it. It's a great shot of enthusiasm as your coming down off the spring boating high.

To all of the students - GREAT JOB! You guys are becoming really solid boaters and I hope to see you guys on the river this summer. And if you ever need someone to join you on a run, just let me know! Also, to see all of my pics from the weekend, click on the "My Web Albums" link on the right of this page open the Continuum one.

To Bob and Jeremiah - It's always awesome working with you guys. As the new kid on the block, I feel like I'm learning as much as the students. You've got me looking forward to next year!

From Continuum

Colorado Trip

I know this is is a bit belated, but WOW what a trip! It was one of those weekends when you never knew what to expect, and there was a surprise around every corner. Water levels went from low to screaming high, we stumbled upon a paddling festival with tons of big names, ran into lots of friends from the midwest, and had tons of crazy moments on the water.

The group that went out was Caleb, Jade, Nora, and myself. Only Nora had ever paddled the Arkansas before, and that was at a much lower level. We had planned on paddling on our own, scouting what we needed to, but mostly just running-and-gunning the endless rapids. We also had some help from a couple former midwesterners who now live in CO with local beta that was priceless. To our surprise, however, we quickly found ourselves surrounded by even more friends including Jeremiah, Tina, Missy, Tommy G, and more.

We had a got a huge surprise from Mother Nature on our way out, as the spring thaw finally hit the Rockies. Apparently they had been getting snow until right before we came out, then that week the temps really climbed. The day we arrived the high was in the 90's and the low in the 70's, and that was at 8,000' (Buena Vista)! The temps stayed up and the mountains let loose. The Arkansas level was about 1100cfs when we left Minnesota. It was 2800 when we arrived in CO, and 3400 by Sunday.

The huge levels threw our plans pretty much out the Window. We traded the numbers and a possible Royal Gorge run in for the Fractions and Brown's Canyon. At those levels, we wound up with nearly endless wave trains (some as high as 10') with a few boulders and holes to dodge for good measure. It gave us plenty of fun without having to be too cautious or spend much time scouting.

The highlight was Brown's Canyon with Jeremiah acting as our guide. Big water, huge boat chase, and tons of fun. It's all detailed in an earlier post, so you can check out the details there.

We did the Fractions twice - once the first day and once on Monday. The Monday run was our quick Goodbye run before beginning the long drive. We did over 7 miles in the high flows (including one thorough shore scout) in just over an hour. It was a blast.

Here's a couple videos to check out: Mine is the first one and it's about 7 minutes long. Unfortunately Movie Maker and I had another battle over sound editing and I lost, so the soundtrack is a bit screwed up. The next two are parts 1 and 2 of Caleb's video. Each is about 10 minutes long, but they're much better edited than mine. Check 'em out!

Mine:


Caleb's (Part 1)


Caleb's (Part 2)

Colorado Trip - Brown's Canyon

I'm still working on editing stuff, but here's the first video. It's from our Sunday paddle down Brown's Canyon with the Adreson's. It was huge at about 3200cfs and rediculously fun. It was probably the highlight of our trip with lots of gigantic features. Jeremiah, Missy, and Tina were awesome for bringing us along.

The huge water wasn't the only story that day, though. In the middle of the run we had a boater take a swim. The boater made it to shore quickly and without incident, but the boat headed downstream into one of the most challenging sections of the river.

After thinking "wow, that looks big down there - do I really want to dive into it blind?" I decided that yeah, I definitely did and peeled out of the eddy in pursuit.
I was immediately faced with a wave train that was large enough to allow multiple paddle strokes on the face of each wave. I'm thinking the first wave was close to 10'. The huge waves made for good scouting, though, and I was able to spot the empty boat ahead. I caught up and was able to flip the boat, but found there were no good eddys around. So, we kept floating downstream at an amazingly swift pace.

About now is when Jeremiah caught up with me (he was in his playboat). We struggle to get the boat, which was submarine-ing despite its floatbags, into the small eddys that we came upon. All the while, we tried to take turns watching downstream and calling pourovers and other hazards as we approached. As we worked our way down Widowmaker and the Steps, this teamwork saved our butts because it was impossible to wrangle the huge flooded boat and read the river at the same time. I swear the boat was intentionally fighting us, getting caught in every eddyline, bouncing the wrong way off every rock, and diving deep at every opportunity. I think the two of us got it at least partially into 3 eddys, but it refused to stay long enough to secure it.

Soon Jade and Caleb joined the effort and we started making real progress. All of us were now working together in what became the finest example of teamwork I can think of. We had people watching and calling the river ahead while others took turns using their momentum to coax the flooded boat where it needs to go. It still did its best to resist, and it required about 5 hand-of-god flips to keep it upright. We pushed, pulled, bulldozed, and towed it towards eddys. On one, we got it in and Jeremiah jumped out of his boat to secure it while we tried to hold it in. The boat subbed under the pushers once again, and headed back into the current like it was radio-controlled. Seriously - the Army could use that kind of evasive maneuvering equipment.

Jeremiah, now out of his boat, was running along the rocky bank trying to keep up and hopefully grab it the next time we got to shore. The remaining three of us kept at it and eventually Caleb was able to give it a final Herculean shove into an eddy where we pinned it down and got it out.

The total chase encompassed around 1.5 miles of continuous whitewater. We navigated huge waves, nasty holes, eddylines that would suck down a creek boat, and plenty of big rocks. I think it's the most physically exhausted I've been on a river. Unknown to us, however, the eddy we finally got it into was about 200 yards from the first calm stretch of river all day... That's luck for you. I got the first portion of the rescue on helmet cam, but then the battery died so I didn't include it in this video. Watch for scenes from it when I get the Blooper reel together, though.

For now, enjoy the video, and I'll post more as I finish them!

From Colorado May '10

Canoe U!

Well, it's that time of year again! Like last year, Bobzilla and I taught the Novice Refresher course, but our students absolutely kicked butt, so we actually got a bit beyond what we had planned. We had 6 very strong boaters who weren't afraid to push their skills and try new things. I hope that they were able to feel as much improvement as we saw, because it was pretty impressive. As a bonus, we even had warm weather this year! Looking forward to the Colorado trip next weekend, then the Continuum class the weekend after!

New Friends, Old Favorites, and a Surprise BLT

Early Saturday morning Caleb and I drove up to the Lower St. Louis for our first run of the year. It was just us in one vehicle, so we packed a bike along as our shuttle. When we pulled up to the put-in, however, we saw that the bike was definitely not going to be necessary. There were several boaters in the lot, and more that were already running shuttle for the Upper section.

Everyone was interested in running the Upper first, but Caleb and I didn't have time to do both. Luckily we met Todd (aka Metrix) in the lot and he was up for hitting the Lower with us. Todd turned out to be both a really nice guy and a great boater, so the trip was a blast.

The level was about 650cfs and we all managed to keep ourselves upright for the most part. The only flip was me getting lazy on the 210 drop and having to roll along the river-right side rocks.

The highlight of the day was Caleb making his first decent of Octopus - Congrats Caleb! All three of us took the right channel, down the curving slide at the bottom. I had almost forgotten how forceful the eddy fence at the top of the rapid is, but managed to just squeak by the rock downstream.

On the way home we got a bit of humor, too. Caleb and I stopped at the Hinckley Dairy Queen, where Caleb ordered a bacon Cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, etc. We got the order to go and were back on the road. After the first bite, Caleb noticed something missing from his burger - the burger! Yup, they had put bacon, cheese, veggies, etc all on the bun, but forgot the actual burger. So, he had a surprise BLT for lunch instead.

Despite the food glitch, it was a really great day! Check out the helmet cam photos and footage in the video below!

Engagement Dive

Here's the video from our dive trip in Jamaica. As you can imagine, I had some pretty un-ordinary requirements when I was trying to book the dive. I contacted 3 dive companies with my idea, and Everett from Resort Divers was the only one who said "No Problem, Mon." This turned out to be good fortune, because he and his staff were amazing. Friendly, patient, professional, and completely committed to making the dive awesome. I truly can't recommend them highly enough. I wanted a video of the dive, so Everett hooked us up with Steve from Video Vacations, who was also totally into making my plan work.

Everett and the dive instructor were already informed about what I wanted to happen, so while Kim was in the pool doing the Discover Scuba training, I had about an hour to fill the videographer in on the plan. This was key, because the videographer was the one who had the treasure chest and would have to hide it for us on the dive.

As you can see from the video, everything went great. I really could not have done it without the ideas, enthusiasm, and help of the dive crew. Also, I have to note that the quality of the actual video from Steve is great. I had to shorten it and shrink it significantly to make it YouTube-able. That's why the image quality is now low and the editing gets choppy in parts.

Big thanks to Everett, Steve, and everyone who helped with the dive. If you're in Jamaica, go with them!

Engagement Story

I'm so proud and happy to say that Kim and I are engaged! As many who know us can attest, this engagement was a long time coming. That’s why I figured that I had to at least try to make the engagement worth the wait. So, here's what I came up with:


The Short Story: I kidnapped Kim and held her underwater until she said “yes.”


The Long Story:

Thursday, March 18th, 6am: Kim wakes up and I tell her that she'll have to cancel her hair appointment for Friday. She asks why, and I say that it's because I'm stealing her away for her birthday. She says that she has to ask for time off, and I say that I cleared it with her bosses weeks ago. She asks where we're going, I say Jamaica. Her birthday's 10 days away, but I just said that was supposed to add to the surprise factor.

Throughout the day I have assured Kim that I will NOT be proposing to her on the trip, and to just enjoy it for the birthday present that it is. I'm pretty sure she finally bought it. I start feeding her info about stuff to do and the resort we’re staying at in the hopes that it will be all she can think about… That night, we both pack quickly and try to get to bed early.

Friday, March 19th, 4:45am: My nephew, Neil, picks us up at our house. He'll take us to the airport, then watch the house and the cat while we're away. Big thanks to him - we really appreciate it.

I had the ring, the fake ring (to be explained below), and about 1 pound of lead pellets (again, see below) in a hidden compartment in my carry-on and was certain I’d have my bag searched. Fearing that Kim would hear or see something during the search, I knew I had to do something to prevent that. So, I called Jason, my oldest friend. Jason happens to be a big shot at the TSA and oversees security at MSP. I told him my plan, and he agreed to meet us at the security checkpoint at 5am so that he could distract Kim while I went through. Ironically her bag got searched, and not mine, but it was great to see J anyway. After that, we caught our 7am flight and headed to Jamaica!

We arrive at our hotel around 4pm. The hotel is huge and gorgeous. The weather is 86 degrees and sunny. Our room is a junior sweet with a jacuzzi and balcony right on the beach. Kim doesn’t get any time to enjoy the room, however, because I scheduled a massage for her at 4:30. This served two purposes: First, to give her a nice, relaxing start to the trip. Second, it got her away from the room so I could call our dive operator and go over the plans for the actual proposal.

That night we have dinner at the hotel, hang out by the pool, and walk by the beach. The next day is also relaxing, with some snorkeling, swimming, and sampling great Jerk cooking.

Sunday, March 21st, 9am: I had told Kim in advance that I was setting up a Scuba trip for us. The owner of the company, Everett, picked us up at our hotel and we drove a couple miles to where the boat was kept. Kim’s not certified yet, so she had to do a Discover Scuba course before we went for our dive. As luck would have it, we were the only two people going out that day, and there just happened to be a videographer waiting for us, too! I explained to Kim that photographers and videographers often go on dive trips, then try to sell you their footage afterward. She was a bit nervous about the dive, so she bought my story without too much thought.

While the dive instructor took her over to the pool for the class portion of her day, I started unpacking and explaining my plan to the videographer. I gave the videographer a small treasure chest that had been filled with a mixture of small lead pellets and epoxy. In the middle of the chest was a fake engagement ring standing up and clearly visible. To make sure the box would sink and stay put, I put just over a pound of lead in it. The videographer put this in the pocket of his vest, out of sight.

After Kim and the instructor came back, we all headed out to the boat like a normal dive. We reached the dive site after just a few minutes, and I was the first in. After me was the videographer, the instructor, then Kim. Once we were all in, we dropped down about 25’ to a bed of sea fans, corals, sponges, and fish.

Towards the end of the dive, I saw the videographer reaching into his pocket. At that point, I made sure Kim was not watching him, then watched where he put the box. Having worked all of this out in advance, the instructor then led Kim away from me and towards that spot. I dropped back and pulled a dive slate out of my own pocket, then snuck up to the Kim right as she was getting to the spot.

As she came up on a big, bright Barrel Sponge (looks like a neon barrel sitting upright on the reef), the instructor indicated that she should look inside. She did, and just happened to see a little treasure chest! She pulled it out and, with a bit of help, unlatched and opened it. She saw the ring and looked up at me. I held up the dive slate, which said “Will You Marry Me? “ Her eyes went wide, then she nodded “Yes!” and we were on our way to the surface.

When we got to the surface, Kim’s first words were “How did you do that?” Eventually I got an actual “yes,” too. We rode back to shore, where I did the proper one-knee proposal with the real ring and, thankfully, she still said “yes.”

We have the whole thing on video, but it’s currently too long for Youtube. When I find a way to rip and edit it, I’ll post. It’s pretty cool.