1st Kettle Run

There was pretty much an armada of kayakers on the Kettle today for what was my first run of the season. We had over twenty in our group when we put on, and as we were leaving we saw another group taking out. There were paddlers from the Twin Cities, Wisconsin, St. Cloud, Duluth, and more. It was really fun to see everybody, and to meet a handful of new people!

To make things even better, the river was at a great level (2.7' on the bridge gauge) and it was a nice mix of play and river running. The snow and cold stayed away for the afternoon, and we had sunshine on us for most of the run.

Newbie Aaron had his first day on a non-verm river and did great. Several of us ran Wolf Creek, even though it was a little low. There were a couple swims and a couple saves, but on the whole it was just a lot of fun. Bring on the '09 season!

Season Opener!

We had a great evening down at the Verm yesterday, and the '09 paddling season is officially open at last! There are few things in life that make me as happy as kayaking, so I'm totally stoked to get another season up and running. We had a whole bunch of paddlers, including three Bryan's (one was a Brian, though), two Aarons, and a whole bunch of other folks. The water level was higher than the gauge said, maybe around 110 or 120. It was flowing fast, though, so there was lots of fun to be had. The put-in trail was its nasty springtime self, but everyone made it down in one piece. Big congratulations to Aaron W. who had his first ever river run! He did great, running the river without flipping, throwing himself into donut for an intro to surfing, and doing the cliff drop into Fisherman's pool. Looking forward to lots more paddling days to come!

I didn't take any pics yesterday, but Nora did. Check 'em out on her blog.

Polar Plunge!

12 of us (though sadly only 1 other kayaker besides me) jumped into the not-so-tropical waters of Lake Calhoun on Saturday. The water was a bit chilly, but the day was a blast. We started with some beverages at Bar Abilene Saturday morning before jumping on the shuttle bus and heading to Thomas Beach.

Our team was named Shaking, Not Stirred. In keeping with the Bond theme, the guys all had tuxedo t-shirts and the girls had "Bond Girl" shirts. Next year, we'll have to try to get some fancy heating gadgets from Q before jumping in... This year we had to settle for the hot tubs that were graciously provided by the Plunge sponsors.

After plunging, we headed over to Famous Dave's for some nice, hot comfort food. It was a great end to a fun day.

Together our team raised over $1600 for Special Olympics. Thanks to all those who donated - S.O. is a great cause.

Now, who's in for next year?

From Polar Plunge '09

From Polar Plunge '09

From Polar Plunge '09

From Polar Plunge '09

From Polar Plunge '09

From Polar Plunge '09

From Polar Plunge '09

Congratulations!

Huge congratulations to Graeme and Katie, who are welcoming the newest addition to their family! Her name is Murphy Elizabeth - here's a photo. Now we just need to come up with some sort of floating stroller... I bet the river waves would make a nice substitute for a rocking chair.

Upcoming Polar Plunge

Who's up for some crazy fun for a good cause? I'm putting together a team for the Polar Plunge in Lake Calhoun on Saturday, March 7th.

For those of you unfamiliar, this is an event where hundreds of people line up to jump into the balmy waters of Lake Calhoun in winter. It's a great charity event, with the proceeds benefiting Special Olympics. I've done it a couple times before, and can say that it is a bit chilly, but also tons of fun. As you can see from the pics of one I did a few years ago, everyone's having a really good time. There's tons of people, everyone's pumped up, and the atmosphere of the event is amazing. There is a heated changing area and, in the past, there have been portable hot tubs. Not sure about the hot tubs this year, but we can hope...

If you're interested in jumping, you can join our team at:

http://www.specialolympicsminnesota.org/Polar_Plunge_App.php?step=register&event_id=9&team_id=982.

Each plunger must raise at least $75 in donations to be able to participate, but I've found that most non-plungers will happily donate in exchange for seeing the photos afterward. Each plunger must also wear shoes into the water. Team clothing/costumes are still being decided upon.

If you don't want to jump, but would like to help the team out by donating, you can go here:

http://specialolympicsminnesota.org/Polar_Plunge_App.php?regid=6652&step=pledge&action=showwebpage&event_id=9&team_id=982

A Good Cause

Just wanted to put the word out that one of our local paddlers, John Pike, will be climbing the IDS tower to raise money to fight Cystic Fibrosis. It's a great cause, and there's a way that everyone can join in, without climbing 50 floors. You can donate to John's team online at:

http://www.cff.org/LWC/dsp_DonationPage.cfm?idEvent=9062&idUser=280818

Best of luck to the team, and let's try and raise some serious $$!

Mexico Trip

I apologize for being really slow to put anything up on the blog lately. It's been a really busy winter and work's been keeping me away from the fun stuff. But, things are looking better now, so I figured I'd start getting caught up.

At the beginning of January, my whole family (neices, nephews, and all) plus Kim headed down to Cancun for a week. This is significant for a couple of reasons: First, I'd never been to Cancun before and hadn't stayed in an actual resort in more than 15 years. Second, my family hasn't done a vacation together since I was about 8. It was definitely very different from my normal solo or 1 friend backpacking trips, but it was more fun than I was expecting.

We stayed in a huge mega-resort (see photo) that had pretty much everything you could ever imagine, plus a couple of things. I checked out some of what it had to offer, but Kim and I tried to get out and try more unique activities when we could. These included a lot of scuba diving, a snorkel trip that involved driving tiny little speed boats through Mangrove channels and then ocean swells, a trip to the ruins of Chichen-Itza, cliff jumping in a Cenote (freshwater cave), and more. We had a great time.

These are the pics from the non-diving stuff. In order to keep the number of pics in each post manageable, I put the dive pics in two seperate entries. Hope you like 'em!

Cenote Cave Dives

While I was down there I did one of my favorite dives yet - a Cenote cavern dive. We did 2 tanks in the Chac-Mool Cenote, about 45 minutes from Cancun. The dives are known as much for the amazing light show coming from the cave openings as for anything else. It really is breathtaking to come through a tunnel and see beautiful shafts of blue light. It looks completely unreal and you'd swear it was the special effects for some movie.

The water was very warm - 75-78 degrees according to my computer. Most of the dive was freshwater, but there are places in the caves where the saltwater from the ocean backs up the river and lingers. Because of that, we crossed the Halocline (division between salt and freshwater) several times. Each time we would go nearly blind because where the two waters converge becomes very blurry and hard to see through, like olive oil trying to mix with water. One diver said it reminded him of looking through the heat waves rising off hot pavement, only more intense. The other crazy thing about crossing the halocline is that your bouyancy changes drastically. You are almost twice as bouyant in the saltwater as you are in the fresh, so you had to take care to keep from rising into the ceiling in the saltwater or descending into the stalagmites in the freshwater.

Speaking of Stalagmites, there were only a few of those, but there were lots of stalagtites hanging from the ceiling. most were small (under 1'), but there were a couple rooms where they grew to 10' or more. It was pretty cool. There was even one huge room (maybe 80' feet long and 40' high) that had an air pocket at the top. That's the photo you see of me floating with my mask off. That air pocket was at one of the farthest points we entered. It was pretty cool.

Cancun Reef Dives

While I was there I also did three dives on the reef just a couple miles out from Cancun. I wasn't expecting much, but all three dives were amazing. The coral was bright, colorful, and healthy and we saw lots of cool critters, including a green sea turtle, barracudas, a yellow ray, and tons of reef fish.

To make it even cooler, my first reef dive was with Kim, my brother, and two of my nephews. They were all doing a "Discover Scuba" class and I tagged along for the open water portion. All of them did great, and Kim's even talking about getting certified now! The only catch was that Kim's rental mask kind of tugged her face into a constant look of shock... It made for some great pictures, though.

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Holiday season and a great start to '09. We've had a great start to winter, and it's time to get out and do some kiting!

Cool Video

Here's a fun video for anyone looking for some travel inspiration. I don't know the guy, but thought it was worth sharing. If you'd like to find out more about it or watch in higher definition (recommended), check out his website at: http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/about.shtml

Puerto Rico Trip

I just got back from a short trip to Puerto Rico! I had decided that I wanted to spend my recent birthday abroad, and decided that I would go to wherever had the cheapest airfare. The only restrictions were that it had to be some place I hadn't been, and it had to be outside the continental US. I wound up in Puerto Rico, and had a great time. I spent most of my time in/around San Juan and on the small island of Vieques, off Puerto Rico's Eastern shore.

The Good:
1)Bioluminescent Bays
2)Genuinely friendly people
3)Endless beaches for everything from surfing and kiting to snorkeling and laying out
4)No passport necessary
5)No currency exchange
6)Mass Transit that's cheap or free (but see The Bad)
7)Perfect weather
8)Cell Phone Service (I wasn't even roaming)

The Bad:
1)No Hostels or hotels under $70/night
2)Mass transit is largely limited to the San Juan area and Ferries

San Juan
The San Juan area is made up of Old San Juan (which is the oldest permanent settlement in the territory of the United States), two resort areas (Condado and Isla Verde), and some residential areas. Old San Juan is a beautiful mix of old buildings, modern shops (including restaurants and stores from all the big designers), and beautiful vistas. Additionally, you can take a free ferry ride across the harbor to the Bacardi rum factory. The tour was free, fun, and interesting, and you get two free drinks with it. I definitely recommend it.

Nearby, around the barrio of Isla Verde, are great beaches and spots to kitesurf. With nearly constant 15mph winds and warm, shallow water, it would be a fantastic place to kite. I tried to set up a session through Kitesurf PR for a day's worth of riding. My contact their was very friendly and helpful, but called me the morning we were supposed to go out and said that there wasn't enough wind. He said the forecast didn't look good, but he'd call me if that changed. He didn't. By 2:00 there were perfectly steady winds in the 10-15mph range but my phone never rang. Tried calling their number, but got no answer. So, no kiteboarding for me.

Getting around the San Juan area was easy. The city buses were quite an adventure - they were driven as if they were Ferrari's, so you had to hold on to something even if you were sitting down, but they were straight-forward to use and they were free. Ferry service across the harbor was also free and arrived frequently. Getting around outside of the San Juan area required that you either 1)rented a car, 2)paid large sums to take a taxi, or 3)attempted to use the unscheduled and confusing Publico minibus system. None of these options was very appealing to a traveler on his own, but luckily I found there was another way to get out to Vieques Island. There are charter flights from San Juan for about $50 each way. Since that was about 1/2 the price of renting a car for 3 days or taking a cab, it was definitely the way to go.

Vieques
The Island of Vieques is about 8 miles off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. The US Navy used a large part of the island for artillery practice until 2004, so much of the island is still undeveloped. The island is known for it's pristine beaches and its bioluminescent bay. The "bio bay" is a large shallow bay on the South Side of the island that has the highest concentration of dinoflagellates in the world. Dinoflagellates are microscopic critters that glow when they're disturbed. There are so many of them in this bay that the water literally glows whenever anything moves it. I took a kayak/swimming trip out into the bay and was absolutely amazed. The paddle, the kayak's wake, even the fish swimming underneath you all glow as they move through the water. To make it even cooler, the swirling water that follows the movement also glows, so everything has an amazing tail of light following it. If you dip your arm in and then raise it up, you'll have streams of light running down it. It's totally amazing and definitely in my top 5 coolest things I've ever seen. Unfortunately, my camera housing leaked on this trip and my old water camera is now finally dead, so there's no pictures.

The second thing I did on the island was go diving. I got in with a young group of German and Spanish folks who were about my age. They spoke excellent english, and we all got along great. Two of the girls in the group were new divers, so the dive was an easy one. The visibility wasn't great, but we saw some lobsters, an octopus, a HUGE eel, and some turtles. Unfortunately, the dive camera was dead, so I have no pictures. :(

I stayed in Esperanza, a small tourist village on the South side of the island. It's an extremely laid-back place right on the water with pristine beaches just a couple steps away and great snorkeling right in front of the the hotel. At night, you can sit on the piers and watch spotted eagle rays and tarpon swim by beneath you. Great Caribbean atmosphere and incredibly friendly people.

Good Times
On the whole, it was a fun and relaxing trip. I'd love to go back and do some kiteboarding and some more snorkeling. Definitely a nice break from reality

Water and Pics

The rains are here, and the rivers are up! Both the Kettle and the Louey are at good levels and rising. I hope somebody gets out and takes advantage! I can't paddle this weekend, so I'll have to live vicariously through those who can. Get out and enjoy the water while it lasts!

These are some pics from the Wolf and Lower St. Louis that I got from Pike. I just thought they were cool, so I figured I'd put them up. Enjoy.

Congratulations!

Huge congratulations to Graeme and his wife who are expecting a baby! They're due April 1st, and while I say that a real paddler would have timed it for the dry season, it's still great news. Here's wishing them all the best!

Go Vote!!!!

Here's your chance to make a difference - don't waste it. Go Vote!

Also Congratulations Caleb for not only finishing, but passing his big test! Way to go!