Hazel’s big request for our trip this year was to revisit the Little Colorado, and her big wish was that we’d get the amazing blue colors. Lucky enough, there was no recent rain and we had a fun time swimming and exploring.
Lava Falls is one of the higher rated rapids on the Grand Canyon, and a clean line is normally celebrated. Hazel was nervous and rode with my friend Geno (who has an anti-flip device on his raft). But Kim and Margot braved it with me
A very fun couple days hanging out with and paddling the SF American with good friends. It was their first time paddle rafting!
We had some friends join us this year, which was super fun. Jr Guides Raft Camp is an incredible 3 day rafting experience for the kids. Although their is always an experienced instructor/guide in the raft, they truly put the kids in the drivers seat
In June 2024 I was able to help put together a trip for a 19 day journey down the Grand Canyon. It was my third time down, Hazel’s second, and the first for Kim and Margot. We had some excitement when I put the whole
Hazel had an assignment to write a “narrative story” for school. The teacher told her to focus more on making the story exciting than worrying about accuracy, so some of the details are off a bit. But I liked the story. By Hazel: My Narrative
After years of looking for a trip, I got an invite for myself plus one for a trip launching July 2023. Kim wasn’t available, so I asked Hazel. She was game and before long we were driving out to AZ. I was honestly pretty nervous
We had a fantastic trip down desolation canyon in Utah. Due to craziness at work we drove literally through the night to get there on our launch day, and launched in the afternoon Friday. We spent a glorious full week on the river, doing
Desolation Canyon and Grey’s Canyon in Utah is a gorgeous stretch of river, running through canyons very reminiscent of a scaled down grand canyon and with similarly scaled down rapids, mostly class II and a couple III- at the low waters we had. We spent
Had a great time today with my sister Katy, visiting from Texas. We went kayaking, checked out the sea lions. Stopped and played on a beach. Followed with delicious burgers. My sister was vegetarian for almost her whole life, so I’m still getting used to
This run doesn’t often have water adequate for kayaking, so when it does it’s a rare treat, and when it does in September doubly so. I think this was my second trip down. Maybe third. A good writeup from AW here: https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/view/river-detail/287/main
A few weeks ago, Geno had the idea to run Mill Creek, near Fresno. When I was trying to find information about it, I kept seeing write-ups about a Mill Creek in N. California, and it looked good. I put it in the brain as
The North Fork of the Kaweah is an absolute gem of California paddling. This was my first trip down, and I love, love, loved it. 6.5 miles of classic class IV-V whitewater. We took our time, only Geno had done the run before, so we
Mill Creek is an infrequently run creek that feeds into the King’s River. We didn’t have much information about the run, only the barest of descriptions from American Whitewater. It said there were some junky miles, some good bedrock drops, and a few significant rapids.
Kim’s Uncle Hoa was in town in January, and we decided to take him kayaking. Kim’s mom joined us, along with Kim’s brother Ton and sister in law Cecilia. Kim’s mom was a little nervous, so we put her in the tandem with me, and
Kim and I, with our friends Ray and Jeff, went out to Santa Cruz this weekend. On Saturday, we paddled from Scorpion cove to Smugglers Harbor, then back to sCorpion where we camped for the night. Sunday, we loaded our gear into the kayaks and
A really nice, relaxed trip to Santa Cruz Island. We took the ferry to Prisoners Cove, camped there and did a day paddle with hundreds of dolphins sighted. The next day we paddled to scorpion cove, camped there, and the third day got the ferry
Kim and I celebrated our anniversary this weekend (April 9) with a weekend trip to Monterrey Bay, CA. We went paddling Sat morning off a point near Pacific Grove. It was windy, and big, and stormy, so we didn’t get far, but it was a
Santa Cruz surf kayak contest is the biggest contest on the west coast. Great waves this year, and fun people as always. Every year I think I’m surfing much better than last year, and I probably am, but so is everyone else! So i didn’t
We’re lucky to live in an incredible part of the country. Within a few hours drive of house, we got the ocean, mountains, lakes, forests, deserts and a big city. We try and keep pretty busy, and have some great adventures around here. In the
We got a super late start Friday night, and it was an all night slog to Davenport, with just a few hours of fitful dozing alongside the highway. But I made it to the contest, and had a great time. Didn’t surf as well as
Thanks to Dave for setting up the Pismo Beach Surf Kayak contest. Due to permit issues, low turnout, and predictions of small waves sunday, the contest was condensed to one day. That mean I was surfing 9 heats in a day. (High Performance, International Class,
Friday night we had Kim’s mom, aunt and Grandma over for dinner, which meant another insanely late night drive…leaving our our house around 11:30 and with some mandatory roadside naps, we pulled into Jil and Jeff’s sweet mountain cabin right around 8:45 a.m. loaded Jeff’s
The Middle Fork of the Feather is described in the classic CA paddling guidebook as “This is it! The Middle Fork of the Feather River is the best wilderness self-support trip in California.” It is one of the original “Wild and Scenic ” designated rivers.
The East Fork of the Carson flows with the melting snow, and heads east down the Sierra Mtns, into Nevada. It’s a class II+ run, but moves quickly. We did a trip a few weeks, with the great folks from Current Adventures (http://currentadventures.com) who do
This past weekend was the national championship for surf kayaking, held at Davenport, CA, and organized by Buck Johnson. I went down a day early to get a practice session in. Friday was super fun. I was on the water from 9 a.m. to 5
