so here goes. after spending entirly to much money to get my lisence back (dont ever drive with out insurence!!!!!!), and waiting around to see my sisters graduation, camille and i drove up to NYC to pick up some friends of mine from sweden. of course their luggage was lost so we had to spend two days at friends house out side NYC. on the bright side, it gave them some time to recover from jet lag. once we got everything straightened up, the 4 of us took of for colorado like a bat out of hades. we maade a brief stop in kansas to see a friend, but other than that we drove striaght through with no stops.
colorado was great. we stayed at some of my aunt and uncles house in golden, and ran the boulder town run the first day. this is a nice little class 2-3+ creek run lots of ledges, and lots of hole. there is also a slolom corse on the upper. there were two crazy things that happened on this run first, we met up with a group of 5 open boaters (for those that dont know there are hardly any single bladers west of the mississippi). the second crazy thing that happened on this run was that we got cought in the middle of a terenchal down pore, and the river flashed! i think the river went up 3 feet in a 10 min period. for me this was great, because all of the ledges turned into awsome foamy holes, but for camille, it was a little tense. all of the eddys went away, and all of the holes got even bigger.
we ran another creek with this group called the frasier the next day. unfortunity the class 3-4 run that the guide book said it would be was little more than a class 2-3 float. there was one nice long rapid that made the trip worth while, but i wouldnt recomend this run to anyone. after this we headed down to the arkansas, and paddle there for almost a week. the highlight for me was running the numbers at 2500 cfs (pretty good- higher water), and camille seemed to have a really good time on browns canyon. she got her fist combat roll there. we spent a day in salida at the rodeo hole. i think i sent like 5 hours there. i must say that this was one of my favorite spots. its in the middle od twn, and its big. i was getting aireal loops, which are pretty spectacular in a necky switch. even better is that its a righty hole(my onside). while we were in salide we found a guy that mkes really nice paddles. his company is called cricket paddles. he doesnt produce many paddles, but the ones he does make look and feel great. camille ordered one from him, and it should be here any day now! after salida, we headed to the telluride bluegrass festival, and watched a little pickin', and grinnin'. it was actually really tight, we got free tickets becuase camilles brother is in the band. we also got to hange out in the town. quite a lovely place.
the wext week was a wirlwind tour of the south west, and very little water to be boated. we hiked the grand canyon (i hated it! to many people, and to hot. the view was amazing though) we won $15 in vagas, and drove out through death vally.
after driving up through the seirra nevadas we made it to the american river outside sacremento. unfortunitly we missed the water in california by two weeks. dam all that beer and gambling in vagas
we did run the chilli bar section. itr was a good run. mostly clas 3 with one easy 4. there were a few good play spots, and the sceanery was awsome. definatly a must do when in the area. after much deliberation camille and i decided to head to the coast and head north. we thought about trying to hit the feather, and the cal salmon, but figured a few days at the beach would more fun. we dropped our swedish friends in sanfransico and took off up the coast on route one. our first day started with some surfing in begota bay about an hour north of sanfran. i got to spent a few hours talking to the local surfers. we all sort of looked at each other and wondered "what the hades is he thinking!?" camille on the other hand decided a book, and some crown royal would be a better way to spent the day. we spent a few days driving up the coast, and surfing. we went on an awsome hike in redwood forest, through tall tree grove. i think this is something everyone should do atleast once in their life. ive done it twice!!!!! we made it to portland around the beginning of the month. it was week 4 for us. i really liked portland a lot. i think its my favorite city. its just so clean, and friendly, and pretty. we did some boating about a half our from where we were staying on the clackamas. this was supposed to be a class 3-4 run, but once again was in actuallity a class 2-3 run. it was pretty, but there was just to much flat water for my liking. our next stop was hood river and paddling on the white salmon. we spent the first day paddling the lower section with some people we met. they were really nice kayakers, and offered us a place to stay in seattle when we came through. the river was nice as well. this is prolly one of the prettiest rivers i have ever done. it is created out of a lava field off mount adams. its a box canyon that ranges anywhere from 20 to 100 feet deep. the walls a covered with moss and plants. its really breath taking. the coolest part it that the river is largly spring fed, which means two things. 1) there are lots of waterfalls that come out of the canyon walls, and 2) the water stays around 45 (it makes the nantahala feel tropical
) the rapids them selves are very simalar to southeast creeks. lots of ledges, with short pools. the last rapit is a 10 foot waterfall with a hard to hit, but sweet boof. this was camilles first water fall, and she got a spectacular back ender the second day, camille paddled the lower while a went to the green truss section and paddled with some people i met. the green truss is even more beautiful than the lower, but few people see it because its a class 5 run. i think this is actually my new favorite run. its very steep(like 350 feet a mile in spots, and very narrow!!!! i loved it!!! lots of big boofs, and lots tight slots. i also got to run my personal highest water fall. its called big brother, and its 30 feet tall!!!!!! this is actually the scariest drop on the river because there is cave at the bottom (which is where eric weiss died). fortunitly there was a big group, and lots of safty set up. there are some pictures of me on this run at http://msnusers.com/shawnandanna there arent any of me running big brother, but you can see the drop behind me in the waterfall picture( its called little brother, how cute) we headed up to seattle for a few days, but didnt stay long. instead we went over to the skycomish river and did a low flow run with a local woman. it was a nice class 3 run with one big drop called boulder drop. camille got a good working in this drop, but rolled up at the end. yay
idaho was out last boating stop. in the west. i think idaho is americas best kept secret. thousands and thousands of miles of untouched wilderness, and whitewater. best of all, there are no people anywhere. everyone thinks of potato feilds, but this couldnt be any further from the trueth. i highly recomend a visit!we went over to the lochsa for two days. we hit it pretty low, but it was still fun. a few really good big drops, and a few sweet play spots. this is a really classic run, but was a little low to get the full effect. i believe this was my 80th run, so i was pretty excited
after lochsa we went to the payetts we really only ran the south fork and part of the main. the stair case section is a nice little short run. most of the local guides do it after work. some good play, and some good rapids. the other run we did was the south fork canyon. i think this was the hardest thing that camille has ever run. it pretty solid class 4, and it at the bottom of a huge canyon you cant hike out of really. the day started out rough with camille swimming and getting a pretty gnarly gash over her eye. it didnt really even fase her we trhough some ice on it, and after a few minutes she was back in her boat. she said she actually felt better now that she got a swim out of her way. pretty tough chick. 
after idaho we went to jackson to see my cousin. with money running low, and the two of us pretty sick of driving, we headed home. we had planned to go to the ottowa armada, but decided against it. of course we had to stop and do a 3 day weekend in west virginia. all we really did was the new, but the water was high, and warm. we finally go to paddle without a drytop!!!!! it was great!!!!!!
all in all, it was a great trip, i paddled 24 days in the 7 weeks we were gone. we put 11000 miles on the truck, and got to see the country. not to bad fora summer vacation
