American Rivers Delta Loop January 2012

River Ride on January 29, 2012

"Wanna go for a ride on Sunday?" he asked quite innocently. A ride through any part of California is a favorite way to spend a few hours on a Sunday. Who was going and why were my questions, and the answers were kind of vague in their response. An annual ride with people I didn't know so that I could write a blog about the trip. Now that sounds interesting and I said, "Yes, I would love to go."

The blogging team from WET River Trips were picking me up around 9:00 AM so that we could meet the rest of their friends by 10:00 AM in a park somewhere in Sacramento. I wasn't driving and those of you who know me, know that my geographical skills are sorely lacking. "Somewhere near the Delta..." was the response I got when I asked where we were going.

With my nose in my notes and my eyes on my cell, I started writing about these people and friends whom I was accompanying on this little adventure. I say a little adventure as I was not required to bring a ton of gear. Just a hat, a jacket and good, sturdy shoes were all that was required.

We met the group near the park as the roar of the engines drowned out the speaker's voice as he instructed the group on the day's schedule. We were doing the "Delta Loop" which is a popular ride for top-down automobiles, motorcycles and bicyclists. The weather was beautiful... too beautiful for January! Then we were off on our ride, heading through the Delta towns such as Rio Vista, Clarksburg, Hood and Solano county where the wind turbines create a surreal landscape for the viewer.

I had no idea where I was. The loops and islands were so confusing! Each island looked so similar except for the homes and buildings. Each small town was picturesque and dotted with old-time ambiance. There was wine tasting along the way, art galleries, shops, the beautiful river with the boats, yachts and the incredible homes along the river frontage. This was a magical setting of another world, another place to experience.

I met quite a few interesting folks on this ride, too. I met a scientist and programmer of robotics. An interesting chap of European heritage. We talked about his current project. And, I gave him the name of one of the whitewater rafting guides who has an internet company that could help him with a problem.

As he passed me his business card, I was struck with the "Social Networking" that we just had. This is truly social networking! The real deal! No computer. Just talking with someone who had something in common with me.

Now, I am very interested in the outcome of this project that he was working on as I want to know if my input had any value to his project. If it did, then I will feel as if I was part of his team... no matter how small. "Social Media" in the best sense!


This blog belongs to W.E.T. River Trips California Whitewater Rafting blog.
All photos belong to WET River Trips Flickr site.

Middle Fork American Labor Day Weekend!

Here we gooooooo! It's Labor Day Weekend and what are ya gonna do?



It's not too late to grab a Middle Fork American Tunnel Chute run this Sat or Sun. A few spaces left folks for one of the deepest canyons in the state and an awesome whitewater rafting. Wait until you see Tunnel Chute rapid... double wow!



And for those who have families with younger children, we recommend South Fork American. SoFo is a fun splashy whitewater trip suited for beginners, novices and intermediates. Lots of fun on the water will cool you down.

We'll see you on the river!
WET River Trips
RAFTWET.com

Life Decisions : Family

Recently, I was speaking to one of the younger members of the blogging team. He writes about the foibles of his youth and how he resolves the pending issues of the day. I gather that his life is full of adventure as each day unfolds to bring either good tidings or sorrow. He is young and full of spirit. The decisions he makes daily are hard. There are so many temptations, so many wrong things that can happen. The one constant in his life is his family, his good friends, his music, his art and rafting on rivers.

From North Fork American HIgh Water

Was life this hard when I approached it as a young adult? Yes, it was. Sometimes, I didn't think I would survive. I was always worried about money. There never seemed enough funds to cover the daily living cost. I can remember eating top ramen noodles because it was dirt cheap and satisfying. I wonder if "they" eat that, too...

From Buff Castle 2nd Saturday with White Fang & Religious Girls

He said to me that sometimes he wished that he could just go back to the warm embrace of his family... have mom do his laundry again... have dad slip him a twenty for gas... and waking up in a bed with clean sheets. He said he never imagined how much he would appreciate all the little things that mom and dad would do for him. He missed it very much, but he knew that he couldn't go back. He knew that he was an adult in a sometimes, childlike mind.

From Buff Castle 2nd Saturday with White Fang & Religious Girls

From Buff Castle 2nd Saturday with White Fang & Religious Girls

I imagine how difficult it is to ward off the temptations, the bad friends, and to make critical decisions to launch himself into full adulthood. He told me that his music and being outdoors on river trips was his greatest joy. He will be on our rafting trips this weekend enjoying himself with his friends. There, he can forget for a while, the seriousness of life and just enjoy what Mother Nature brings.

Lars Holbeck

Lars Holbeck passed away Friday night after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Lars and his friends: Chuck Stanley, Banducci, Richard Montgomery, and others took their kayaks, kayaking, and all whitewater sports to a level that no one ever realized was possible.

Lars and Chuck were the ring-leaders and scribes to an era of discovery that the California and World whitewater communities never saw coming. Lars Holbeck and Chuck Stanley wrote the classic: The Best Whitewater in California: The Guide to 180 Runs. (Third Edition)

This book is the bible for California whitewater. I would say 90% of all paddlers have purchased or traded that book... handing it down to the noobie paddler as they begin their journey into the world of whitewater. Mine simply fell apart after much use and being carried perpetually in my dry bag. Blogger BR Thomas wrote a review about the whitewater guide book for California as recently as in 2007.

UK Rivers Guidebook team member, Mark Rainsley wrote in his field report, "Lars Holbeck Must Die." His reference implied that Lars' book on California whitewater had taken the UK team from Wales on a dangerous adventure of Class 5+ rapids with no possible return.

British paddler Rainsley writes about Clear Creek; "All of a sudden, a horizon line came into view and like the close knit team that we are, we fought each other tooth and nail for the remaining break outs. That was a close one - a walled in hole immediately upstream of an undercut- unpaddleable (sic) by even the most hairy and gnarly of Pro boaters. It got worse, we then rounded the next corner only (to) be confronted with a huge steep walled-in rapid (Grade V? Grade VI?) which we couldn’t inspect or portage. There we were in a real live Foxy cartoon."

Lars also wrote: "The Rivers of Chile". Lars and kayaking friends ran the steepest rivers in the deepest canyons with skill, intelligence, and more than a bit of dumb luck ... they were the whitewater Jedi! He pioneered the now popular Futelafu River, a pristine whitewater river in Chile that is a true destination river for rafting and kayaking.

Within hours of his death, the news spread rapidly throughout the whitewater and river networks. In the Coloma - Lotus Valley in Northern California, the entire community gathered to honor this legend. Scores of kayakers and paddlers descended into the North Fork American to pay tribute to the man. The North Fork American River is a favorite for all the river community and now has conservation protection due to the Auburn Dam demise.

All of us (rafters, kayakers, paddlers) owe Lars Holbeck eternal respect for his exploits. The gift he shared of his California adventures, his paddling world, his love of the rivers, conveyed his passion for white water. His writing and journaling with no sponsors, no labels and no paychecks, is a testament to who he was as a man. Lars Holbeck loved whitewater rivers and the paddling community!

GoodOnYa Lars!

Namaste!
Stephen Liles
CEO, W.E.T. River Trips

Note: Thanks to UK Rivers Guidebook and BoaterTalk for photos...

Surf or Die

Surf ... or die.

Surfers have long suffered from the stigma and stereotypes propagated by cheesy, 60's surf movies, a butt-load of crappy music, and they were dragged into the 80's with Sean Penn's character of Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

Surfing has always been a metaphor for moving through life with danger, fear, excitement, and a certain disregard of the Establishment ... surfing is deeper than that.

For those that haven't tried surfing ... it is freakin' hard and requires dedication, stamina, perseverance, practice, and athleticism. Anyone can be a poseur ... not everyone can surf. Surfers know that ... maybe that's where some of the stereotype comes from ... that certain air of detachment and a sense of "knowing."

One of our guides, Justin, learned to surf this winter in Costa Rica and Baja. He didn't have a reason to learn ... neither did he have a reason not to. So, he did it. He discovered how hard it was to learn and how nearly impossible surfing is to master. He learned. He surfed. He's loving it. He's a surfer. (he is a former mortgage broker).

Justin just arrived back into California ready to guide rafts and paddle kayaks. He's' living it ... the dream.


Whitewater rafting is for all ages!

Not all surfers pull on wetsuits and stand on slabs of fiberglass while slipping down the face of a wave. Surfing is more than that. It's a challenge, a feeling, and it's the personal exposure that you can only experience when you submit to Nature, Fate, and conditions beyond anyone's control.

You can get that by biking, kayaking, skiing, snowboarding, skydiving, exercising, painting, writing, speaking, climbing, dancing, hang-gliding, flying, diving, jumping, bouncing, motorcycling, kite-boarding, kayaking, playing music, singing, burning man ... and by white water rafting!

You must do these things: step into nature, submit to her power, and ride it out. Then, paddle, walk, run, ride, crawl out and drop in again. You're living it.

I'm 53 years old and when I pull my KLR motorcycle up onto the rear wheel and ride it out to redline, or revel in the benefit of gravity that slings me down a snow slope, or paddle a raft down American whitewater, or speak in front of 6,000 people ... I remember how I felt when I paddled my homemade 10' surfboard into the north Pacific without a wetsuit in March in 1967 ... I was living it ... I was 12.

Surf ...or die.

(and check out some good surf music: Dick Dale, Los Straightjackets and the Mermen)

Advil is a wonderful thing!

BigPoppaJah

Note: thank you to krungstock.com for the old surfer image! And thanks to WET River Trips for the all ages rafting picture!

New York City : Kayaking Hudson River

Amazing day on the water today. An opportunity to once again truly become connected with nature. My understanding of the new water (ocean, estuary)  I've been paddling has become stronger, and I keep finding ways to make paddling in the New York Harbor, Hudson River, East River and Harlem River, fun and enjoyable every time. Each time I stretch my comfort zone that much more, and I am remembering what it felt like to be strong in a kayak once again. My weight has dropped and my training for New York City's kayak championship, called the Mayor's Cup, seems real. Today on the water was one of those remarkable days when you feel a boost in your teaching ability. Pardon the egocentric comment, but the feeling was good in a way that made me realize I was contributing in a positive way to those who choose to try kayaking and/or paddling as a sport.

The weather in New York is different. Being from Auburn, CA, where the Middle Fork and North Fork American rivers flow, I'm used to dry California heat. New York is humid and thunderstorms happen in summer. Today, myself and two new kayakers experienced what can happen in the waters surrounding Manhattan. These two ladies were students at Manhattan Kayak Company and had come to do a North/ South kayak tour. That means paddlers head either North or South depending on the currents. First you head upstream, then down, in either direction as the Hudson is not only a river, but a tidal estuary. My two ladies were in a double kayak as they were training for a huge sea kayak trip to Alaska. We started paddling and went North. It was 1:30, and we needed to paddle against the current no longer than to 3:00 PM so as not to have to come back against tidal current. If we headed South by 3:00 PM, we would get slack tide and not have to work too hard.



The energy of the group was to really go for a nice long paddle and get some good experience and I went out in focus of the moment. We crossed the river and paddled up the New Jersey side. That was their first river crossing and they were excited. This was the 3rd time for both of these ladies in a kayak and they had never paddled out of Manhattan Kayak's backyard. A haze hung over Manhattan as we paddled. Strokes were worked on including the forward, sweep and draw. In addition we practiced connection of strokes and paddling style. The decision was made to no longer use the rudder and the two really needed to start working together, and they did, strongly.

We turned around after probably an hour and a half. We had paddled by many of things characteristic of maritime scenery. Pilings, industrial buildings, barges, boats, parks, and Midtown Manhattan. As we paddled back, it began to sprinkle and felt wonderful. I took the ladies out to the middle of the river to experience being surrounded by enormous amounts of CFS flowing. We floated on top of it all and the weather worsened. A Cruise Ship was close to leaving as we passed it and lightening started to hit. We were very close to getting home at that point, within a mile I would say. There wasn't a place to stop and some critical points needed to be passed, including the Water Taxi Terminal, or Ferry Terminal.

The paddle back to the boathouse was against current; we had been out for enough time for the current to switch directions. We were heading back with a slight current against us and a headwind. The rain was kicking and the power of the Thunder Storm became massive. Various streaks of lightening and powerful sounds of thunder, then the wind really increased. It was at this point that we needed to cross the ferry terminal. We waited it out for a moment for one ferry to pass and we charged hard. It was powerful out there and we put our heads down and are bodies in an aggressive position to face the wind and continue moving forward. Nearing the end of the crossing, the worst of the storm appeared and we were hit by a 50 mile per hour gust. My two ladies were blown back 20 feet easily in that gust; just into the ferry terminal. The gust died a bit and we needed to move though while we had the opportunity. It was there that they continued their assault as a team.

Twenty minutes later were back on the dock with a storm that was calming down. I was happy as any teacher watching two student paddlers improve with leaps and bounds, and while pushed out of their comfort zone as beginners, they had the mental strength to get them through. At the end, they seemed full of joy and excitement. I felt this was a positive day on the water.

Theo from NYC 's Tidal Estuary via New York Harbor... paddlers never stop paddling!

Theo is a whitewater rafting guide for WET River Trips; also a bomber kayak instructor!