Klamath River and Salmon

I've been watching and reading the missives from Friends of the River in California about the bus company up in Oregon that refused to run an ad for the Klamath Salmon. Yeh, the fish. The bus company refused to post the ad on the bus. Why? Because of the political nature of the ad; not because it was pornographic or violent or subject to any strange interpretations. The ad simply says, "Salmon shouldn't run up your electric bill... They should run up the Klamath River."

Whoa... that's quite risque, isn't it? The picture shows three salmon fish swimming towards a barrier of electrical outlets. The bottom of the ad has a website address for the Salmon for Savings program. WOW. This ad could definitely offend... maybe a politician.

So Friends of the River sued their ass and the ACLU and the Karuk Tribe are happier than heck that Judge Henry Breithaupt wrote in his opinion that Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon "TriMet" has violated both the Oregon Constitution and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Judge Breithaupt stated that the "decision was made on the basis of the nature of this message rather than any risks or limitations expressed in its standards."

An appeal is expected. The Portland area residents that are getting their electricity from the Klamath dams deserve to know that dam removal can save them money on their utility bills. FOR's Hydropower Policy Advocate Kelly Catlett said today, "“We are pleased that the judge upheld the rights of Pacific Power’s customers to hear that dam removal can save them a significant amount of money.”

Friends of the River has been working to remove obsolete dams on the Klamath River. In my opinion, the lawsuit they brought is a significant one. At least the Klamath community will now have the right to decide for themselves. And those who mute or censor the information will now think twice.

Thanks to Friends of the River for this information! ...and F.O.R.... give 'em hell!

NEW YORK CITY and TOURISTS

Connections and relationships are what this world is all about right? So, when my one of my sisters best friends took care of us upon moving to NYC, we were stoked. She had been in NYC for 5 years; had come to go to Columbia University and then had worked for a year after school to figure out what the next step in her life would be. The time finally came for her to leave and in doing so, she gave us a sweet present.

The gift was an extremely thoughtful one and will give us an opportunity to record our thoughts, organize them and have a pocket size reference handbook to New York City. So she gave us this pocket size organizer-extensive New York maps-subway guide-fill in your NYC experience book. Inside, she included her personal guide to New York complete with restaurants, coffee shops, museums and random "must do" things; like spinning the Astor Place cube. Anyway, good connections and good people are the best. Probably part of the reason that I am so happy to be staying in touch with the W.E.T. River Trips crew.

Thai is some of our favorite food to go eat consistently. Last Friday night, Maria and I decided to meet at Columbus Circle and walk to one of the recommended Thai Restaurants. The restaurant is called Pam Real Thai and is on what I understand to be the Hell's Kitchen District of New York City, close to midtown on 49th Street in between 9th and 10th Avenue.

We went to the place and realized it was cash only; no problem for us at the time considering I had cash on me. We had heard that is was a "hole in the wall" type of place and semi-small and comfortable. Maria and I enter and are seated and get used to the place.

I'll skip to the point here, we ordered three dishes, all recommended by local media and mentioned that they are recommendations on the menu. The dishes included one red curry, one green curry and one deep fried duck dish. Here we are at this hole in the wall, low key, small Thai place and we taste the food; best Thai I have ever had hands down!!!

It was awesome. The two curries were $6.95 each and the duck dish was $9.95. This being said, we frequented Thai Basil and Amarin Thai Cuisine in Sacramento and tried as many Thai places as we could in Northern California. All in all, we left smiling, having eaten excellent food and will be going back consistently. Just so everyone knows, the name of this place is Pam Real Thai.

Fast forward to Tuesday evening and the good vibes that Maria and I felt from Thai on Friday are still around and we want to do a repeat. All day Tuesday, the only thing I can think of is that duck dish that I had last Friday and eating it again.

We decide to again meet at Columbus Circle and walk to the restaurant. Upon meeting, the entire feel of the evening is different. Maria's hinting that maybe we should just go home and not walk the distance or that perhaps we should just eat at a place closer to 59th Street (Columbus Circle). It's hard for me though, to get the thought of the duck out of my head and so I push to make the hike.

One issue that comes up is the need for cash in order to eat at Pam Real Thai. I have none and Maria has none and all we have is our card, therefore we need to see our bank on the walk in order to get cash. It's a twelve block walk, 10 streets and two avenues; avenue to avenue being longer than street to street. On that trek, we see many banks, however, none of them are ours.

Finally, we are at the corner of 9th Avenue and 49th Street and we see a Duane Reade, a popular New York Drug Store. Our thought is that we can get cash back. We bought the right gum and Maria picks out her candy and we pull out are card and hear the sad words that say, no we do not give cash back. Thai will have to wait!

What are we going to do now! Well, we're both cold, we're tired of being on our feet, we have to use the restroom and we would like to sit down and enjoy a meal. Fortunately, there are other restaurants around. We pop our head into a Japanese place on 9th Avenue; they only take cash.

Okay no problem we think, there is a nice looking Mexican restaurant across the street. We walk in, and see the decals on the window that say they take cards. Good thing, we make eye contact and I ask just to make sure if indeed they take credit; they do and we are in business.

Now this blog is meant to contrast these two restaurants literally across the street from one another. While the Thai place across the way had been a hole in the wall, this place was very nice. There was an obvious bar scene, trendy electronic beats created a sound that potentially could draw a crowd. It was somewhat bust and we sat down immediately.

Maria and I, having just moved to New York City and just started new positions after traveling in Costa Rica are on a budget and when we looked at the menu, we realized we may be blowing the budget. The prices were a little high for us, something like $15.00 was the least expensive Burrito.

Coming from California and being used to a plentiful taqueria scene with amazing Mexican cuisine at our fingertips, for a good cost, we were a bit saddened. I chose to go for the Chimichanga and Maria went for a salad with chicken. The Chimichanga was $15 and the salad was $13. We made sure to drink water and stick to only one basket of chips, as each additional was $2.50. Certainly, the prices were high, but the restaurants intention was to have the trendy vibe make up for that. My hope was that the portions would be good sized. The service was efficient and the food did not take too long.

Unfortunately, there was more disappointment to be had in realizing that the portions were tiny. Literally, if I had wanted to, my Chimichanga, cut in half and plated in a creative way, could have been eaten in four bites. It was sad and so was I. Maria was equally disappointed in receiving her salad, a small and interesting spin on a salad, Mexican style. We left disappointed and will not go back. The name of the place did not stay in our memories long enough to make it to this blog. Just know that it is on the East side of 9th Avenue near 49th Street.

Two Hell's Kitchen restaurants, 100 feet from one another, and they couldn't be any different. Always remember to carry cash in New York City.

Thank you Theo for the blow by blow... the warning has been noted! Ok, all you travelers this summer... bring some cash when you are in New York City... then come on out and do a whitewater rafting trip with us in California! We feed you on the house!

W.E.T. Secret's Out! Rafting Triple Crown

Shhhhh... oh yeah, I forgot to leak this news. W.E.T. River Trips and the W.E.T. crew came up with a funny idea a few weeks ago... well, actually, Big Poppa thought it up.



It's not usual to be able to do all three forks of the American River at any time of the year. River flows depend on so many variables that usually only two of the forks are running. Every spring, though, there are a few weeks where it is possible for W.E.T. to have a triple crew working on all three American River whitewater trips in one day.

Big Poppa thought, "Hey, why not try and do all three whitewater rivers in one day with one crew?"

Aieeee! Carumba! Yeah... a very good idea, indeed.

Kudos to the Sacramento Bee writer, Gina Kim and river photographer, Randy Pench for their awesome participation on this project. Even more thanks goes to W.E.T. River Trips' own staff member Ryan MacPherson, professional documentary filmmaker for creating the video for the Sacramento Bee. Ryan and his Blood Good Productions company lent us a hand in creating the media for this three rivers in one day project. Thanks bro!

But the crew with the most, W.E.T. River Trips... gawd, you guys rawk so hard I can't even begin to tell you guys what you really accomplished. From the North Fork American start at 7ish in the morning with a take-out at 8am, put-in on the Middle Fork American at 9ish, take-out at 12ish and finally a put-in at the South Fork American around 2ish and take-out at Salmon Falls around 5ish... dudes... you could have done this in waaaaay less time than 12 hours... you guys were moving that fast!

Ok... so definitely, the W.E.T. team is honed and ready to roll for the 2008 whitewater rafting season. Look out peeps... 'cause W.E.T. is on a rampage!

SACRAMENTO BEE: http://www.sacbee.com/107/story/921289.html (story)
GOOD BLOOD PRODUCTIONS: http://goodbloodproductions.com (Ryan MacPherson videos)
TRADING MARKETS: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1520075/ (story)

WET River Trips North Fork American Race

Team W.E.T. River Trips: 1st place commercial raft in the 1st annual Nork Fork American River race held a couple weeks ago.



Yes, the W.E.T. River Trips team got off the couch (not really... we've been out running rivers almost every day for the past five weeks... everyone except Sollie and Harpo.)

Sollie flew up at 8 am on race day from Newport Beach to Sacramento, and we were shuttled to the river by Jason (oh yeah, he was off the couch, too) to make our rendezvous in Auburn where Maggie was waiting (oh ye ... she was off the couch).

The rest of the team had just returned from (6) consecutive days of guide school, commercial trips, and side adventures on the North Fork American, South Fork American, Cal Salmon, the "Ikes" section of the Klamath, and Burnt Ranch Gorge (more on that trip next... it needs serious edification).

Anyway....back to the race: We entered two raft teams. One was comprised of the "old" guides and the second raft was made up of "noobies" (they are all under 30 years old). The old guys dominated all other commerical raft teams and came in behind two "competitive" teams that dedicate themselves to racing. (Note from W.E.T.; the pro teams came with pro racing gear and are sponsored... W.E.T. crew on the other hand, rolled out with pure commercial rafting gear.)

Team W.E.T. River Trips remains dedicated to simply running rivers for fun, for work, for you and just because...


Sollie, Jason, Andrew, Harpo, and Justin (ok he's under 30) showed the pups (Maggie, Wolf, Dax, Country Mike ...he's over 30, Ninja Shanahan) the "way." If you shut your eyes and listen... you can probably still hear the echo of Andrew's boasts and the re-telling of the glory, the thrill, the strategy, the effort, and the pleasure of kickin' down some smack to the rest of the whitewater rafting companies.

Sollie flew to Singapore the next day and was still sore three days later as he searched the city for jaywalkers in hopes of seeing a "caning" or two. Advil did the trick for the rest of the crew.

MOD MUSIC for RAFTING PARTY

Events, parties and everything California, the sun is shining here! Our rafting trips are going full bore now with daily trips available from now until the end of September. Group rafting trips are being organized everywhere, and they are coming to go rafting with W.E.T. River Trips. Woot people for bachelor/bachelorette parties, birthdays, anniversaries, reunions... you name it. Cap that party or event with a whitewater rafting trip with us... make it truely memorable.

Our young blogging staff sent up this cool list of places on the net to check out bands, music, up-coming shows around Northern California. Organize your group, load up on music, come check out the shows and head up to the river. California love... it's our lifestye.

Yet another amazing Sacramento House Show the other night featuring a very special guest percussionist hailing from Pennsylvania. Taysuya Nakatani was creating some of the most amazing sounds I have ever heard. All by himself, he creates music with a drum kit that you could carry in a large backpack aside from the 3' gong.

The nights other performances included Kevin Corcoran who is also a solo improv drummer worth checking out. Kevin and Chad Stockdale have a seven-inch that they recorded together on clear yellow vinyl that is definitely worth the loot. And my buddies from Hexlove winding up the night with an amazing loop pedal, keys and drums... fun fun. It was a good night... woot!

I went to an amazing party the other night at the Horse Cow Gallery to check out my girlfriend in a fashion show featuring local designer Amy Hemmens among others. There was also live music from Night Nurse, the beautifully noisy brainchild of Sacramento's own Hailey Chase featuring one of my favorite Sacramento saxaphone dogs Chad Stockdale.


Now, everybody must get blown away by Animal Collective's newest release, the Water Curses EP which is being released by Domino Records on vinyl and cd.

If you are living near Sacramento, you should also be very excited about all the awesome shows coming up in the next couple of months. We are soooo lucky that bands such as Mutators, Shearing Pinx, Modern Creatures, Mae Shi, Pre, Uneasy, and Magick Daggers are going to be passing through our city.

Also be expecting a new EP from Prints out soon... I think it's going to have a DFA remix on it.

MORE MUSIC RESOURCES FOR RAFTING TRIPS:

white rainbow

http://www.myspace.com/whiterainbowwhiterainbow

yume bitsu

http://www.myspace.com/goldenvessyl

dirty projectors

http://www.myspace.com/dirtyprojectors

aids wolf

http://www.myspace.com/aidswolf

XBXRX

http://www.myspace.com/xbxrx

yacht

http://www.myspace.com/yacht

lucky dragons

http://www.myspace.com/luckydragons

night wounds

http://www.myspace.com/nightwounds

twin crystals

http://www.myspace.com/twincrystals

shearing pinx

http://www.myspace.com/shearingpinx

mutators

http://myspace.com/mutators

modern creatures

http://myspace.com/moderncreatures

Oh yeh, WhiteLite, our fav music blogger has a cool announcement: Mutators and Modern Creatures are playing with WhiteLite's band at Funcastle on the May 4th! Congrats, dude... I'll be there.

NORTHFORK is a Go! Go! Go!

The North Fork American has arrived for the Spring of 2008... with W.E.T. River Trips on the first commercial rafting trip of the year on a beautiful 75 degree day without another boat in sight. Our clients and guides had the entire river to themselves! The North Fork American season should be solid until mid to late May (weather willing!).

Heffe, Wolf, Justin, Dax, Greg, and Bird also took a day off to drop in on North Fork American Giant's Gap (the non-commercial Class 5 section above the Chamberlain Falls run). After a night of camping near Baxter, the crew took the 1,500 ft. descent in to the canyon on the single-track foot path while they carried the raft and kayaks on their shoulders. The day was perfect and all came back safe and a little sore. They could have done a North Fork run to cap the day; but, they were just too tired....Wah! Wah! F'n Wah!

We hit the North Fork again today for even a better flow and more big fun! Our clients and guides exited the river with big smiles and bigger stories a bout Chamberlain Falls, Staircase, Bogus Falls and everything in between and beyond.

Those Golden Poppies were blazing up the hillsides in bright orange and the Redbud has made an appearance while marking the canyon with patches of magenta while surrounded by at-least four shades of green and the blue-green clarity of the North Fork's water....except those blasts of foaming whitewater!

The North Fork of the American is a Class 4+ jewel that only appears for a short time each year with rafting flows. This year promises to be one of the most predictable and reliable flows that we have ever seen. Heffe, Justin, Wolf, Greg D., Chris Z., Andrew, Maggie, Country Mike, Saul, Booty, Dax, and Mack are ready!

Big Poppa Post from the North Fork American take-out via wireless aircard! Woot!
Thank you Ryan for the video... ps welcome back from Brasil!

North Fork American : Poppies, Daffodils and Lupin

Today was sunny and 75 degrees and so was yesterday. 

Easter is coming in two weeks and my daffodils are in mid-bloom cycle. Yes, I plant daffodils... lot's of them. Is that a problem? Ok, then... 

Some bloom in early February and the latest bloom thoughout March. So... yea... I plant daffodils. I don't plant anything 

else. Why? Bulbs, like daffodils are low-maintenance. They transform a bleak winter garden and they come back year after year. I don't have time during the late spring and summer to fiddle with freakin' pansies (of all iterations). 

I also like daffodils because they are a vivid reminder that the River season is ON! There are other reminders in the surrounding flora as well: Western Redbud (in full magenta bloom), Flowering Dogwood, emerging

California Golden Poppies, and purple Lupin. 

California in the Spring is unbelievably beautiful and a unique contrast to the awesome golden hills of Summer. 

While rafting down the North Fork American in late March and throughout April, even the most jaded river guide and client is blown away when they look beyond the river. Look to the sides of the canyon (look upstream on river left just above Staircase) and you'll see an intense blanket of neon orange from a huge tightly packed field of Poppies.  Along the trails and roads on the ride out on the 

Upper Clementine or the Ponderosa take-out road, check out the intense purple Lupin that stand 3 feet high. 

Just take a look while you're ripping through the Class 5, Class 4 and Class 3 rapids on the South Fork American, Middle Fork American, North Fork American and California Salmon. In the words of PBS's Huell Howzer....It's Amazing! (He says: UH-MAY-ZING!

One last cool thing about Daffodils....you have to "Dead-Head" them by rigorously ripping off the stalks of each fading bloom... (Sorry Wolf...the Greatful Dead is still still banned from all W.E.T. River Trip vehicles as well as the Warehouse while I'm in da House!)

Posted by Big Poppa:: gee whiz... no Dead at the warehouse or shuttle vehicles??? Our friend Jackie will be disappointed, dude! Maybe we can sneak it onto the company iPods... hehehe...