Pink and Things

Kernville... lets see... life continues in kernville. i continue.. i continue to work. i continue to kayak. i too continue to think... i'm moving into the joneses home on tuesday! my own place! wow! so stoked. it is at the top of a very long steep hill and as of now i plan to ride my bike to and from work... i'm almost as concerned about the ride down the hill as the ride up.

I created a new profile page on my website, and this is the new profile picture i created to go along with it... 

i found a HOT PINK Liquid Logic Stomper 80 in the demo boat barn ... so i went stomping. This boat is a perfect blend between the Liquid Logic Jefe and the Remix. Creeker // River Runner. It totally rules. However.. 80 and 90 are the only sizes, what the, where is the 70? The 80 felt a bit big, but the ride was pretty sweet.

I call this the BLUE ANGEL shot...

Droppin...

Pink Stompin //

and... a BROWN CLAW for Fatty. 

I do like kayaking. I have figured that out. and I like kernville. This third year has been pretty great so far. I really am happy here. my boss has given me full reigns of the kayak program once more, and with that has come more responsibility than ever. Two days ago started the beginning of a 31 day straight work load! Well.. I do have next Tuesday off as of now :) But I'm incredibly busy. With large school groups coming, big memorial day weekend trips, safety boating for a National Geographic production, teaching, working a four day open canoe trip down the Black Canyon section of the Colorado and always free boating in pink stompers when I'm free from the clock! 

Just an update on how the rest of my summer is going to go: It's a low water year, relatively speaking... and the kern will run out of water and work before september. I've been on the search for more work. I've been making phone calls, filling out applications, sending resumes, hoping always with crossed fingers for something to work out. and it all came together last week. 

I will depart from kernville on the 15th of July... ish. I am to launch on a multi-day instructional trip with Sundance Kayak School on the Rogue river in Oregon. This is an 8 day course that spends two days on the recreation section of the Rogue and six days on the Wilderness Section, all supporting by raft, smiles and high fives. I am SO excited to have been given this opportunity! 

From there I will pick my Mom up at the airport in Medford Oregon, we will road trip down through Northern California to Sacramento, where we will visit her sister and their family for a few days... then I take off in my Element and little trailer in tow to Lotus California, where I report for duty. I will be working as a kayak instructor for Current Adventures on the South Fork of the American for the whole month of August! 

Then if all goes well I will have one more trip on the Rogue with Sundance the beginning of September. 

Whoa... Good times ahead! 

Even with all these exciting times ahead.. I do miss certain aspects about home ...Love //

back to kernville

my third year working for sierra south. i'm back. i can't help but think at times about the journey i've taken to get here... not just here, now, but here in general. i learned to kayak as a sophomore at Utah Valley University. I met a man named Alan Peacock in the hallway, and somewhere between here and there, now and then... I became a kayaker and in that time I had my first visit to a place called Kernville to play on a thing called Brush Creek.

Moving here two summers ago was a leap into the darkness. I was blinded by the allure of the adventure, the mystic nature of creating a home by restoring an old travel trailer. I never really thought about what life would be like living in a tiny town, knowing nobody, virtually alone with my 10ft trailer, my guitar and a little green kayak. I arrived. I introduced myself to those around me, and i was.

it was terrifying really... it seemed to hit pretty hard all at once one hot afternoon that first summer. I wrote something in my journal that makes me laugh every time i reflect on it: "It's hot here, I don't know anyone, I have allergies and there are bugs..." This year has been a very different arrival indeed. This is the earliest I've ever come out, I arrived on the 20th of April at about 10:30 PM. I will be staying at Wendy and Johnnies home for the first couple weeks and then will be moving to the Joneses home up on the hill. Tonight I am having dinner with them and will learn about my new living arrangements.

I fell asleep quite quickly the night of the 20th. I woke up at 0630 AM and got ready for the Brush Creek Race! I had never competed in this race before and was quite excited. So Johnny and I rallied up to the put in and got a lap in before the race started. It all seemed quite surreal to me, I remember looking down at my watch at 0803 AM as I slid into the waters of Brush Creek, the original thing that brought me here in the first place... years ago.





the start gate

  

There were two events on Brush Creek. The Down River Race and the Slalom. The Downriver race started at the top of the "Big Drop" You can see the boats starting to stack up. The granite bowl there filled with competitors cheering other racers on and anxiously awaiting their turn... It was an awesome venue. I was all smiles during my race, my arms got pumped quicker than I would have imagined between strokes, boofs and attempting to pick the fastest lines it was hard to remember to breath at times. 




all smiles

 

The Slalom was my favorite event, minus the hiking your boat back up to the top of the Triple Drop... but they had a zip line set up so you only had to carry your boat a short way really... still it was exhausting. I was out of breath before I even started. 



Thumbs up // Slalom course in the Background



So it was quite simple really... go right around RED gates, go left around WHITE gates, do a full circle around YELLOW gates, roll under HORIZONTAL gates and throw your paddle through HOOPS (optional bonus) the gates were positioned in areas where one generally wouldn't want to be, the up and around gate for example was in a pothole, forcing racers in! I would descirbe this event like, Nintendo meets kayaking. It was awesome! Corey Volt was announcing, music was blasting, people were watching, clapping and hoping for carnage, the sun was shining, and i was smiling. I was super stoked on my Slalom run, I had really good lines and didn't get caught up in any holes or eddies, I had a perfect throw through the hoop at the finish and found myself laughing when it was all said and done.

Here i am at moving to the second gate of the Slalom race, the first of the yellow, up and around gates...

Here i am pictured going under the roll gate.

Here I am at the finish line of the slalom, Paddle throw!! Bonus Points!

A perfect blue bird day for hanging out and watching some kayaking! i had a blast!

At the end of the day i often find myself in a place all too familiar... a good place to be.

love//

March and Stuff

Well... we're here, another season passed, another phase gone, moving forward. I had some seriously good times at Sundance this season, it really was a season of growth, we didn't have much snow but we did have some good times. The mountain closes tomorrow. My final day of work is Tuesday, then I'll turn in my uniform, take the batteries out of my beacon, hang up the skis and call it a year. 

The snowpack this season was sketchy to say the least, this is the result of a slide that ripped all the way to the ground one morning following a 4 ft storm cycle and a 10 lb air blast. The most impressive result to avalanche control that I have seen. 

Here we are one morning, gearing up to hike.

I did free ski a bit too, here I am with two of the cooler sundance girls I know, J-Net and Bronwen. 

Wiley and I patrolling 

I spent one day shadowing the ski patrol at Snowbasin which turned out to be a pretty awesome experience. 

I took a couple days off in the last couple weeks and made my way up to the Murtaugh with Fat Newty and the brown-claw. Which totally ruled. 

I finished up the rest of the ski resorts with this photo/video gig that I had traveling to each of the Utah resorts throughout the season. It was exhausting but I totally enjoyed it.

I totally just scored this SWEET trailer, I traded a travel bike box for it -- straight up -- this will be the new adventure wagon. Look out! 

Today, I ended up at Sundance for a few hours to wrap up the season with the crew. What a beautiful day to be alive //

I forgot to mention, I got to take a couple family photos for the fat newtys. They rule // 

Also, here is a little video edit of the Grand Canyon that I don't believe I've shared:

february // life

so ... it snowed, a bit, a bit more than january anyway. i never tire of seeing this picture when i look out my bedroom window. 

we did a little bit of control work up at sundance which meant we did a little bit of hiking. a typical control morning begins with a phone call at 4:15 am. i punch in at 5:00 am and assembly about 30 rounds of 2 lb explosives. then we boot up, discuss the game plan, hit the mountain and hike up to our first control routes. control work on a typical morning is complete between 8:30 and 9:00 am. just in time for the powder hounds to be released to the mountain! 

my hair and ski bum lifestyle are beginning to catch up with me. 

on a day off last week from ski patrol i was invited by parks sports to participate in some ski testing at snow basin, testing next years line up of ski board dealios. which was an exhaustingly fun day.

here i am with a couple of the boys i get to work with on a daily basis, trevor pictured far left started with me and it's his last day tomorrow... i am really going to miss working with him, he truly is an exceptional person. 

i found some new friends! you'll recognize tiffy newton on the far right, she has invited me to join in her yoga practice. which is something that i have greatly missed in my life as of late, i now go twice a week to "hot yoga" i sweat my guts out, i laugh, i meditate, i shavasana, i Ananda Balasana, i uda banda, and i love it. it's really what gets me through each day, knowing that i will find myself challenged, and at peace with everything. i'm very grateful for tiff. 

oh and then i ski again. here i am with my mom and her best friend.

been designing again, i call this one: finchie // gnarmy collaboration.

here is the latest run of gnarmy gnation stickers, baller!

last but not least, i'm considering getting a dog. an english shepherd dog. this is western red, he is a beautiful smart shepherd from indiana, i'm very much considering getting one of his puppies next fall. 

love//