Swimming Sledgehammer

So the other day after work we decided to hit a Gorge run in the kayaks. Aaron and I loaded up our stuff and joined three rafts doing a booze cruise and four other kayaks for the run. We'd been talking about getting into the Gorge and I was quite happy running the Bighorn section of river so it was time to step it up. We put in and floated down to the Gorge. I was feeling ok and then took a combat roll in El Segundo, basically a little class 3 rapid, if that. It wasn't the confidence booster I needed. The roll was good but I wasn't happy going over that easily. It was just a section of boily water that caught me out. Anyway, I carried on and was doing better. One of the big rapids is called Sunshine and I'd managed to scout it before when I was watching the raft race so I was happy with that. There is a nice easy sneak line that I took on river right which made things pretty mellow. So far so good. Next up in the river was a class 3 section called Grateful Dead which went by well, just nice easy read and run. Then we came on Sledgehammer. I'd run the Gorge in a raft twice and knew that Sledgehammer was big. It was probably the place where I wanted to scout the line and check out where all the big holes were. But these guys were trucking on and so we didn't have time to stop and check it out. They said just stay left, left, left. That was the easy line. Okay, thats fine. Then they all droped right of a big domer. I was pretty sure I should go left at this point but I didn't want to be the only one to go that way and get screwed so I followed them right. I got round the domer and all the current bounced off a wall on river right. I certainly didn't want to hit the wall so I paddled away from it. As I turned my head to see where I was going all I saw was a massive hole right in front of me, sledgehammer hole. It's pretty much one of a couple of holes that you really don't want to go into and I was headed straight for it. There wasn't much I could do so I just pointed the boat straight at it and started paddling with the idea of trying to punch it and paddle through it. It almost worked. I hit the hole and just as I was climbing out of it I got spun sideways and flipped. So there I was, upsidedown in sledge hole. It surfed me for a few seconds and then I managed to reach down to the fast current and get flushed. I set up my roll and gave it a try. It was a half roll, I just rushed it a little bit and didn't quite reach all the way to teh surface with my paddle. So I got my head out and got some air, then I was back over, upsidedown. I was setting up my second roll when I went over bird drop and into bird hole. Tom who was kayaking next to me said he saw my head hit bird rock, I didn't feel it but its very possible. At this point my setup for the second roll was ruined as I was surfing Bird drop hole upsidedown. Again I managed to get flushed. Right about this time the paddle got wrenched out of my hand and I decided to pull to deck and swim. I got out of the boat and saw Aaron right next to me. The only thing he had told me was don't let go of the paddle, it was his brothers and I was borrowing it. The first thign I said as he paddled by was "I dropped the paddle" I don't think he was very impressed. Anyway, he paddled into an eddy on river left and I followed, but not before going through another hole, Envelope. So I made it to the eddy. It turned out that Ben managed to chase my boat down and get it into an eddy but the paddle was nowhere to be seen. Aaron and Willie both saw the paddle as they were chasing my carnage but it vanished before they could grab it. It turns out Tom managed to grab it, or more precisely, part of it. When it got wrenched out of my hand what happened was that the paddle snapped. So I didn't feel so bad about letting go after all.

So there I was with boat and half a paddle, not the best position to be in with a bunch more class 4 rapids coming up. The two rafts from Echo where ahead of us and had no idea what happened but the other raft was still around so that was my ticket home. We got them to eddy out and I strapped my kayak to the back of teh raft and continued on down the river. We caught up with the rest of the crew at corner pocket where they were all eddied out having a few beers and a safety meeting. We chilled out there for a while before continuing down the river. The guys I was hitching a ride with were fucked. We were in an oar boat and the guide on the oars has been on the river for years and he was just of his tits. Everyone else was also ruined. They were sitting in the kayak on the back of the boat drinking beer and smoking. It was quite epic. I wasn't drinking because I was running in a kayak for the first time in the Gorge but now that I was in a raft beer sounded really good. The only problem was that they were running out and I was already hitching a ride so I held back and enjoyed watching the show. By the time we were coming through town it was pretty much dark and we had a few thing to contend with that spiced up the ride but we made it safe and sound. We derigged the boat and chilled out until the shuttle came down. Aaron picked me up and we hit Wendys and went over all the war stories. With the other guys.

So the trip was over but I owed Aaron a paddle. It turns out one of the senior guides had found a nice paddle so I saw an opportunity to get a good paddle cheap and pay back Aaron. The price is going to be $100 and a case of beer but I'm going to try and haggle a bit to bring the price down but it could turn into a $100 swim. The final chapter to the story happened last night when I had to shoot the boot. When you swim the penalty is drinking a beer out of your river bootie, all good fun but Aaron did have to remind everyone in the bar, bastard. Oh well. The positive side of the story is that we ran the Bighorn again a few days later and I went striaght into the bottom hole of Kamakazie, which is a pretty good sized hole and quite munchy. It flipped me and held me a bit before I flushed. I hit my roll well so I'm ready again with my confidence back. I'll have to get back in the Gorge soon and get redemption, too bad the water is dropping now so it won't be the same but I still have to get myself through there in good style and fine form.

Official certified guide

So I got my check out run this morning. I screwed up a couple of things but generally had a good run and passed. I'm now ready and certified to run trips. It only took a couple of hours for my first trip. I got an afternoon trip after helping out setup and serve the lunch. So two trips, the second one a paid trip and how much in tips? Nothing. I wasn't too hopeful for tips from the morning run but I was looking for something from the afternoon trip, but no. Oh well. I gave them a good trip but I suppose I need to work on talking BS to them and keeping them entertained, that should give me a bit better chance of making some money. Anyway, the real deal with this is that I can now take people down on private trips. Fun runs and booze cruises in the evening. So if anyone wants to come rafting I can hook it up nicely now. Just come on by. So hopefully I see some people come on out and if you can just get here everything apart from beer and food will be pretty much free.

The cactus saga continues

So I thought I was getting over the whole infected foot, cactus incident but no. A couple of days ago the ball of my foot started getting tender again after doing a bunch of swift water crossing training. That evening I saw that there was another puss pocket under the ball of my foot. So yesterday I took the morning off and went after it. I could just see the end of the cactus spine so I started picking at it a bit. This combined with some hot water epsom salt baths softened my foot up enough to the point where I could just squeeze it out like a zit. I also got another spine out of my big toe so double bonus. I also went after a few other little spines. I was pretty happy about this because initially I wasn't sure how easy it would be to dig the spines out and I didn't want to get another doctor bill for a couple hundred dollars. So yesterday I went out and recreated some pictures of where I found my flip flop and took a few more showing the types of cacti I was walking through and their density. So check out the gallery.

Anyway, the foot is feeling better again and hopefully this is the last time I have to deal with it. People are checking out and I certainly don't want to hang around waiting any more than I have to. People are starting to get paid and if you haven't checked out yet its a big waiting game screwing around picking up random training trips. They also expect you to help out and work even though you're not on the pay roll or even promised a job. So it kinda sucks for now but hopefully I'll be checked out in the next few days and then I won't have to worry about it any more.

Echo Chillin

End of training

So we had the last day of training today. But a bunch has happened since my last post. We went up to the Four Corners office in Buena Vista for a week of training on the upper sections of the Arkansas river. The volume is quite a bit lower and the lines are a lot more technical. More rock dodging and paddle comands to get round them. The river was fun up there and much better for kayaking and they have a really nice campsite by the river in a grove of cottonwood trees. Its got a much smaller atmosphere and a bit more hippie, outdoorsy compared to the more frat like Echo Canyon office. I decided to stay down at the Echo office. Mainly because the majority of our training class will be own here, we get more trips (and therefore more money) and if I do want to head up to Four Corners I can always do a quick switch for a few days to get up there. I do feel a bit quilty about not being up there though because there are some really good people up there and they do have a more outdoorsy mindset, but its also a bit too hippie for my liking. Anyway, I'll be downstream at the Echo Office, if they hire me which they should do but they haven't made any promises until we check out.

While we were up at Four Corners there was the FIBArk festival which is a big boating festival with all the kayak and raft events and music at night. I made it down for a couple of nights which was really cool. I saw some good bands and checked out a few of the contests. However, I did miss the hooligan race. Basically, people build their own rafts out of anything and just run the play section of river through town trying to get maximum carnage. Arthur got some video and pictures so I'll have to get them off him and post them for you. It looked pretty cool. But I missed it and the reason was my foot. It hadn't been getting any better and was starting to get pretty badly infected so I decided to go to the hospital. Since it was the weekend I had to go to the ER and it took for ever. I waited around 3 hours to get maybe 10-15 minutes of care which constituted of the doctor looking at it and giving me antibiotics. I had to return the next day and got maybe 20-30 minutes fo care as the doctor pulled out a few cactus spines from the tender areas of my foot. Can you guess the cost of this? $865. Thats right. A big antibiotic shot, a prescription, a few local anesthetic shots and some spine pulling with a total of 30-40 minutes of care cost $865. Its rediculous. I have travel insurance but I have to pay the costs up front then get reimbursed. So I'll be out of a lot of money for a while. Thats the lsat time I go hiking around in some cactus bushes.

Anyway, the foot is getting better now and training is over so hopefully I'll start to make some money soon. Oh, ifg anyone wants to come out here and get some rafting in come on by and we'll hook you up. We can get you down the river pretty much for free if we set it up right.

Injuries and illness

Well while I've been screwing around having a great old time running through cactus bushes like an idiot more serious aliments have struck at a couple of my good friends in the last week which have put everything in a bit of perspective. A good friend back in California has been diagnosed with luekemia while another good friend back in England has broken her back. I don't know all the specific details in either case but I'm staying as positive as possible and dreaming of the best possible recovery for both. It's made me think a little of the stupid things I've put myself through, my cactus hiking story most recently. There really is no reason to put myself in a situation where I'm needlessly and recklessly injuring myself. I'm hobbling around for a bit now and why? Because I got drunk and was stupid. I'd like to think it won't happen again but I'm sure it will, and that just makes me feel stupid. On the other hand its also made me realise that having this year off and doing the ski season and raft season is one of the best things I could ever do. Taking advantage of the time I do have and doing the most with it while I can because you never know how long you'll be able to exploit these opportunities. I suppose one could argue that snowboarding and rafting are dangerous and maybe I'm increasing the risk of injury but I like to think that I try and minimise those risks through proper training and experience and being fully informed of the situations I get involved in. In any case I could never live in a bubble, I have to go out and enjoy life and I hope that everyone else does the same and enjoys their lives to the fullest and grows old happy with all they have done and experiened. I guess times like these make you think and reflect about your own life and your friends. In any case my thoughts are with both of you Kirsty and Marco. I hope the next time I see each of you, you are both happy and healthy.

hands and feet

Well I've been training out here for almost 3 weeks now. We've had a day or so off the whole time and my body is getting ruined. My hands and feet are just getting chewed up. To add to this I destroyed my feet even more the other night. So they had the down river raft race through the Gorge and there was a good night to be had at the bar afterwards. Well first off we went to see the race. The trouble is that its through a gorge, which is difficult to access. However, there is a railroad that goes up the side of the river the whole way and at one point you can hike down to it. Unfortunately, its all private property and they don't like people trespassing. Before the race we were warned that the park rangers would be going down and giving out tickets but they threaten that every year so we figured we'd be ok. Not the case. As the boaters came through we got word that the rangers were on their way so it was a quick escape up some rugged scree hills filled with cacti, in flip flops. Not too big of a deal. I'd had a few beers but managed to avoid all the bad stuff and escaped with only a few cuts and avoided the rangers. But thats not the worst of it. After spending quite some time in the bar I decided to wander around out behind the bat and our camp. I got a bit lost and then it happened. I lost a flip flop, my left one. I could see it so I got down on my knees to try and feel for it. All I could feel was cactus spines, all around me and big ones at that. After 5 minutes of searching I gave up and decided to walk back without my left flip flop. This was about the worst decision I have made in a long time. It was about 200 yards back to camp and I didn't go on a staright line. I was stepping on every cactus in the whole area. When I returned the next day to find my flip flop it was daylight and I was wearing shoes and I still could prevent myslef from walking on cacti. I'm surprised I even have a foot left. I was wandering around for quite a while. It got so bad that I'd put my foot down, step on something and just fall over it hurt so much. It was about this point that I decided to sack up and just make it home. I started walking and didn't stop till I got home. I crawled into my sleeping bag and went to sleep and waited for the morning. When I woke up I had a look at my feet. There were still inch long cactus spines stickiing out of my feet. I pulled out all the ones I could see and get to and then had to go rafting. Two trips down the river for training went ok because you don't put much pressure on your feet but I still wasn't feeling too good. I went out and found my lost flip flop at lunch. It was in the middle of three big prickly pear cacti with massive spines. Then it was time for surgery. Jeff got out his first aid kit and went to own on my feet with a scaple and tweezers pulling out all the cactus spines. It was not fun. Anyway, with the spines out of my feet today went a lot better. They are still very tender and feel bruised but much better. I took a few pictures of my hands and feet so check them out. The pictures don't really do them justice but you might get an idea of what abuse I've put myself through.

Echo Chillin

Beer:30

Okay so this is a completely pointless post apart from the fact that I found some super cheap beer called Beer:30. Its awesome check it out.

Echo Chillin

still training

So I'm still training at Echo and will be for a while. We're in oar boats just sessioning the same section of river over and over so I'm getting to know it pretty well. We did take a side trip at the start of the week. We went on a 3 day overnighter trip on the upper colorado. The water was pretty flat and there were only a couple of rapids but it was an awesome trip. We had six boats including three 16ft gear boats loaded up. Paddling a gear boat through rapids and catching eddies with something that big and heavy is pretty challenging and you certainly have to be on top of your game. But having those big gear boats meant that we weere cruising in style. We had about 28 people so when we hit the beach we got some massive tarps up and cooked some gourmet meals. Much better than the minimalist camping I'm used to, but a bit more work. So that was amazing but I didn't bring along my camera so unfortunately I don't have any pictures but I'll try and get some from the people who did bring a camera. We also get a chance to go upstream and train at our four corners office up in Buena Vista. So that will be good for a change of scenery. I think that will be next week some time for a week or so. Then its back down here to finish the training, get checked out and start getting paid, which I really need. I'll try and get better at taking more pictures to make this a bit less dry and more interesting. Well I think its beer:30 again so I'll check in again in a few.