Tuesday, August 16, 2005

in the big "D"

Just recently we took a quick jaunt to Dallas to hang out with the fam.

photo by Mefford Williams
That of course was not the fam.

We cruised around with family:

photo by Mefford Williams


photo by Mefford Williams

We also had a nice visit at my mom's new workplace, Scottish Rite Hospital:

photo by Mefford Williams

Quite a special hospital for children, mom gave us the full tour:

photo by Mefford Williams

She also introduced us to her lovely co-workers:

photo by Mefford Williams

Before our lunch with Mom, we saw Dad for a moment on Friday morning. He was moving at characteristic speed and needed a ride as a result of a broken car. Here he is: coffee and briefcase in hand, phone to ear, traveling at lightening speed.

photo by Mefford Williams

Back to Mom's we enjoyed lovely dinners outside:

photo by Mefford Williams

And the company of Joe and Ziggy:

photo by Mefford Williams

A trip to Dallas wouldn't be anything without a visit to the farm:

photo by Mefford Williams

where we enjoyed a nice porch lunch with Dad:

photo by Mefford Williams

After lunch, I couldn't help but challenging myself to jumping the hay bales which lined the length of the entrance road.
Philly coming along for the fun:

photo by Shanna Powell

Philly gapping a big one:

photo by Shanna Powell

Mefford, same, only a lesser gap:


photo by Shanna Powell

Later on Philly began to regard our activity with some dismay:

photo by Shanna Powell

Philly, knowing this was a bad idea:

photo by Shanna Powell

Even without the hay bale shinnanigans, we really enjoyed ourselves during our short stay in Dallas and look forward to a more lengthy visit soon. Much love to each and every family member: Mom, Dad, Philly, Steve, and Mari. We hope Maggie will join us next time, too.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

summer's end

My shoes (right) carried me over bishop pass and down the middle kings as their last service in a glorious career spanning east and west coasts with more than 200 river days. Bo's, to the left, are the same model only two weeks old.

photo by Shanna Powell

Over the summer I became even more worn-out than my shoes regarding a couple of things:
1. summer sausage--a nice fat and protein source for the river as the meat doesn't seem to go bad over multiple days of in-kayak storage. I am over "meat stick" as we called it, especially after eating 2 lbs in 5 days on the middle kings adventure.
2. instant oatmeal packets--strawberries and cream, blueberry, banana, peach, raisin, maple and brown sugar. I wouldn't be disappointed if I never saw let alone ate this breakfast again.
3. tuna--another great source of protein for river trips. I have, however, gone well over my recommended 1 can per week; so my mercury levels need to be allowed to come down by avoiding this fish.
4.cheap bagels--great for making your lunch and breakfast sandwiches. only good in moderation as soon you loathe their characteristic flavorings.

Although I had a lot of exposure to my friends Robin, Amos, and Toby, I am not tired of their company and already miss them. Here's a sentimental tribute:

To Toby, the captain of the "summer of terror with toby":

photo by Mefford Williams

photo by Shanna Powell

To Robin, often the only girl on our missions, never the weakest member:

photo by Mefford Williams

photo by Toby MacDermott

To Amos and his epic struggle, sharing his car with Robin and Toby:

photo by Mefford Williams

To Amos and his majestic, narrow-handed rudder that leads him through all manner of class five burliness:

photo by Shanna Powell

Here's the love to ya'll for a fabulous Sierra season.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

middle kings

The Middle Fork of the Kings River adventure is over, and , the morning after the last day of the trip feels like Christmas, as I sit here writing about our experience. Essentially we batted 1.000 as there were no swims, no pins, and as Shuman put it: "no marginal situations."
Shanna has told the story of the epic two-day hike into Kings Canyon, our 9,000 ft. elevation put-in (our take-out, five days later, 2500 ft.), and needless to say after hiking our 45+ lbs kayaks into the river with 40+ lbs of gear, we each put on the river tired and sore.
One piece of gear that I personally left behind while on the river was my camera; I am just not ready in my head to carry it in-between my legs. Fortunately Toby and Bo brought theirs; so we have some shots to share.
The first day was the lowest volume day on the river, of course, but the rapids we encountered were better than expected.

Some be-bopping on the first day:

photo by Bo Wallace

We also passed through some spectacular mountain meadows, weaving our way through the oxbows staring with our dropped jaws up at the granite domes surrounding us.

photo by Bo Wallace

Each river day we stop for a "California lunch". With the dry air and blasting hot sun of the Sierras, one has the opportunity to completely dry out wet paddling gear while enjoying some food and scenery.

photo by Bo Wallace

The highlight of day one was certainly: the devil's punch-bowl, a big rapid we each enjoyed dropping. As we all got out of our boats at the top to scout, Amos announced the name of the rapid by yelling, "Satan has created this rapid."
Here's Ms. Betz lining up at the top for the big last drop of the rapid:

photo by Bo Wallace

Polk, same:

photo by Bo Wallace

Here's Bo about to land the last drop of the punch bowl:

photo by Toby MacDermott

Amos, same:

photo by Bo Wallace

Day two was a day of gorges. The Pacific Crest/John Muir Trail was still following us along the river right; so we scouted and paddled our way down the river. Peering over the edge of the granite walls into the river, we would scout the rapids from bottom to top memorizing the drops. Once you drop into the top of each section, you were 'in it to win it'.

Here's Polk and Riley, the purple boat duo, winning it:

photo by Toby MacDermott

The author finishing of the same gorge with Fuzzy pealing out in the background:

photo by Toby MacDermott

We utilized the trail not only for scouting but for portaging as well, since some of the gorges asked for more than we were ready to give.
Riley Cathcart enjoying some hiking with his kayak.

photo by Bo Wallace

The best part of our second river day lay within a dark, vertical walled basaltic canyon. As we locked ourselves in, the whole team trapped inside rock and falling water, Bo turned to Amos and was heard saying, "Now we're f---ed."
Climbing around, shouting instructions, pointing, waving, signaling, boofing and plugging we found our way to a large enough out-cropping of broken rocks on river right, that we could get out and scout all at once. Happily greeted by Amos's shouts again, "Last drop, last drop, last drop."

Polk, Mefford, and Robin scouting as Amos gets in to drop the last:

photo by Toby MacDermott

Mefford dropping the last:

photo by Bo Wallace

Robin same:

photo by Bo Wallace

Polk same:

photo by Toby MacDermott

Robin's fist found her face on one of the plugging missions of the last gorge, resulting in this nice shiner:

photo by Bo Wallace

Day three can be described easily as the day of the mad bombing mission. In our boats for nearly the entirety of another eight hour day, we didn't stop for many photos as we ran rapid after steep rapid into another steep rapid.

Toby in the meat:

photo by Bo Wallace

Riley showing his day three smile:

photo by Bo Wallace

The night of the third river day we stayed in quite a beautiful camping spot with Tehipte Dome keeping guard just over our shoulders.

photo by Bo Wallace

Fuzzy, our team Kiwi, found a good fishing hole and brought in four nice sized trout with his hand made pole.

Bo Wallace

The team was also treated to a beautiful rainbow crossing a red, sunset sky between the granite walls.

photo by Toby MacDermott

Day four on the river was a long one, the infamous bottom nine: nine miles of class five + that seems to gone on forever.
Amos wide-eyed in the bottom nine:

photo by Bo Wallace

We were in and out of our boats all day, scouting and bombing:

photo by Bo Wallace

Amos and I in and out again:

photo by Bo Wallace

Polk and Robin portaging:

photo by Toby MacDermott

The coolest portage/sneak of day four, not to say that we didn't run a whole lot of big rapids, was an exit through a sieve at the "cave rapid."

Mefford dropping in to the sieve:

photo by Bo Wallace

Robin same:

photo by Bo Wallace

We camped just below the confluence of the Middle and South Fork on the Kings River proper. Our last day was another bombing mission with double the flow we had on the Middle Kings; so not a lot of pictures for all the rapids we ran on the day.
Here is Toby dropping in to a goodun':

photo by Bo Wallace

All in all the trip was an incredible experience for each of us. Two days of hiking, five river days, and too many rapids to count.

That's the love for now.