With the Japanese house mostly complete, I found myself looking for a way to celebrate the festive season. My focus seized upon perhaps the most inappropriate of targets for those looking to actually enjoys the holidays, the winter steelhead. To this date I’d caught precisely one steelhead in three years of trying, my season being a...
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First Time on the Farmlands, and the Tragic Stumbles of Michele
Thursday morning I started calling around looking for a mid-week adventure, which basically means going anywhere anyone else with a pulse is paddling that day.Michele “Come run the Farmlands!”Me “Are you sure I’m not gonna die.”Michele “Nah, you got it.”Me “Ok.” Waiting at the Flying J gas station I came across this hilarious bit of...
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November Rafting on the Illinois River: The Complete Guide to Freezing Your Nuts Off
Mid-rapid on a quick paddle down the Hood last week, Alan turns to me and asks if I’d ever run the Illinois? I said I hadn’t and he asked if I wanted to join a raft trip next weekend. I thought to myself, ‘hmm, that sounds kinda cold’, and out loud I said, “Sure,...
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South Fork Wilson River Exploratory: “The Prison Camp Run”
A huge rainstorm followed by a bright sunny fall day, a blessing by anyone’s standards. I put out a post and called a few friends to try and rally a run on the Devils Lake Fork Wilson or Jordan Creek. Luke called me back and pitched the South Fork Wilson to me. “I don’t...
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Better than Staying Home: Racing in my first Northwest Creeking Competition
5:09 AM, two hours after I finally got to sleep, I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. I roll my tongue to the back of my mouth where half of my tooth is broken off. Reaching across the bed in the dark where there used to be a girl, instead I knock a...
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Farewell September… Cape Falcon Kayak Update, Fall 2011
Like the salmon I’ve pursued this year, I’m beginning to realize that I too am an anadromous creature, whether it’s building sea kayaks or using them, all spring and summer my focus is on the ocean, on food, and generally growing fatter for the coming winter. The salmon are eating, my business produces cash, the farm...
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I swear I’ll get to it tomorrow….. A Cape Falcon Kayak Summer Photo Update and General Purpose Apology
Even beginning to complain about the hardships of being a successful kayak builder on the Oregon coast, (much less a successful boat builder of any sort anywhere) is certain to earn me a tide wrathful emails from people trapped behind desks across America. So I ask your forgiveness while I bemoan my station: hoo...
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A Tunnel of Green: A Scrapy Summer Run on the Devils Lake Fork of the Wilson River
It’s been a rainy spring. The skies delivered a biblical deluge the night of June 1st, and the next morning every coastal river was bankful and brown. I put out the call promising ‘plenty of push and unrivaled verdant scenery’ and by Friday morning we had a few takers for a run down the Devils Lake...
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The New L.P.B.: Now Even Pointier!
As is evident in my original text, below, I was trepiditious at first about releasing the LPB. My fear was that everyone would want one, when in fact most people would be much happier with an F1. 90% of paddlers travel at less than 4.5 mph most of the time, for these people the...
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Go with the Flow: The Sandy Gorge at 2300 cfs on the Marmot Gauge
Last Thursday I tried to put together a Breitenbush trip with no takers, as a consolation prize I decided to throw on the Sandy Gorge at a pretty healthy flow. With the Marmot gauge at 2300, and the gauge below Bull Run reading 3700, this was about twice the flow I’d run it at before. The following is...
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Spring 2011. I climbed off an airplane at 6am and in a fit of sleep deprived bad judgement I surfed over to PDX kayaker to see if anyone was running anything. Pete was headed down Opal Creek, so I tagged along and a few hours later I was humping my boat down the trail to...
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Adventures in Neuroplasticity: The Cape Falcon Kayak update, Spring 2011
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Many years ago I stumbled on this quote by the tragically wheezy 19th century french author Marcel Proust. I can’t tell you what else Proust wrote because I haven’t read a speck of it, but this singular sentence,...
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Opal Creek: Just Add Water
Mid-week trips can be really tough to get going. Generally speaking, a large percentage of the available boating population chooses to waste their weekdays at a ‘job’, meanwhile neglecting their responsibilities to the rest of us, their boating brethren. Wednesday night, with Opal Creek running at 1500 cfs, I put out the call and as usual...
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Winter 2011: Teaching Kayak Building on Orcas Island
During the dark months of each year I need to secure employment to get me through the lean times between December and April. With my unheatable shop hovering at an energy sapping 30 degrees, this usually means travel. This winter I landed a gig building with some friends up on Orcas Island. Here’s a...
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12 Hours in a Drysuit: Just Another Day in Paradise
Three days ago something unusual happened on the Oregon Coast, it snowed, and then the temperature dropped to twenty degrees. The skies cleared and I knew that with the sun so low in the sky, every moment of this day was going to be beautiful. I didn’t want to miss any of it so...
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