The Pan American Championships are being held in Foz do Aguassu, Brazil August 20 – 23, 2010! Check out the event website here. The race is on the Itaipu Canal, an awesome WW park. If your organization/team is interested in representing the USRA and USA in these games, please contact the USRA here or the Pan American Championship event organizers.

To learn from

The pure voice of an

Ever-flowing mountain stream

Splashing over the rocks.        - Ueshiba

Our day on the Little North Santiam at 1050 cfs began with the short hike in. A van with racks was unable to provide assistance for “liability reasons” and it would “detract from the wilderness experience”…:)

Dude I think there's a VAN behind us.

She waved and encouraged us to have a nice day. We did. Thanks van lady.

Big Ugly

A Big Ugly raft run down Big Ugly

I would be so much more comfortable in a raft.

The entrance into Big Fluffy

Sikbird and Timber went down that?

Terrifyingly beautiful

Dr. Frankenstein backs into the lab.

Peace

Drops of water fall from the sky as if to acknowledge all that is good.

A spiritual moment

Mike, Dr F, Dustin, and G1 gettin some at Thor's Playroom.

Self contained conveyance.

Rivers allow us to escape from certain realities while enabling the replenishment of goodness within. This became most evident at the Taco Bell in Woodburn when we walked into an episode of COPS. Just 30 feet from our rig, 7 law enforcement vehicles had clustered upon a vehicle with their guns drawn and laser sights honed in. No pictures of this episode. We only wished to keep evidence of positive things on this day. Of course a debriefing was held-

I had always wanted to drop in to this place:) Timbaritas were on special!

This boat seems small...

Ox and Timber enjoying the Bruno Mountain run of the North Santiam.

Big boat. Aire D Series.

Portage #1 on the Bush, just below the Slot.

Portage #2. Holdin onto the paddles this time!

Portage #3. Long rapid, not much for eddies on the approach.

The crew after an awesome day!

Boaters must have interesting weather discussions at work.  While others are complaining about the rain, we simply smile and sneak back into the office to check flows.  Personally I have quit trying to explain the benefits of rain to those who have chosen to reside in a traditionally wet climate. Take your glass that is half full and watch golf on TV in your shelter, were goin boatin!

The Bruno Mountain run of the North Santiam was free of wood and full of big surf.  After completing this jolly session of splashing around, the take-out conversation turned to a nearby run of a treacherous nature. No one had been down the notorious for wood Breitenbush River since this last, or, current high water event much less a solo raft…

It was about 5:30pm when we put in at Cleator Bend with the level at about 1800cfs.  The flows were on the way down as evidenced by the water turning back to blue and no longer being brown as it was when we passed earlier in the day.  I was the only paddler in our R5 who had ever seen this run and that was 4 years ago in a kayak at 300cfs.  One of the benefits of training racing teams is that when you try something like this everyone is strong, dialed in, and will not hesitate when given commands.

Minus the 3 mandatory portages and 2 tight moves to miss wood, the run was Class IV.  However, throw in the unknown status of a twisty, narrow, woody river in addition to the 2 must make small portage eddies and it was game on!  We obviously made it with the only incidents being losing a paddle during the 1st portage (we should have known better!) and me getting blasted out of the boat by what had to be a hole as I’m fairly certain there were no linebackers in the river.  My paddle even stayed in the boat, ever seen those macabre pictures of someone that got hit by a train and their shoes are still on the ground where they were standing?

At any rate, all the major drops were clean “at this time”.  The wood was at the bottom of (3) Class III drops and appeared as though when the level does drop a kayak can likely limbo underneath of them. We don’t care if it is June, rain=water=life.