Jul 17

Written by: Rob Virostek
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 9:49 AM

Sunday June 24th Tigard, OR
Spent most of today packing and cleaning Dad and I detailed the van and went through all my gear several times. I did a bit of warm up in the pool and got wet long enough to not have withdrawals.

Monday June 25th Tigard, OR
Not much in the way of kayak training today. Sam Drevo came to pick up the van and we went shopping at United Grocers Cash and Carry, Costco and Winco. Then it was off to Sam's house to pack and prepare. About 7 ish we arrived at the White Salmon in Washington and did the Middle White Salmon run. Sam Devon and I did Husom Falls twice. The plan was to learn to wave wheel but it got late, so off to bed we went. We stayed with Mr Nate Herbeck from AT paddles where we could still see the middle White Salmon from the door. We celebrated Sidnee's birthday *****HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL***** with an AWESOME chocolate cake from Cash and Carry. I plan to make Dad get me one when I get home.

Tuesday June 26th Hood River, OR
Got up early to go to the AT paddle factory which is a cool trip. Lots of work goes into these things. We also learned about cracking paddles. There was an interesting test and prep area of the plant we got to take a look at too. http://staging.atpadd.cascadewebdev.com/ When Danielle and Caden got there we headed off for the first day of driving. (By the way, sorry about dropping ya on your head Caden .) We drove for about 6 hours before Devon started feeling pretty bad. We took an early lunch in La Grande where I finally found the missing mustard. Yeah team! Devon felt better and we hit the road till Devon started projectile vomiting at Malad Gorge, ID so we decided... yep a good spot to stop for the night. Danielle gave us a history lesson on the area.

Wednesday June 27th Malad Gorge, ID 
Early, early, like "oh my God o’clock", Devon is finally done throwing up. Poor guy. When we got going, we had a paving lesson. Asphalt lays out at 350 degrees. Why that sticks in my head, I don’t know, but now you know too, and I’ll tell you what the crew working said. It's about 130 degrees standing around that stuff. Makes you feel for those guys you drive by now, huh ? We stopped at Rick Franken's house, a friend of Sam's, more formally know as "Reichter" for the night. Of course we opted to use his backyard trampoline for a campsite which was way cooler than the roadside and got us out in the night air.

Thursday June 28th Durango, CO
First thing in the am, we got up and packed and had some breakfast burritos (yuck zucchini) and chatted with Mr. Franken. Now here is where it got cool... he's part of Bomber Gear. http://www.bombergear.com/ Lots of people think they are gone, but not at all. They are rebuilding and bring some serious gear to the river by 2008. He took us to the warehouse and gave everyone a shorty splash top, rash guard and dry bags. Some of us even got shorts just because he wanted to make sure we had what we needed when we got to the warm waters in Colorado. HUGE THANKS Mr. Franken, that was WAAAAY beyond awesome! The new gear Bomber Gear was awesome, and like Dad says, BOMB PROOF. Devin never took his off and if it can't stand up to that, well... I'm seriously looking forward to the new stuff. Thanks again Rick Franken and Bomber Gear.

We got back on the road, a bit in a hurry now, and drove to the down river race at Clear Creek White Water Park in Golden, CO. We jumped out of the car and literally had to gear up and get in the water. But I guess riding in a car for 3 hours is a good warm up cause I got my first ever, 1st Place in a downriver race which was great way to start our trip. We celebrated our teams 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards by spending the next 6 hours on the hole playing and meeting our homestay family Mike, Gina and Henry Hyde. The Hyde's are a fantastic family that opened their house to us for the entire team for the whole trip. Later, we went to a local spot called Buffalo Rose and had some great tacos, then headed back to the river. I met Anna and Stein from Durango who told me about a Michael Franti and Spearhead concert at Red Rock Amphitheatre which is this huge rock formation carved into a bowl. Very cool...

Friday June 29th Golden, CO
This morning we got into the slalom boat for our first time ever. These are about half the height and thinner than even a play boat. Ouch, poor Sidnee looked like it was hurting but she seemed to enjoy slalom anyway. After a bit of training at the Golden White Water Park, we met and sort of kidnapped Jason Craig from the Jackson team. Then we headed up to Lawson Hole for some serious freestyle practice. Jason quickly showed us why he was the world freestyle champion, so I know what the tricks look like, now I just gotta learn them

 
Saturday June 30th Golden, CO
Got up at the crack of way too early and headed back to the park and entered the slalom race in our creek boats since none of us could get comfortable in the slalom boats. I missed 3 out of 18 gates, so basically I sucked. Slalom might not be my thing quite yet.

We went to the concert about 6:30 and there was lots of partying already in progress. The John Butler Trio rocked and got everyone seriously amped up. The air was very ***fragrant*** and the mood was definitely charged by the time Franti hit the stage. After several hours of really cool music and great people when the concert was over about midnight, we found the van had gotten towed. Not overly cool, but made for a good laugh we did a bunch of laughing tonight. not... sure … why ...

Sunday July 1st Golden, CO
Early to bed late to rise. well, hey, we went to bed late so we slept in. The slalom guys all hate us cause their home stay was a million miles away and they got in way after us and had to get up at like 6 am. At 6 am I was snoring and drooling on my pillow. HA! We watched the end of the races and spent the rest of the day in the hole. I even tried for a loop, that is tried... I think I might have a bit more trying... to do but we had an awesome day anyway.

Monday July 2nd Golden, CO
Today we had some pay back for sleeping in Sunday. We got up and out by 7:30 and we had the Freestyle Clinic with Sam Drevo and Jason Craig. Sam worked with Sidnee and Alex on their flat spin ,and keeping their edges up to keep from being window shaded while Jason taught the advanced group. I met a couple of guys, Jordan Poffenberger and Martin Greenberg who came out from Pennsylvania on the Mach One race team . We worked on roundhouse, cartwheels, Blunts and Jordon worked on the Fonix Monkey. Jason also showed us every move I’ve ever heard of gain, like it was all routine. After the clinic we went to the mountain center and watched review videos. I hadn’t realized how useful video really is for fine tuning a workout. I’m thinking of adding video to the site so I can get some feedback. Hopefully there’s that one person out there that can explain the missing pieces in just the right way so I have that “OH I GET IT” look. After wearing ourselves out for a few hours we went out for Chinese at the New Peach Garden on Washington Street . Good food. Very cool place. We headed home for an early night to get ready for freestyle competition in the morning.

Tuesday July 3rd Golden, CO
Headed out about 8 for the freestyle competition. we got an hour of warm up and watched as Jason Craig scored an amazing 144 points followed by Liam Dunn. I felt plenty pleased with my ranking 5th place after being in the river with these guys. After the competition we met another awesome paddler from the Jackson team Lauren Burress and spent the rest of the day paddling trying to get a few new moves .

Wednesday July 4th Golden, CO
Fourth of July. Paddled with the whole gang of people here for the competition then hung out with the Jackson crew at their massive RV and had a BBQ. What a way to travel. Then after the fireworks, Lauren invited us back to the hotel to watch TV and basically hang out. It was a great day of rest which we all really needed.

Thursday July 5th Golden, CO
Freestyle finals today. Dane Jackson took 1st, Jason Craig 2nd and Liam Dunn took 3rd. I took 6th, which with these guys on the water is great. I did better than last week and I plan on just moving up and getting better. I've got lots of catching up to do. As with every other day we hit the river and trained till the evening and headed home .

Friday July 6th Golden, CO
Got out to the park early and paddled till about 2. Then everyone sort of decided together that it was time to relax and just do a run no big training agenda, just a float with the group so we packed up and went to Lower Clear Creek www.eddyflower.com/RunDetail.aspx . We put in just below Rigor Mortis and went all the way down to the park. I think Sam was a bit nervous taking a bunch of kids on this run, but we all got through and Sam watched our backs the whole time. By the time we got off, it was well into time for home and bed.

Saturday July 7th Golden, CO
Slalom races were all day... slalom races... lots of slalom races... lots of trips down the river ... then bed... not much to explain paddle... paddle... paddle... then home... very worn out

Sunday July 8th Golden, CO
This was our last day and we had all been teasing Devon all the time about not putting his mowhawk up, so in true team fashion, we all punked out for our last day on at the JO. More slalom races... But we all only got our first run in before a big thunderstorm rolled in and we moved on to the awards ceremony.

 Monday July 9th Golden, CO
Got up and packed up to leave and took some time to clean up and make sure we didn’t leave the Hydes with a mess from us. They were great hosts and the short drive to the park made every day huge for training instead of a boring commute. Again a big thanks to all three of the Hydes. Sam left for a meeting at the Olympic Training Center and we all got ready to leave for Salida but Sam had the keys. So new plan, we called my Dad, who swore there was a spare key hidden in about 20 places. We looked in all 20 places, then we searches near all 20, then we picked 20 more. 2 hours later and way more than 20 places later, guess what Dad?...no spare key... When Sam got back we left for the Colorado River, by far the warmest river I have ever been on. The water was like bath water. We paddled a run and then heard from an Olympic trainer that this awesome wave was in and is only in for maybe a week each year and today it was in big time. South Canyon Wave www.localpaddler.com/news.php This thing was incredible and definitely worth the side trip. We ran the wave till about 10pm... night boating Rocks...we camped right beside it .

Tuesday July 10th Glenwood Springs, CO
Up early, eat fast, and mount the wave again. It was perfect. We got ourselves nice and worn out and climbed into the van for the trip home about 9. We pretty much rested for the first couple hundred miles while Danielle drove. She definately got the short end on that deal. We drove forever... The next thing I knew, I woke up at a house and was introduced to Jesse Sears, the Coordinator of Outdoor Services for Boise State University. Thanks for the bed of grass and the coffee Jesse!

Wednesday July 11th
On the road again... Try and guess what we did today … yep ….drove and drove more. We had a little excitement when the trailer blew a tire and left us standing in a spot on the road with VERY little space to pull over. We had to crank off the shreds and replace them so we could... drive... some... more... When we got home we unpacked, cleaned the van, and did a short BBQ at Sam's house. We looked at the pictures from all the different cameras and went home. By the time we reached our house, I did notice that the ear that had been an annoyance through the trip was now beyond annoyance and had seriously upgraded to "friggin ouch"

Thursday July 12th Tigard, OR
A trip to the Doctor in the morning finds an ear infection that will keep me out the water for a while. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..................... I have some real good advice about EARS to pass on to everyone. If your ear hurts, don't ignore it. If it keeps hurting see a doctor. To keep if from hurting, wear earplugs. What to do after being on the river if you don't want to wear earplugs...95% alcohol to dry then 50% vinegar to balance and rinse would save you from a whole bunch of pain and missing out for a week or two of paddling lesson learned...

©2007 Rob Virostek

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