Thanksgiving Day Paddle

Last week, I got to spend Thanksgiving with Josh's family in Bend. Fortunately (and unfortunatly) we were going home in the middle of the first big snow storm of the season. My sis and I followed eachother down hwy 197 and were confronted with some of the worst black ice I have ever driven on. UGH. I was convinced we were going to slide off the road several times. Felt great to hit snowpacked roads as opposed to ice. As we all know, nothing can help you with driving on ice....other than going SLOW. 5 hours of driving later and we were soaking in the hot tub while the snow fell....pretty awesome start to the holiday!

On Thanksgiving day, we woke up to clear skies and 18 degrees. We decided to celebrate Turkey day in the best way we know how...kayaking! :) We opted to run Riverhouse as we guessed Dillon and Lava would have been snowed in. over 2 feet were up there and we didn't feel like getting our vehicles stuck!
In true Thanksgiving spirit, here is a joke for ya that I'm particularly fond of :

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. Theparrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary.

Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious
and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to
change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only
polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could
think of to 'clean up' the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot.
The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and theparrot got angrier and even more rude. John, in desperation,
threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the
freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked
and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet.
Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened
the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out
onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I
may have offended you with my rude language and
actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate
transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I canto correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."

John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude.

As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a
dramatic change in his behavior, the bird spoke-up, very
softly, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

The view at Josh's house

Josh trying to "get to the river"

"I'm comin in hot!"

Me on Ogre

It's official: winter is here!

I am almost to finals week and the boats are permanently on the roof of my car. FINALLY!!!!! I have one more semester to go before my capstone and it couldn't come any sooner. I am over it. What I'm trying to say is that there will be more posts from me over my winter break :) I know how to paddle? ;) Stay warm out there and enjoy the season!

-Christina

Green Race 2010

Photo by: Crystal Gustin

On November 6th 2010 the 15th Annual Green River Race began at high noon with Isaac Levinson leading the pack off the starting line due to injuries from Pat Keller and Andrew Holcombe. John Grace thought that it would be fitting that he put me in the pack with the boys since I did end up 17th last year tied with Brian Kirk. So with my number 18 bib and between Jules Campbell and Brian Kirk off I went. My whole family had hiked in this year which includes my mom, dad, my sister and her loving boyfriend. I was trying not to think about my line at gorilla with my family standing at the notch when I left the starting line at Frankenstein.

Photo by: Michael Hood

I had my boyfriend yelling at me from river left below Frankenstein, I was trying not to think about what he would think if I crashed during the race…. My long boat was doing some of the lines that I had trained it to do but had a few bobbles. Pacing is important in a 5 minute race. Coming through Go Left I heard people shouting my name and yelling to go faster, I tried. I came around the corner at Chief and attempted not to look at the crowd for my family, came through the notch with my eyes shut and took a deep breath. I happily bounced past speed trap with immense speed and was off to run the slides.

Photo by: Michael Hood

At the end of the race I was so happy to see the girls timing but I knew that I hadn't gone as fast as I could. At that point it was all up to the other girls and how fast they went. I began hiking up the trail to do my second run, I had pats on my back, people handing me hot chocolate, water, whiskey. I ran into my family at the notch and they were all ecstatic that I had made it through my first run still intact, now I just had to go do it all again in a short boat.

Photo by: Crystal Gustin

Rolling up in the Notch

Needless to say I was so happy when I got into my short boat and I was off racing again, going fast and taking chances. I knew at the end of this run I would be with my family and friends drinking a beer and watching all the rest of the racers come through. It was a huge day and a tad stressful until I heard the results during the party at Woodys after an awesome dinner by the twins. I had won the Green River Race again, bringing home a sweet piece of glass for the third year in a row.

Now we have 362 days till the next one! A huge thanks to all of my sponsors who I couldnt do it without, Liquid Logic, Werner Paddles, Shred Ready Helmets, Immersion Research, and Astral Buoyancy Company. More photos to come soon.

Playing Hookie

Yes...I did it...but my teachers were cool with it ;) There was a good reason!

Josh's sister just delivered her first baby girl last Wednesday morning at 5:59am and Josh and I headed back to Bend for the event. While we were down there, we decided to go boatin'...YAY!!!

Here are some picks of our boatin...enjoy! We did a Dillon to Lava at about 1350cfs...nice and fluffy :)

PS Bend has CLEAN air. Holy cow. Atleast, coming from PDX, it sure smells fantastic!

PSS I forgot how bad the lava rock is on my boat!

Coming in to Lava one- the 'great swirly' (it only get's worse as the flow goes up)

Onward to Lava 2!

I think I remember how to do this.... Lava 2

Lava 2...AKA the rapid that will hand you your a$# if you aren't on top of it!

It felt amazing to be back in my boat. It made me realize just how much I love love love paddling. This may sound silly but it feels like there's a hole in my heart when I am not out paddling. :( Soooo this trip made the world look much better. Can't wait to get back out there! Halloween Truss paddle here I come! :D

Stay wet out there and enjoy fall!

-Tina