12 New Year's resolutions for paddlers

If you've outgrown your drysuit, go ahead and resolve to lose some weight. Otherwise, try these on for size and choose the ones that fit.
In , I resolve to...
1. Work on skills that don't come easily to me.
2.Seek out a mentor who can challenge me in my long-term development as a paddler.
3. Join organizations that protect the environment.
4. Introduce kayaking to someone else.
5. Complete a risk assessment every time I go out on the water and file a float plan.
6. Learn to repair my boat and gear (or at least some of it).
7. Engage in a thoughtful debrief after each paddle to learn from my experiences.
8. Support my local paddlesport shop as much as possible.
9. Practice rescues in the conditions and seasons in which I paddle.
10. Learn to tie a new knot.
11. Learn a related body of knowledge (e.g.wilderness first aid, leave no trace, meteorology).
12. Paddle in unfamiliar waters (preferably outside my region).
We hope is a happy, healthy year that fulfills all your paddling desires.
Best,
Sharon + Alec

Recent Game Cam action

I swear they look more like cheap plastic toys than real animals, but they dig enough foxholes for a whole regiment of green army men.

Masked bandit who looks like she's been on a diet. (I dreamed I was about this thin last night, but when I woke up it wasn't true.) We had a lot more raccoons when we lived in the suburbs than we do here out in the country.

Looks like frost on the grass, doesn't it? But this is Alabama, not Minnesota. The camera hasn't moved, but the previous photo was before all the recent rain, and this one was just a few days ago. What a difference in the grass!

Why are you so skinny? You've eaten all but two of our chickens!
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Wayne has been showing some recent pics from his Cuddeback too. He's got a different version than we do.
I'm not sure what type Linda has, but there's been a lot of action at her house!
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I forgot to post a link to the Friday Ark on Friday. So go visit now if you haven't already.

Our boat

I wondered if I was seeing things.

It was several months after we bought the land. We were driving on one of the paths, when I thought I spied something a bit odd. "Stop! Back up!"
Yep, it really was a boat. In the middle of the woods.

World's biggest planter?
Many country people don't see the point in paying to take things to the county landfill, when they've got so much perfectly good land of their own on which to dump stuff. So we're continually finding surprises in the woods.

Snowshoe hike with Wolves

I went for a snowshoe hike with a couple of friends today and at one point during our hike I was looking further up the trail when, several hundred feet in front of us, I saw two Wolves run across the trail. All I had with me was my little Canon G11, so not a very good zoom but nonetheless I got the camera ready just in case we saw them again. I kept my eyes on the trail where I had seen them cross, and after only a few seconds one of them walked back out onto the trail and looked at us, then ran back into the woods. Just after that, the second one came out and gave us a look as well. Both of these photos were taken during their second pass across the trail. Due to the distance and not having a good zoom, I had to crop waaaaaay in on the photos in order to see the Wolves decently, so the image quality here isn't the greatest but it's still a nice account of our experience!

Drilling out my panela to save weight...

Ecuador- A beautiful land of barking dogs, amazing mountainscapes and friendly wrinkled old people

Chocolate co-op in Salinas Ecuador! These folks do a pretty good job of explaining the villages thriving artisan cooperative scene

My plan was to take a bunch of these delicious little chocolates with me to enjoy along the way. They didn't make it far.

Ecuador has had a long sorted history of trains. Recently they have revamped a section

The great Chimborazo.

When the outside falls down just build a new inner wall.

This dirt did not do as the sign recommended

Trying to keep the hitchhikers to a minimum

shit... I hope there is a bike lane?

Im always good with carless roads

Brewed coffee. A rarity in Ecuador.

Alausi

Jesus would approve of this coffee break

I told you, I'm a sucker

The bike is not the only thing that needs a bit ofmaintenance

waiting out the rain.

Its been a good run! I know my trip explanations have been short. (people looking at this blog for facts and figures must be furious) Sitting in internet cafes is not my favorite thing. After a round of E-mails, I find my attention span shorter than the life of a cassette CNC'd from a block of cheese. So if anyone has questions on routes and er things? Feel free to E-mail me and I'll do what I can to answer in some semblance of seriousness: bikegreaseandcoffee@yahoo.com
Just kidding about the Panela

Read What You Enjoy

"Never force yourself to read a book that you do not enjoy. There are so many good books in the world that it is foolish to waste time on one that does not give you pleasure and profit." Professor Atwood H. Townsend
I've finally gotten to the place where I can take Professor Townsend's advice. Last week I put down two library books that I just couldn't get into for whatever reason. Maybe I'll come back to them later or maybe not. They just didn't capture my attention right now, and that's okay. No guilt.

The prodigal returns

Well clearly it's been a while between posts. I spent a month in Tasmania as planned, and had a great time, but I haven't been able to post about it due to a computer suffering a functionality phobia. Consequently I have some posts to catch up on. The most recent thing I've been dealing with is the usual searing heat that I simply can't stand. As the picture above shows, the haze from the humidity was obvious from the top of Springbrook. It's days like this, when the humidity effectively means the sun doesn't shine properly all day, that are just generally unpleasant.

As it was, I decided to head for the summit of the mountain, knowing that at least the descent would be a lot cooler. It was, too. Officially a climb the size of Springbrook should wipe 6.5 degrees (c) off the temperature, in practice, the gap almost always seems to be much higher than that -- especially if you've managed to cover yourself in sweat on the climb.

With that in mind, I decided to spend some more time on the higher points, heading for Goomoolahra falls on the Eastern side of the escarpment. This place was famous for a drunken idiot walking off the edge of the cliff and falling 100 metres to his death a couple of years ago, and as useful as that event is, I still prefer to focus on the sight of the waterfall next to the cliff face. The views can be even better at a slightly lower point of the falls sequence, but I didn't have time on this particular day. I just had to enjoy what I had, such is life.

Hot Tip

Oooooh Wesley, my ears are simply burning and I know just where you can cool your jets!
xo Sammie

Knot a good situation

On Friday afternoon, while we were paddling, someone broke into our car and stole both of our wallets. We returned to a broken car window and a rash of urgent tasks: cancel the cell phone and credit cards, rekey the house locks, replace the drivers' licenses and a myriad other cards.
Since then, every day yields a new realization of something we no longer have: library cards, ACA instructor cards, insurance cards, a favorite green pen.
Today we realized the thieves also had the cool set of knot cards we bought with our paddling.net paddle perks and the rope we used for practicing clove hitches and bowlines.
Somewhere, some thief is practicing tying beautiful bowlines.
Note to selves: Bring wallets in boats. Keep house key away from IDs with home address. Renew paddling.net membership.

Heavy equipment and during/after photos

The road to Mt Rainier National Park's recovery is passing through some interesting terrain. Today, I saw a large bulldozer working in the Nisqually River. One of the vexing problems for the NPS is that rivers and streams have jumped their main channels. During a storm, riverbeds can become filled with debris, which in turn causes the river's flow to change its course. To some extent, that is why the Emergency Operations Center was threatened, and why the stream jump at Kautz Creek is causing such a repair headache. So to protect the facilities in Longmire, heavy equipment is now being used to clear the build up of rock, logs and other debris from the last rainstorm and flood.
The historian in me wanted to capture a during and after view of the Nisqually River. Here is the "during" image from Monday afternoon, Nov. 6th when things really started to roll. This picture is taken from the Longmire bridge looking upstream.

And here is the "after" view, taken today Nov 17th. Note the tree that hangs over the Nisqually River in both photos, and also the color of the river.