Tales from the Island of Vancouver..

This past week the west coach branch of Team Swain took the opportunity to travel north and spend a relaxing week creeking on Vancouver Island. Recently, there has been a flurry of excitement about Vancouver Island as a premiere creeking destination and as long as you have a bit of time, the "island" offers unlimited opportunities. We began heading north on Sunday and arrived in Port Renfrew the next morning. Port Renfrew is located on the south central west coast of the island and is home to several of the Islands classic runs. Before leaving Hood River we anxiously watched as a large storm moved towards the mainland, and we assumed that we would recieve a neccesary dose of rain allowing us to explore some of the more rain dependent drainages. As luck would have it, most of that storm proved to be in the form of snow. The weather on the Island always seemed to be in flux turning a heavy snow storm into bluebird sunshine faster than a squirell on a hot tin roof.

Vancouver Island is absolutely stunning and I look forward to returning very soon.

For a full trip report check out: www.gorgehits.blogspot.com

Photos:(Above) Sunset from Port Renfrew, B.C. (Below) The water was oh..so clear. Ryan Scott entering the Middle Gordon. Austin, Todd, and Jay waiting in the pit. Todd Baker exiting Terminator. 20 feet deep? Todd heading into City Limits (sequence). Sunset from the tidal pools. Morning coffee. "its snowing!". Heading in to the MIddle Gordon. Round Two, Jay Entering the Middle Gordon (sequence). Austin and Christie taking a look at the long one. Rob Bart breaking left. Rob exiting the middle Gordon. "How bout a cold one, eh?"

Photos courtesy of: Josh McKeown, Kim Russell, Christina Russell, Johnathan Ramsey, and Christie Glissmeyer

Paddling in the Republic

Kara wondering whats down there

From the window of an airplane I was looking down on the island of Hispaniola wondering what was hidden in the valleys of the ten thousand foot peaks of the Dominican Republic. Every kayaker is always looking for that next great adventure and I thought this might be mine. Kara and I planned a trip six months later to see what we could find. What we found were some really unique rivers and a virtually untouched paddling destination. I took the idea to the NOC, that this could be a new Adventure Travel destination, and now two years later we just completed our first ever commercial trip in the Dominican Republic.

Rob taking in some scenery

My friend Rob Barham,and I arrived in the D.R. one week before our guest so we could have some time to explore before our guest arrived, we also built in some extra time and the end of the trip so we could return to some of our favorite runs. Of course every great trip has to have its fair share of difficulties and ours' was no exception it took us a few days to liberate our kayaks and after it was all said and done we were short two boats, not a big deal except one of those was my beloved Pyranha Burn! But It was not going to keep me from getting on the river.

Boat liberation day!

Our first few day's were action packed lots of miles really remote rivers and awesome boating. Because only a handful of people have paddled in the D.R. logistics can be next to impossible, lucky for us we have established a partnership with Rancho Baiguate, these guy's have been running all sorts of adventures in the D.R. for the past ten years and have things pretty well dialed in. Not to mention they run one of the most exciting rafting trips I have seen, among all of their other adventures from trekking to canyoning.

A typical river scene

Most of the rivers we ran could be characterised by crystal clear water, with smooth granite boulders and at some point the walls would close up into a mini-gorge. Some rivers could contain several mini-gorges which made for some great exploration.

Scouting one of the many mini-gorges

Rob trying the look around the corner

For me, this is what kayaking is all about once again my boat and the river have taken me to another amazing place that few people have seen.

A rapid named poco ma fuerte

Trying that boof thing

The entrance of poco ma fuerte

Photo Re-cap of 2007

Here are some of my favorite memories from the past year.

CHILE-ARGENTINA

COSTA RICA

COLORADO

The Winter Sessions...

The past month has been dark and cold, but the Little White Salmon has been running at a variety of great levels. So, we have been making our way to Drano Lake as much as possiable and have subsequently logged a dozen or so great days in the past few weeks. The Little White Salmon is great place to be in the winter. And though it might be a bit cold at the put-in, there always seems to be a rise in tempeture once you get a few minutes into it. Ryan Scott has been filming despite the heavy snow and has put together a short trailer for his upcoming film: "Northwest Video Scrpbook VI". For more updates on what is happeing in the Northwest check out: www.gorgehits.com.

Here is the short Trailer for CRG's new film which will deput in May 2008. Enjoy!

The Quest for Water

A picture is worth a thousand words, a seen above. Dry conditions in the southeast in 2007 brought much dismay for the whitewater kayakers of the region. In order to fulfill the need for water many members of Team Swain set out in many different directions in search of the mythical water. The idea was to find the source of the water and use trickery, sorcery, and determination to return the water to the rivers of one of the country's best whitewater meccas. The road was not always easy and there was plenty of adventure and misadventure along the way but the members of Team Swain prevailed in the end.

one of the members of the team
searches to the bottom of a watermelon.

In the beginning of the journey we were not sure where to begin the quest. Any possible risk, advice, or lead that might get us closer to the water was followed sometimes it got us nowhere. Kara and I were told of an Oracle who lived on the far side of Fontana lake so we decided to go in search of said Oracle in order to ask him where we should begin our search.

Here is a picture of me with our friends who agreed
to show us to the Oracle.

Unfortunatley, due to the extreme heat and dry weather the Oracle had fallen victim to a heat stroke and was too parched to impart any wisdom of where to find the water.


Here Kara is pictured with the parched Oracle

So after many weeks and no luck we decided we must hit the road. We decided first to head toward the western US to see if we could find any water there.





We were quickly dissapointed upon arriving in the west, when we found out that in this particular region they spend a majority of their year without water . Since we were there we decided to take advantage of a phenomenon they know as "snowmelt". It was because of this strange event that the rivers there were flowing rather well .


In this picture I massage Joe's head while he looks to the clouds.

In looking at the clouds Joe saw a vision and that night we were visited by a strange creature that told us of a great wizard who lived near by so the next day we set out to find the great wizard.

Here is a picture of the creature



Scout is pictured with the great wizard

As it turns out the wizard was no help at all, he told us that his powers were outdated and no longer in style. Feeling defeated, tired, and out of options we decided to return home. As winter grew closer and the drought continued we knew we must journey out once again to find water. Setting our sights a little higher this time we decided to head south, to the next continent.

Upon arrival we thought we had made a huge mistake. Conditions were equally as bad there and there seemed to be no hope.



Here Kara and Samantha run some rapids in Northern Patagonia



Then one day it happened while stopped along the side of the river waiting for some friends to run a rapid. A small elf appeared he told us of a place where water was so bountiful that everyone could have more than their share. He made us a map with his small elvish hands and off he went.
Here is a picture of the eddy elf he sure was a happy fellow

After many months of searching tirelessly we found the source of the water. We took as much as we could carry and returned to the southeast US. So for now we have a small reprieve from the drought.





Here is where we foun the water