scorpions, cacti, and jesse reuter. but soon enough it'll be grizzly bears, mountain lions, and even a wolf or two

Jesse Rueter

just a nice New Mexican evening

I'm still housesitting, haven't really done anything for the last week. Watered the plants, fed the dog, paddled twice, and gotten almost hourly East Coast updates from my friend Jesse Reuter (You'll hear more about him later). Anyway, I am begining to freak out! With a bit of luck, and maybe acouple more margaritas, I'll be able to hold out just a little while longer. Come Wednesday I am packing up the old Pathfinder once again, and moving north. This time to Jackson, Wyoming. I have only driven through. I mean we spent a night there, but that doesn't really count. I don't know anyone, no job, no place to live, not really sure what to expect, but for some reason or another I have alot of confidence in this move. There seems to be alot of nice people, and alot of opportunity for a person such as me. I know it will all work out for the best. And if it doesn't, Ill be living in my truck down by the river. Learning how to fish!

In other news, I should of gone on a Box trip with this guy I've seen a few times on the river. Instead I had a lazy, rainy, pancake filled sunday morning. Then I went up and did a lap on the play run, had a good time. The river shot up close to 1000 cfs since I was on it acouple days ago. The play wave was sick, now it's good, but the eddy service is a bit blown out, and it gets old quick trying to get back upstream. The rest of the run is good, tons of rafters, but it's entertaining. Slam a Tecate mid float, just before the fun, and then go have a good time.

coming full circle

Mapquest says 4,055 miles with 70:30 worth of driving in the last month. In reality, both of those numbers are greatly increased when you figure in our time spent driving the wrong way, or driving towards rivers which didn't parallel the highway. But either way you look at it, it was a long freaking way to go surfing.

We raised just over 100 dollars to bennefit Cystic Fibrosis. Due to the small amount, we did not split the donation, it is just as we recieved it. I would like to thank those at the Albequrque CF chapter for all of thier help, cooporation, and the box of literature and schwag to hand out.

I parted ways with Scott back on Tuesday and I headed north to see Chewy. After a night in Boulder I said my goodbyes and began the trek towards Santa Fe. I stopped in Pagosa Springs to surf their wave, but much to my disappointment, with the dramatic decrease in water levels, the wave quality decreased equally. I did not even get out of the truck. I camped along the Piedra river maybe hoping the creek I had looked at previously was still runnable. It was not, so I went fishing. Camped out, and left the next morning. I stopped along the way to do a couple laps on the Racecourse section of the Rio Grande, it was low, but still entertaining. I am now house/dog sitting until July 1, at which point my schedule opens up...Completely. And I will be lost out west all over again!

over the river and through the woods

We woke up this morning from our warm, dry, comfortable hotel beds, hung out longer than we should have, watched some TV, ate some bagels with cream cheese and then hit the road. On a tip from the raft shop, we found a nice play wave right off of the highway just out of town. It is a nice wave, good size pile with a nice shoulder, a bit easy to get flushed if your not paying attention, but loads of fun. After we each had our fill, we packed up. Drove a few miles down the street and found the put in for a nice stretch of water on the Snake. We unloaded the boats, all the gear, and realized Scott left his waterproof camera on the hood of the car way back at the wave. He speeds off down the road and leaves me and all the gear in his dust. I set some stuff out to dry, rolled my boat upside down for a bed, grabbed my life jacket for a pillow, layed down and took a nap. A few minutes later I awake to Scott's shouts of joy speeding down the road coming towards me. I guess what happened was, 6 miles after the wave, going 65mph the camera slid off of the hood of the car, onto the side of the road. After 45 minutes worth of close calls somehow the camera found its way just off of the pavement in a patch of grass and somehow, driving down the road at 65, Scott managed to spot the little camera , busted a U and went to check it out. After closer inspection, despite a couple scratches to the case, everything is completely fine. So anyway, we unload the rest of the gear, Scott drives the car down to the take out to run shuttle, and I lay back down to enjoy the morning sunshine on my skin. Eventually we get on the river, have a nice little run through some big wave trains and a couple play spots. Packed up the car once again, and continued on our way.

We made it to Steamboat, settled into Scotts friends mountain house. The place is sick. We went for a walk, did some time in the pool, now we are sitting in super comfy couches watching TV. We went and saw the C hole, and it looks awsome. Tommarrow is going to be a busy day, but the plan is to go skate some hills early, maybe run this little creek, go hit the 4 playspots downtown and then either run another creek or just hit the road. Next stop on the list is back in Denver.

subway, slurpee's, and salmon burritos

We drove north to Pacific City and once again found no waves. We waited, hiked around to the sea caves, had acouple beers at the brewery, and then drug our boats up the huge sand dunes and slid back down. From there we drove west through Portland, and ended up a little ways east of P-Town. Camped along the river next to some fishermen, chopped some wood, made a fire, and had a good time. The next morning we were confronted by a ranger and she informed us that we had been breaking pretty much every rule we could have. There is a fire ban, she kind of called us out on not leaving money in the donation box, told us we were supposed to have river permits, and let us go anyway because she was a nice lady. We paddled, went into town to get cash and leave a donation at the Ranger Station and then hit the road. We crossed through Oregon, into the bottom corner of Washington and into Idaho by nightfall. Found a campground in Hells Gate Canyon. Camped for the evening, had some hot showers, and the next day made the push into Missoula. Paddled the Lochsa on the way and it was really good.

Made it into Missoula, set up base camp at Scotts sisters house. From there we met up with a bunch of good friends, paddled the wave, and the Gorge, did sushi and got to see a ton of people that I enjoy hanging out with. And Scott developed an addiction to Salmon Burritos. The wave is good, the Gorge is huge and blown out at 2200. Stayed 3 days in Zoo Town and then made it south about as far as the Wyoming border. Jen, thanks so much for letting us crash at your place, we had a great time and look forward to returning to Missoula.

Met up with Will, Tucker and the rest of the Flying Pig crew in Gardiner Mt. Played some wiffle ball, slept under the stars, paddled a good chunk of the Yellowstone, did the downtown thing for game 7 of the cup, and just had a really good time with a really good crew of people. You can check out the company at http://flyingpigrafting.com/ . Guys, thanks alot for the beds to crash on, we both apprechiate all of the hospitality.

We left MT today, drove through Yellowstone NP and saw some really cool sights. Within the first hour we had gone for a hike to see mineral springs, saw an enormous Bison a mere couple feet from the car, saw a Wolf trotting along the edge of the forest, and got into a brief roadside confrontation with this woman from Minnisota. We stoped at Old Faithful, waited...waited...and then saw her erupt. To be honest the 3 or 4 geysers surrounding Old Faithful were all going off prior and I think that was cooler than the Old Girl herself. Stoped at the ranger station to inquire about why you can hike, and climb, and fish, and do all sorts of other things in the park, but you cannot kayak. "Congress says so, and if you do, you are going to lose your boats" was the answer we recieved and for the time being that works for me. Its a tough pill to swallow considering the road follows the river and along some portions it is everything we can do to not quickly untie the boats, get into the river and go drop off some stuff.

We got into Jackson Hole Wyoming this evening, had acouple cocktails, got burritos, went to go see a movie, did some shopping and ended up with margarita makings, got a hotel for the night and now it is almost bedtime. It is pouring down rain, windy, and cold, and it just seems like a better option for the night to be inside. We are going to paddle the Snake tommarrow and then continue into Steamboat Springs Colorado. We'll let you know how it goes.

In the land of Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Bannana Slugs, and acouple really big trees!

We camped in Redwood NP 2 nights ago, got a good campsite, shared some beers with the guy across the street, and basically went to sleep in awe of the huge, gigantic ass trees right outside of our tents. It is a magical place as far as forests goes, and to be honest, if I were a bigfoot, it is for sure where I would live-no doubt about it.

Scott and I spent last night in Eugene with his buddy Larry. We went out, had a good time, got to hear acouple bands play, got up this morning, grabbed a burrito and hit the road. Much thanks to Larry and his housemates, we had a great time, and really apprechiate the indoor accomodations. Before we left though, Scott was packing the car, and shut the door on our can of Bear Spray, and consequently the can began leaking Bear Mace. Thanks to his quick reactions, the damage was minimal. However enough managed to leak out to cause any passing pedestrians to cough and quickly vacate the area. We aired out the trunk, cleaned up the mess, and disposed of the can. No further damage was done. Were comming up into Bear country though, so lets hope for the best now that we are lacking protection. I bought an axe the other day, and I am confident in my swinging abilities, so we should be ok as far as bears are concerned.

We have been stoping for surf checks all along the coast, and have found nothing. Like, we're talking nothing, both of us have been wave starved for so long and all we want to do is get in the water and surf, and there are no waves. That is how it goes sometimes though. I'm sure as soon as we leave the coast the swell will pick up. In the meantime we have been paddling where we can, the middle fork of the Smith in Nor Cal was inside of the Redwood forest so we decided to run it. We underestimated the river just a bit, and we were pleasantly surprised with the class IV stretch of pool drops and the translucent blue water. In some parts the river looked to be at least 30 feet deep, and you can see every stone on the bottom. The fish swimming around, the sunken trees, the whole deal. In all reality, it was probably more like 50 or 60 feet deep. Just totally out of control as far as water clarity and color is concerned. It is a beautiful tight canyon with bony drops, technical moves, and stunning scenery...and we had it all to ourselves. Zero complaints!

Now we are about a mile south of Newport Oregon. We found a good campground on the beach, and turns out it was Oregon State Park day or something, and we got to camp for free. Chopped wood on the beach, and have a nice fire now, with an electrical plug, wifi, and free hot showers just around the corner. All things considered, were sitting pretty.

Our goal for tommarow is to find waves. After that we will mosey towards Portland where we will begin our journey inland. Don't worry though, we'll let you know how it all works out.

the petting zoo

So we left San Diego and got a recomnedation to check out this campground called Jalama. We ended up staying 3 days. The surf there was the best we have seen thus far. While we were surfing, Dolphins were swimming through the lineup and Whales were breaching further out to sea. Back at the campsite Scott befriended 3 species of birds, and a little ground squirrell. The two became such good friends that the little bugger climbed into the car and helped himself to the bag of trailmix. We were able to salvalge most of the bag and decided to keep the car shut from then on. It was a great spot to camp, right on the beach, right in front of where we were surfing and it was awsome to go to sleep hearing the surf, and wake up seeing clean lines roll in from the horizon. We left Jalama yesterday, camped last night in podunk, and now we are using wifi in Humbolt. We made every wrong turn along the way and somehow ended up here after a days worth of driving the narrow windy pacific roads. We stoped at a few places along the way for surf checks, but could not justify the crumbly waves against the cold water. Tonite we will camp around Eureka and tommarow with any luck make it to the Trinity River and find a good section to paddle.