Happy Birthday Dad!

Pretty awe inspiring place even if you don't throw yourself off the edge


Lower Mesa Falls

I found these pictures on the internet (we only had one camera and more pics are on the way), but for now you can get a feel for what were talking about here.

Happy Birthday Dad, I love you and hope you had a great day!

So I get a call from Matt on Monday morning asking if I want to tag a long with a group of people that are going to run lower Mesa Falls. I have never ever heard of Lower Mesa Falls before in my life, but it sounds cool, so I commit to the trip. I got online and googled it, and what I saw horrified me. It was a kayaker plunging off the top drop of this two tiered beast of a waterfall. So whatever, we get up the next morning, load up the cars with 6 boats and all of the gear and people neccessary to paddle them. We make the 2 hour haul up into Ashton, and finnally find the overlook of the falls. We walk out to the viewing area, and I see what I have been fearing all morning. A HUGE F*%^*^% waterfall roaring off in the distance!! The mist is higher than the falls, and it is soooo much bigger than it looked on youtube. We park the cars, hike the boats the mile and a half to the river. As we got to the rim of the canyon, we were met with a fairly challenging cliff. So we scaled down and roped the boats up, and somehow everyone and thier gear got down without a hitch.

We eventually made it to the river and got set up. We had the camera up on the rocks to get a good shot of the big drop, saftey after the first drop (not like it would do a damn thing), a saftey boater at the bottom, and me up top getting a first hand account of the horror that was about to take place.

Matt drops the first drop clean, in perfect position for the next one, and dissapears off the horizon. Just a couple really long seconds later, I hear the hoots and hollers downstream. He gets back up top beaming.

Someone asked who was going to go next, and before I knew it the words came out of my mouth saying I'll go. I instantly found myself wondering why I did that. Somehow I managed get myself into my boat, and my boat sitting on top of that little triangle rock in the eddy mere feet from the ledge. Spray in the face, the thundering of the falls, let me tell you, it was as scared as I have been in a long time, and every second of it was awsome. I droped the first drop and nailed it, hit my second line (as well as acouple rocks) and managed to flip upside down and take the remander of the big drop in that position. Lost the paddle on impact and swam. Made it to shore with boat and paddle in hand. I ran it a second time, had a much better line! Had a booty beer for pennance.

Ian from Kentuky went next with a solid top drop, and a super sick line off the right rooster tail. Boofed it clean!

Kevin followed, good first drop, went way left off the second drop, landed flat and suffered a nice little compression as well as putting a few holes in his tounge with his teeth. Maybe a mouthguard next time buddy?

Charlie was next, he stuck his first drop sick, went off the second looking great, buried himself at the bottom, and swam up with a broken paddle.

The sign at the viewing area says the falls are 65 feet. I have heard it is not quite that big, but give or take a few feet, and it is still alot of elevation in not a whole lot of time.

My camera is broken for the time being, so thats why I've been sluggish in the photo department. Kevin took a few shots of lower Mesa so when I recieve his email, I will post them up on here.

frozen pizza, flat screens, and a great dane named bella

View from camp last night

My house on the hill

Well guys...I am indoors! At least for now. I am housesitting for the next week and I plan to take full advantage of the hot water, and refrigeration, and ac, and a bed, and clean clothes and no mosquitos, and not having to cook my food over a campfire, and all of the other amentities that normal folks not living in the forest get to experience on a daily basis. The first thing I did when I got here today (after driving around for an hour trying to find the house) was take a shave, and a hot shower and it was amazing! I sat down with the hot water all the way turned up and enjoyed every second of it. I'm watching Independence Day right now on a huge flat screen, sitting in the ac having a great time. Unfortunatly, I droped my bottle of whiskey on the driveway, I was unable to find a straw and was forced to stand there watching my whiskey pool up on the pavement. I am reminded of my mistake everytime I walk out to the truck now, because the driveway reeks of Evan Williams.


So I was kayaking the Snake the other day and out of nowhere this plane comes screaming through the canyon like 100ft off the deck. Litterally just above my head and it was awsome. It was one of those stunt planes, and it was badass for sure. I've been alternating my paddling between the Gros Ventre, Greys, and the Snake river, the GV and Greys are drying up quick but theres still fun to be had. The hole Taco is still sick, and Big Kahuna is begining to come in, both are easily accessed with trails from the road down to the water, so that is great news in the park and play department.


I met some people the other day, mostly east coast kids working on this ranch. I ended up going to the carnival with them, had a few beers, and a good time. The rides were a little intense for me, but I worked up enough courage for the ferris wheel and although short, it was a good view. They had this demolition derby deal thing, but the cars just race around a dirt track in a figure 8 trying to not smash into each other crossing through the middle. It's things like that, which give me hope for the Pathfinder later on down the line. Which by the way sustained another injury the other day. The muffler pipe is now disconnected from the muffler. I gave my mechanic up in Missoula a jingle and asked him what he thought. He told me just what I wanted to hear and the truck is going to be just fine afterall.

It just started to pour down buckets of rain, were talking thunder, lightning, the whole deal, and the yard is flooding, but I am glad that Mother Nature was able to cut me a little slack and wait for me to find a place to sleep dry before unleashing her wrath.

Everything is great, come on out for a visit and see for yourself.

you call that a knife? Now this is a knife!

I forgot to tell you guys that I found a big buck knife the other day, just laying on the ground. Custom handle, good blade, a bit intimidating and it even has a leather sheath to stick it in. It spreads peanut butter, cuts rope, and I even gave a couple throws towards a tree, and it has good balance to it. A great find all the way around. I camped out on Greys again, went fishing in this huge hole a little ways downstream of snaggle tooth. I could see the fish, but I just couldn't catch them. Lucky enough some guys were fishing and they caught acouple, and gave me one to fry up for dinner. I think I'm going to change tactics now...I made a little fishing contraption like they use down in costa rica and I stuck a hook and a worm on it, and my first cast I got a bite. I only dug up one worm, so it was shortlived, but it was a good lesson. When fishing for food, use a worm and a hook, and leave fly fishing to be figured out when dinner isn't on the line.

I boated the Snake daily yesterday, had my fill playing around in Taco and had an easy shuttle back to the truck. Thinking about the Gros Ventre this afternoon...Maybe more worm fishing too! I start housesitting Saturday, so I only have another 2 days before I can clean out the truck. Rachel said I can stash some stuff in her garage in Dubois so between getting a good cleaning and droping a little weight, I'm going to have a happy truck here pretty quick. Everything is good.

we can't have it all...or can we?

I caught my first fish here in Wyoming...But not if fish and game are asking. If there asking, I haven't fished since I've been here. I was up this little creek, (the same little creek where I hooked myself in the eyelid) fishing this little hole, and end up pulling a little Brown Trout out. Didn't eat it, but I crossed over a barrier in the fly fishing world for sure. The weather has been beautiful during the day, and cool and clear at night (perfect for sleeping mosquito free).

So I'm applying for jobs and all that..and on the applications they want an address. (Go figure..) So I go to the Post Office to get a PO Box and they tell me I need an address for that too... Still trying to figure this one out, but my best idea so far is to go to the homeless shelter and see if I can use thier address. I am having some pride issues with that, so we will see how it turns out. Any thoughts??

Ok, so it wasn't a life changing experience or anything, but it's a good story and I'm going to do my best to tell you about it. Friday afternoon I am napping in my hammock in a nice spot, in between 2 trees right on the river. I hear voices and look up to see a kayak, a canoe, and a raft float by. We exchange greetings and they continue down the river. That was all the motivation that I needed. So I packed up camp and set off to drive down the street to run the lower Gros Ventre. I drop my boat off, run my shuttle, and then get picked up by a suburban full of girls, get droped at the put in, and paddle the run bymyself. The water is sooo much lower than the last time I ran it. Anyway, I have a good run, debating whether or not to go again, decide not too and I take my gear off. About that time a caravan of rafters, canoeers, and a kayaker shows up. The same people I saw floating from my hammock. So I get my gear back on, hitch a ride up, and end up doing 2 more laps with these people. Were having beers in the warm springs afterwards and this dude in a Breedlove guitar tour bus shows up. (A bit out of place in the wilderness if you ask me) Anyway, we introduce ourselves and start talking. A bison comes to soak in the warm springs, so we called it good and move to the parking lot for another beer. Eventually Somer (the raft chick) heads back towards town and the rest of us set off to go make camp. So with Phil and Thad from Utah, and Brandon in the tour bus in tow, we set off to find a spot to accomidate a 50 ft fully loaded tour bus full of thousand dollar guitars. It doesnt take long to find a good camp site, and we get dinner going and were just hanging out over a few beers...well that turns to whiskey and before long its 2am and time for bed.

The next morning we wake up and go meet up with Somer and her friend, and we get Brandon all geared up and shove the boat off down the creek. We have a good run, and then go to meet Phil and Thads' friend. We get Brandon geared up and stick him in a kayak this time and try to teach him how to roll. We do the snake daily run and it turns into an all day ordeal. I mean, were talking complete junkshow! Between the booze, the inexperience and the messing around, we spent most of the day chasing down runaway canoes and kayaks. This hydrolic they call Taco is in now, and it is awsome. Just a munching, retentive, almost 0 consequence, half river wide hydrolic. So Phil paddles his canoe in for the surf. Quickly gets gobbled up and he's out of his boat, just getting worked in the hole. I paddle into the hole to try and help. So here I am side surfing this hole, Phils canoe is just getting recirculated back in the hole and Phil is taking a decent beating, comming up long enough for a breath and getting sucked back under. So I'm in the hole in my kayak, holding on to Phils canoe (not real sure of how to fix this problem), Phil is getting thrashed appearing for a half second at a time, and then all of a sudden he's gone, and he is not comming back up... I start thinking that he's screwed and I'm going to have to go for a swim to go find him in the whitewash, but then he gets spit out downstream. Anyway, Phil is safe but his 11 ft boat is still stuck in the hole, with me holding on for dear life trying not to flip my own kayak over in the process. Eventually the canoe and I get worked free and everyone has a good laugh on the bank. Somer decides to give it a shot in her raft with Brandon. Those two get worked for a while too, but there ok. I surf the hole with another kayaker for a bit and then we continue down stream. We stoped for a bit in a big eddy and I tried paddling and rolling one of the 2 whitewater canoes. I can paddle just fine...it's the rolling back over that is tricky. It doesn't make much sense to me why someone would canoe when they could kayak (especially with the drawbacks of a canoe, but whatever, to each his own. We end up meeting another raft full of people floating down and they feed us more booze and eventually end up giving us a ride back to the trucks. That night, Somer, Phil, Thad, thier Buddy from Utah, Brandon in the tour bus, and me all camp out along the Greys. We all dig around in our food boxes and come up with an excellent dinner. (desert was a trout Brandon caught minutes prior). I cleared the 10 guitars out of Brandons shower in the bus, and he let me take my first hot shower in 3 weeks. Slammed a pbr mid shower and got out feeling like a million bucks. The rest of the evening was spent by the river, hanging around the fire, under the stars, in great company, and listening to Phil and his buddy playing music on 2 of Brandons 50 something guitars. After a long day on the river, it was a close to perfect ending. Brandon traded Thad a guitar for a kayak and it was a great trade all the way around. Brandon is hooked! Since technically he is supposed to be touring around publicizing Breedlove Guitars not bumming around with a bunch of boaters, he had to take off yesterday, but we talked him into staying and showing up in Idaho late, and he left early this morning before the sun. When the rest of us woke up this morning, we made some coffee and ran Greys again. Everyone had messeges on thier phones from thier jobs (being monday morning and all) and everyone decided it would be best to head back home and back to thier jobs.

It was a great weekend with a great crew of people and the plan is to all hang out again soon. It was pretty hilarious by the end of it. 1 car, 2 trucks, my pathfinder, and a 50 ft tour bus with all the ammentities driving around the wilderness looking for campsites and whitewater. Its pretty cool how no one knew each other prior, everyone was just doing thier own thing, and somehow we all managed to meet up and have an amazing weekend. We are all going to stay in touch and with any luck go boat with each other again in the near future. Plans are already underway.

Happy Birthday Truck!

Well guys, she made it! The big 184,000. She's traveled across the country , up and down, back and forth,this way and that way, up the mountains, through the rivers, and truly through the woods. She has got the wounds to prove it, but she is a great truck with tons of fight left in her.

In other news, Lunchcounter has been out of control for the last week. I have been switching back and forth between board and boat, and having a blast either way. There have been more surfers as the flow has droped, and it's too low for kayaking now, but it was sooo good while it lasted. I showed up ready to jump in my kayak and surf yesterday, met Russel from Utah and decided to paddle the run instead. Surfed when we floated down but just kept getting blown off the back. No pile, just a big green wave. After we ran the shuttle though, I cam back and surfed it with the board and had a few good waves. The run seems like it will improve with a little less water, but as far as Lunchcounter goes, not again until next year!

I have been camping out up in Curtis Canyon. Took a bath in the creek last night. In this dammed up pool. Was numbingly cold, but extremely refreshing after I had my sweats on. Bought some chicken from the store and grilled that up, and it was a nice change of diet. I also bought a tupperware thing the other day, and now I can save leftovers, which is nice not having to eat everything I cook right away. Had a whiskey and fell asleep in the hammock by the fire under a clear night sky.

Not sure whats in store for the weekend, but at the very least it's time I figure out how to catch a fish. I saw some guys sticking thier hands down in the river rocks trying to pull fish out, apparently they got some earlier, but I did'nt see it. But it's something to think about!

sittin in a boat in a hole in the water in the river

So the wave they call "lunchcounter" is so sick right now for surfing. Apparently it's the first river wave to be surfed with surfboard in the good ol' US of A. Don't know about that, but it's good for sure. Nice soft right handed shoulder to carve up on, and a good steep face with a retentive pile on top. They had a pro flowrider dude surfing on Saturday. He was killing it for sure, but they were filming for research of the waves' hydro dynamics for future flowboard design. It was a beautiful day, girls on the rocks, tons of people watching, a good flow to the river and fun to be had by all. I started in my kayak and moved back in forth between my board and boat. I fair better in my boat though...for sure. Those other guys on boards are sick and most of them have the wave dialed. That night I'm camping up the Grey River, going to bed, brushing my teeth, looking around the darkness with my headlamp, and I see a pair of eyes looking right back at me. I banged a pot with a rock, threw logs, threw rocks, got in my truck with my brights on and tried to chase it off, and the thing jus goes a bit further back into the forest, but I can still see the two yellow eyes glowing back at me from the beam of my headlamp....I got in the truck and locked the doors...It was gone in the morning.



Yesterday was spent surfing and kayaking and I camped up Curtis Canyon again (it's got cell service), made chili dogs and went to sleep to a beautiful sunset behind the Tetons. A few hours later I awoke to thunder and lightning, and hail, and rain, and wind, and I was concived that this one tree was going to fall for sure, and smash my little truck into a million pieces. Through the rain soaked windows, I saw the lights of the tenters a little ways down the hill scrambling for thier cars. Looked like a bunch of little fireflys buzzing around the nighttime sky. Awoke this morning to a few downed branches but no real damage, or sign of the tenters.


Thats pretty much all for now, but don't worry, we'll talk soon.

I take my showers in the river, how about you?

My last week has been spent up in the Gros Ventre Wilderness exploring, fishing, and trying to keep my truck from getting bogged down in a mud pit 30 miles from the closest paved road. I have been pushing the limits of the old Pathfinder almost on a daily basis. Hill climbs, river crossings, mud pits, pot holes from hell, or axle bending trenches, we do it all with style. She is a great truck, and truly an off road machine. The plants on the dashboard have ended up on the ground so much that I would probably be better off repotting them on the floor of the truck. I have sacraficed the yet to sprout lemon seeds for the bennefit of more soil for the cucumber plant.(Which is flowering and needs to be pollinated...and planted). So now it's just the cucumber plant, the cactus, and a few more lemon seeds that I'm trying in a new pot that I've invented not to spill. Hows that for responsibility? I have also had some questions regarding my personal hygene. Well, I will have you know, it is probably better now than it was before. I jump in the creek to get wet, lather up all nice and naked like and then jump back in to rinse off. It feels like a billion needles stabbing you all over the place all at the same time jumping into those icy cold creeks, but after the feeling comes back over your body you feel like a million bucks. The soapy clean smell is also a nice change from camp fire, but it only last a few minutes before the fire steals it right away again. Other than the plants, the truck, and my personal hygene, things are good, I have found a couple really sweet spots to camp out along the river and been learning how to fish.

So about that fishing...The other day I camped along the river, and there was a little creek that sounded like it may be kayakable so I got in my boat, grabbed the fishing rod and ferried across the swift current to the other side. I scouted the rappid (class V+/unrunnable), and scrambled up the rock walls and jumped from rock to rock just to continue upstream. Anyway, I'm up this little tiny creek, decide that it is a good place to do some fishing. Rig up my rod and throw a few casts. Just a few moments later I threw a cast, and next thing you know I see the fly comming right for my head. My first thought is that my reaction was too late, the hook is going to get me right in the face. Second thought was, I wonder where the fly is, because I didn't feel it hook on anything. I quickly come to the conclusion that the caddis fly that I had just tied on my leader is now in past the barb and I am rocking a new eye lid piercing. I put my hand under my eye waiting for the blood...No blood, thats a good sign...Then I wait for the blindness, but I can still see. Thats also good news. I look around, realizing that I am litterally in the middle of nowhere, out in the back woods of Wyoming. There is no one to help, I have to do this myself. I cut the leader (trying to save as much line as possible for future fishing), hike back down the creek, scramble back down the rock walls, jump rock to rock back down the unrunnable rappid, into my kayak, ferry back across the creek in my kayak, manage to make it back to my truck and get a good look in the mirror. It wasn't good! Sure enough the caddis was hooked through my eye lid. I knew I had a pair of wire cutters...but where? My whole life is in the back of my truck, how am I going to find this little pair of snips. After looking everywhere they could be I began to loose hope. I'm thinking...Shit, I am going to have to drive into town just to find someone with a pair of snips, but just then I realize where they are. They're right in the side pocket of my pack (in case I needed them for just such an emergency). So I set my little compass mirror up on my dashboard in the fading evening light, pry my eyelid open with my knuckles, hold the tweasers with one hand, and with the blurry vision of an eye with a caddis fly hooked in it, I snip the hook blindly trusting in the universe to not let me cut my eye lid right open. I eventually am able to push the barb through the other side and extract the hook with my trusty tweasers. I tried to record the surgery with my camera, but since this incident, it has ceased working. If I can recover any of the footage you will be the first to see. Hindsight suggests maybe sunglasses are a good idea. It makes me sick to think of how close I came to being blind in that eye. Were talking fractions of an inch. Chalk it up to experience though. Fishing...go figure.

Other than that, boated a little creek, fun but fast, did it twice. Been doing a fair amount of hiking, and just refining my camping skills. I was hiking along a game trail and found a nice steamy pile of bear shit a little close for comfort to my campsite. No tracks or bear sightings just yet though. Since Scott shot the bear mace off in the trunk a few weeks back, another can may be a good purchase. In other news, I got a part time job, which is good news for my survival, and this wave called Lunchcounter is running good, which is good news for my kayaking, so for now, the woods of Wyoming are nothing but fun.

So I have been recieving alot of questions as to when are we going to hear more about this Jesse Reuter guy. Well, the whole story would take months, maybe even years, but for now just know that he is my friend and mentor. When I am in a tough spot, our friend Jesse always has words of wisdom for me, and he offers me nothing but encouragment and guidence to continue my daily, boring, monotanus life. To sign up for him to mentor you, and guide you through your daily life, please direct emails to kane726@comcast.net. Hurry though, he is only accepting applicants on a limited time basis and in order to reserve your mentoree position you must act soon.

As always, keep checking back for updates, for now it's back to the forest.

wait, so does a bear shit in the woods?

Well I made it into Jackson friday morning. Had a surf on the play wave, and then went into town to get a job. Everyday since has consisted of about the same thing. I am living outside, out of the back of my truck, and the amusing thing is that most of the people I have met here, are, or have done the same thing. Everyone is super cool, and I have alot in common with the average person here.

The outdoors is right at my fingertips, or under them depending on how close you look, but the weather is great, and times are good. Everytime I turn around I see something new. A huge snow covered peak, a sheer cliff face, an enormous lush green valley, a little creek, or some critter walking through my camp. The Tetons are such an impressing mountain range and everytime I gave to the north I am left in awe of the amazing mountains.

In case you're wondering, I alternate my sleeping between the back of my truck and my hammock. Both are surprisingly comfortable. I have a whole box of food that I've managed to keep from the Bears and Mountain Lions, and I am begining to figure out this whole camping thing. The dude at Sports Authority sharpened up my axe right nice on thier grinder at the store, so that makes my life a lot easier come time to set up camp.

Basically, life is great, I am living everything outdoors, but it's a nice time of year for it, meeting all sorts of new folks, and trying to get my ass a job. I am thanful for a good life and with where I'm at.

Feel free to come visit, bring your own hammock.

Surf Wyoming!

Well folks, thats all she wrote down here in Santa Fe. The margaritas are going on hold, time to break out some whiskey! Next stop, Jackson Wyoming! Wish me luck. I'll let you know how it works out when it works out.