Canoeing Workshop

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to take part in a workshop for Red Cross Canoeing instructors to refine our paddling skills and improve our teaching abilities. We were able to fly out Randy Carlson, an ACA certified instructor trainer, and his assistant Zak clear out from Minnesota. We did one day of tandem flatwater paddling, focusing on techniques for teaching the fundamentals of canoeing, then did two days on moving water (The Lower American River which was flowing at 8,000 CFS); one in tandem and one in solo boats. Thanks to a generous grant from the American River Parkway Foundation this amazing training workshop was available to all instructors in our program free of charge. I felt quite lucky to be involved!

For more information and instruction on canoeing in the Sacramento area go to redcrosscrc.org/canoeing.

Lower Colorado Canoe Trip Video

Put together a video of our trip to the Lower Colorado River. See the full trip report here: http://www.alwaysjanuary.com/2011/02/lower-colorado-canoe-trip.html

Red Cross Canoeing

Aside from canoeing down the Lower Colorado river and picking up a new canoe, I've been spending a lot of time helping out to get ready for another season of teaching canoeing with the other volunteers in the Red Cross Canoeing committee. I've mentioned it a few times here, but it really is a great program of canoeing classes in Sacramento. The program has been around for over 35 years, and there are some seriously good paddlers teaching for it.

Anyways, one of the things I have been doing to help out in the program, and in promoting canoeing in the area in general, is to work on the Red Cross Canoeing website. In the past the canoeing classes were just mixed in with all the other American Red Cross courses. This year I have been working with the folks at the Capital Region Chapter to create a bit of an identity for the program. To start with we added a dedicated canoeing section for prospective students to check out. From there, a description of each class and a photo illustrating the class can be found. I'm also adding a photo gallery for pictures we have, and in the future hope to add photos submitted by students of the class and the canoeing they do after taking the class. It's coming together pretty good, and I'm hoping it will help to boost enrollment this year.

Check it out here: http://redcrosscrc.org/canoeing

Navarro Canoe

Jennifer and I have been keeping our eyes open on the local craigslist for a little bigger canoe (okay, maybe it was mainly me looking). We looked into an 18 foot Kevlar Wenonah Jensen, but I had too many questions about it that we passed on it. At the same time a friend of mine told me about a Navarro Canoe that might be coming available. I had seen a few here and there, and let me tell you they are some beautiful canoes. I started searching for more about them and found one listed, but it was in Ashland Oregon (some 4.5 hours away). Seemed too far to go, but I emailed the guy selling it anyhow to get more information about these boats that I was quickly becoming highly interested in. I exchanged a few emails with him, and long story short, he and his wife offered us a very good deal on not only a beautiful 17 foot boat, but some nice paddles, a canoe cart that's more heavy duty than my old one (see my Daddy daughter canoe trip report to see what happened to my last one), and a bunch of miscellaneous PFDs and flotation pads (we can always use extras for guests). They liked the idea of selling the canoe to us, as they too had a boy and girl and used to enjoy canoeing with them when they were younger. It was just too good of a deal to pass up.

Lower Colorado Canoe Trip

This will be my second season being involved with the Red Cross Canoeing Committee here in Sacramento, and this year some of the core members decided to organize a group paddling trip down 43 miles of the Lower Colorado River starting at Walter's Camp near Blythe and finishing at Squaw Lake.

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical about paddling the Lower Colorado in Southern California. I grew up in Riverside, which is within a couple of hours of the area, and I made it a point to avoid such places as Blythe which is the nearest town to our put-in. On top of that, it's a pretty major commitment to dedicate a whole week to a trip, not just for me, but for my wife who would be home all alone with our two young kids (7 and 3 years old). Still, I have this unrelenting hunger for adventure, and this trip promised plenty of it, so knowing that I'd owe Jennifer big time (which I'm sure I'll be reminded of for quite some time) I hopped on-board for a journey that did not disappoint in the slightest.

Winter Paddle

Here's a little video of my seven year old daughter Megan and I paddling around Willow Creek on Lake Natoma in late December. There are perks to living in California.

Sawyer Stingray Paddle

The first paddle I bought was a Bending Branches Arrow, and that was fine for starting out.  It was starting to show some wear though (some of the wood grain was splitting on the shaft) and it isn't really cut out for white water paddling, which is what I'm starting to get into.  I wanted my next paddle to be really nice (and really durable).  It was a tough choice picking a good paddle for white water, that I also wouldn't mind using on the flat waters that I frequent.  I pretty much had it narrowed down between a Mitchell Premier, which is what just about everyone I paddle with uses, or a Sawyer Stringray that I ran across on Sawyer's website.

Daddy - Daughter Canoe Camping Trip

I spent two nights last weekend canoe camping with my soon to be seven year old daughter Megan. We had a bit of a rough start, but ended up having a wonderful trip.

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Finding yourself depressed in late July as the wild flowers are gone, the heat has sunk in, and everything is turning brown?  Head on up to Lassen Volcanic National Park where Spring is just kicking into gear.

My family and I did just that, deciding to embark on our longest straight camping endeavor with the family totaling six nights.

Utica Reservoir

My wife and I had our first opportunity to get out for a few nights without the kids to get a little sanity time. We talked about everything from backpacking to staying at a B&B someplace, then the idea came up to get out far enough away from people like backpacking and yet take some of the comforts with us. This is made possible by traveling in a way that natives people have done for thousands of years. By canoe.

Camping at Lake Britton

My family and I spent Memorial weekend car camping at Lake Britton and exploring the area. It was kind of a last minute decision (within a couple of weeks) to go camping over the holiday weekend, and as expected just about every place we looked into in the Northern California within 3 to 4 hours of Sacramento was all booked up on reservations. This led me to start looking for "first come first serve" spots, and it turns out that PG&E has quite a few of them. I narrowed my search to the Hat Creek and Burney area and decided we would just go from campground to campground until we found a spot. First stop, Lake Britton where the majestic McArthur Burney Falls pours in to.

Ahjumawi

I spent last weekend paddling and camping at Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park. Basically it is a huge collection of springs flowing into where Big Lake, Fall River, Tule River, Ja-She Creek, and Lava Creek converge. Together they form one of the largest collection of fresh water springs in the entire country. Yet this park only gets about 2,000 visitors a year making it the least visited park in the California State Park system.

Juniper Lake

Not wanting to give in to the end of camping season just yet, my wife and I decided to get away for Labor Day weekend and try someplace new. We had always wanted to check out Lassen National Park, and recently we read about a beautiful pristine lake there called Juniper Lake. What a magnificent place it was.

More Paddling

Jennifer and I spent some more time paddling the backwaters and creeks of Lake Natoma. It was such a beautiful evening. Between the soft light of late day, and the rhythmic sounds of our paddles cutting through the water, our trip was so peaceful.

Paddling Lake Natoma

We've been spending a lot of time at nearby lake Natoma, paddling around in our new canoe. It's a great spot to paddle, and is only 25 minutes or so away from us(no freeway needed). Natoma is basically a flow control reservoir in-between Lake Folsom and the American river that flows into Sacramento. Since the water comes from the bottom of Folsom it is always cold (which the trout love), and since it is used to make the flow into the American fairly constant the water level stays pretty much the same year round. It's a particularly good lake for canoes and kayaks as motorboats are restricted to 5mph on the entire lake (and hence, you almost never see any of them).

Paddling the time away

(Image taken by previous owner)

Haven't posted in awhile, but just thought I'd share in my latest passion. My family and I just bought ourselves a canoe! (See photo of it above)