What a week!

For being my week "off" I didn't get much rest. Which is exactly how I like to spend my free time! Monday - Wednesday I was busy at school trying to get ready for the summer, at the Air Force Academy and Peterson AFB trying to get my paperwork taken care of so I can get paid to be a raft guide this summer. At least I climbed on Tuesday & Wednesday.

On Thursday I paddled 18 miles on the Arkansas River with Air Force Academy's rafting program on our first customer trip of the season. (Customer. Read: people who know nothing about the river paying to have us take them safely down the river. Customer trip. Read: hard work.) We had an awesome day on the river with a flow of ~2160 cfs. Mmmm... sunshine, warmth, and swift moving water. On my way home from the Academy, I get a call from Brownie reminding me that I haven't run in days and I have a r*ce on Saturday morning. Oops. So, completely exhausted and smelling like the river, I head over to Barr Trail and run 3 miles up & back. My reward for not being a sissy is a couple of Arrogant Bastard Ales at Kinfolks.

Friday was by far the best day of the week. For our second customer trip of the season, we had more customers than we had seats in the boats. We had 3 Gorge guides, 22 customers, 1 Parkdale guide (me), and 2 trainees. That meant that in order to run the Gorge, we had to put all the customers with the 3 Gorge certified guides. Because the boats were so crowded, the only way for the trainees to get some river time was to send a separate training boat down with me as the guide. I had guided parts of the Gorge before and run the Gorge so many times that I have lost count, but I had never guided the whole thing from top to bottom. So it was a trial-by-fire type of run. It was just me and two trainees (one of whom it was her second day on the river). We had an awesome day!! A big thanks to Brian and Megan for being as kick ass as they were. Here are some of the pictures that Whitewater Photography got of our run through Sunshine Falls. ~2210cfs.




Too bad they didn't get any photos of my carnage in Boat Eater Rapid. I would have loved a shot of me flying through the air as I'm being launched out of the boat. It was a fairly high-carnage day on the river. Several companies had some trouble in different parts. But I feel special. It my first flip while guiding. The saying among raft guides is this... "There are those who have flipped and those who will." A few people add "and those who will again." We swam one of the biggest holes in the river. Woohoo!

Saturday had me out in Salida for the Spiral Drive Run. I didn't do too bad... for a run that starts above 7000' and has a 500' gain in elevation. Length: 4 miles. Time: 42:58. At least I was able to run the whole way and didn't have to walk any part of the uphill. The run was followed immediately by the P2H4 Blue Dress hash, which we managed to show up to the circle for.