Snow in the Southeast!!!

Howdy people of the internet world. Tater and Biscuit say hello too. A few weeks back Flat Rock North Carolina and much of the western North Carolina area was blasted by a massive snow storm. So Shane and I thought.... it snowed... so.... lets go kayaking!!!!

The happy family sitting in front of the house, slightly christmas card esq eh? Shane and the dogs had a great time in the snow.

All of the boats got buried....

Even thought Yonton doesn't boat much he is still much remembered, boofing into those sweet chains that Shane put on the Sprinter van. I couldn't give him any crap for that because I couldn't even get my Subaru up the hill....

On the way to the river. Glad it was all downhill... literally. So since the road to the takeout was not about to get plowed very quick we decided to try to run the Green anyways. We couldn't get to the put-in off of Upward road because there was a jackknifed tractor trailer blocking the whole road. So luckily Shane and I live a few miles away from the upper run, right by Bayless Boof. So we ended up hooking up with some other folks at the gas station who needed to figure out a way to get to the river too. We could help them and they helped us. We left cars at Green River Adventures and rolled back to the house.

Shane waiting at the top of a very snowy Frankenstein.

After watching Shane battle with the snow while portaging around Gorilla I opted to run it.. I am a lot more smooth on the water than I am on land.

Thanks for the photos Dave. They turned out really well!!!!

If you want to see the rest of my Gorilla run feel free to get onto the Liquid Logic site and watch a good beat down in the Scream Machine hole.

I think there is some snow on the ground

Shane styling Sunshine as he always does.

We left the boats at the bottom in respectable areas and hiked up the 17 switchbacks to the top of the mountain. Thanks to the Smokin Hot Shuttle Bunny, Holly, the hike went very well because she had hiked down the hill with Vodka and cranberry juice. Note the broken paddle in the front....

I am no pro, but Im pretty sure that paddles are not supposed to look like that.

Holly had bought these boots at the beginning of the day and hiked down the mountain just to hike back up with all of us in toe. She is the best and if you ever see her feel free to say hi and maybe you will get lucky and she will make you a drink from her ever ready bar in the back of her shuttle-mobile.

So happy holidays to all and I hope that everyone has a great 2010. Remember every year life can only get better, with more wisdom comes more shenanegans!!!!

Hope everyone is staying warm in their respectable areas and paddling in the snow!!!

A

Movin on Up

So, when I graduated from World Class I moved to Asheville North Carolina and began school at AB Tech to become a Paramedic. I even got to spend a week down in Atlanta doing clinicals at Grady, in downtown Atlanta. I was in school for 5 semesters straight.

I even got to do Hazardous Materials training. My medic class was pretty sweet. We did a lot of fun things... and lot of boring things, ie. sitting in class.

We got to spray fire hoses as Eric Stalowy is demonstrating here. Dont try this at home kids

But while I was in class, I made skittle art. I also made it through college watching kayaking videos wishing that I could be kayaking. As most kayakers do when they are 20 and in college. I would stare out the windows when it was raining and dream about the rivers I could be running and the boofs I could be doing.

But when they let us out of the class room we were busy saving lives, putting fires out, and taking cats out of trees. I loved the clinicals and being able to spend time outside, as any person of my mentality would.

But, boofing got in the way of my studying and this rapid called Big Boy of Raven Fork broke my nose. I figured out that I didn't want to be a Paramedic I figured out that I wanted to be a kayaker. A good kayaker, a really good kayaker.

So I loaded up and went kayaking. Did what I was put in Asheville to do, run the SHIT!! Still trying to get a few credits for my last semester, even though I wouldn't graduate.

I got to go to places in Western North Carolina like the Road Prong, Raven Fork, Toxaway, West Fork of the French Broad, and of corse the Green River.

I got to paddle with people like Robin Betz, Polk Deiters, and Jon Grace. I was stoked to be able to paddle almost all the time and get better at paddling while I was doing it.

So finally I got done with school and Jon Grace (pictured above) asked me to go to Idaho with him. So... inevitably I got to live my dream and headed West to Idaho and Colorado for the summer.

The view from a cliff on the South Fork of the Salmon. Middle of nowhere, Idaho.

Happy Holidays!!

A Short History

Welcome!! To Adrienes wonderful world of TREATS! Until the world enters a new era of 2010 I will be serving up a plethora of posts. They are going to range from my childhood....only the good parts. My high school.. only from when I was at World Class Kayak Academy, and what I do now... only the fun parts though.

My junior and senior year of High School I was fortunate enough to get out of the vortex of Forest Hills Central High School in Grand Rapids Michigan and go to World Class Kayak Academy. We traveled to Africa my first semester, Ecuador my second, New Zealand my third, and Chile my fourth.

Opposed to contrary belief we sometimes did school, even if my pre-calc teacher wore shirts like this to class...

Or no short at all. Alas, we made it through classes and morning workout every morning and we got to go kayaking.

Sometimes we got to watch the beat down and sometime we were the show. Just depended on what day it was. Having 14 high school students on a river, one of them at least has to get worked for a bit. Palguin River, Chile

We did study even if it was outside, on a bench, looking out over the valley in Pucon with Volcan Villa Rica in the distance, always smoldering.

It was no different in New Zealand, just a little bit colder on some of the days. But who can complain when physics class is on a picnic table and Red Bull is supplied.

There was always kayaking to be done though. Thats what we were all thinking about when we were in class. Siete Tazas, Chile

My senior year crew in Chile outside of Kayak Pucon in Pucon...

But sadly, the dream always has to come to an end just as the day ends every night. But at that point the night starts and that is even more fun!

So I graduated from World Class in the Spring of 2006. I got my diploma and was home free.... only to be taught later the real world is a lot harder than the vacation of World Class.

Keep checkin back, another post soon!!!

Happy Holidays