Mission: Scared, Happy, Sad TRIP OVER.

Mission: Scared, Happy, Sad TRIP OVER.

Kurt Casey at Huilo Huilo falls hike day

Any man who knows a thing knows he knows not a dam thing at all. “k’naan”

It was a great trip for me.  Not just cause our guide Kurt was the fountain of knowledge brillian at every turn, but because of the group. Chuck, my father in law surprising me with his whit and humor, and in so many other ways on the water.  Wayne and Leah solid paddlers, and their own personal team that blended seamlessly with everyone else.  The trip Piñata, Sandra, sticking in there for the duration, and getting all kinds of flack from me off the river.  Louis a consummate pain in the ass, kept me on schedule and on the program. Every day he would keep the everyone in the group accountable for giving it all they got everyday.   A pain a gift.   Christo, who came on the trip found peace on a big waterfall run, as well as experienced a bit of what his son has come to know as every day life.   Lenny, was just lenny.  Perfectly timed retorts, surprisingly playful demeanor and just the kind of person you want at the end of a rope when the Crap hits the fan.  As for me it was a tough trip in a way.  I find my accountability for a persons experience to be a great weight for me to bear.  Not just in terms of skill vs river.  Any one can figure out what class a trip to run.  I was responsible for finding a balance between pushing and hurting.  Not just the body but the mind.  I found that this is a balance that I can find, a weight that I now know that I can bear.  Made easy with a little help from my friends.

Pictures speak now.  Happy travels  Happy times.

it took 3 hrs to get a pizza here.

Louis, now known as "Swami Sahib"  Check out the budgie smuggler up front!!!!

Waiting for a Sockeye to run..  turns out the frenchy took the dip

Wayne, steady handed throughout the trip. 

Looking back upstream on the upper fuy.  half way.

Kurt, being crazy......  usual.

french canadian boob grab, with scream

french vs english.  don't mess with Princess Leah.......  pipes!

The B-Team

Hot springs day. 

Christo grabbin the Chuck for a cool falls drop at the hotsprings.

Cookin at the springs.

Frenchy.  being french.

 

Mission: Upper Palguin, fear and consequence

Mission:  Upper Palguin

This Run has scared me for quite some time.   I am not worried about me, but my people.  I have to manage the skills, the desire and the safety.  All things that I find easy to do on a river I know.  But I had not got to run the Palguin before the trip.  I had to trust the word of my Friends, Dave Hughes and Kurt Casey.  I trust them, but perspective has a fickle eye.  We pulled out at 9am for the top of the river and put in on the land bridge.  The Run was “SPORTY”.  That’s my word for tough.  It took them all to the brink.  We didn’t have any swims, we had 3 popped skirts however all paddled to shore.  I am going to let the photos do the talking but hat’s off to Christo for moving from B team to K team and doing it in style.

Pictures.

 

Mission: Loosing is often winning, the rescue And PG 13 required!

Mission: Loosing is often winning, the rescue And PG 13 required.

Princess Leah, stompin it.

Christo, "Logan Greyling" Dad Showing why Logan is the way he is... NUTS...... and yes they are clones.....

Lenny always quiet, always funny.

Christo sporting some Tribe. on a waterfall scout

As a kayak intructor one might think that students getting their butts served to them on a silver platter cordially offered by yours truly would be a bad thing but it was a perfect day.  I remember looking up the river at a series of 25 footers, 10, 8’s, 16’s and more thinking these guys have their hands full today and they did and they  didn’t.  Wayne, Louis, Leah were running the very edge of what they could do and did most of it in style.  We have been going hard, maybe too hard the last 5 days running rivers pretty constantly.  Louis from CDB was the first to break, he broke his paddle at the bigger drop, managed to roll up, Wayne decided to have a creek-boat rodeo in a small but powerful little hole.  As usual looking back upstream at the girl or even the cascading montage of crystal blue water and its raw power.  Leah took a swim about 3 more drops down in a powerful river wide ledge only a big set of arms could propel you over with. Exhausted she carried on, the next rapid Louis turn.  Louis got dragged into boulder hell at high speed and was forced to pull the pin just above another 16 footer.  The bag found its mark and pendulumed him in just above the next falls and his boat tore down stream and got caught in a sive thankfully on the immediate right, within our reach and on our side of the river.  Louis safe and sound, Leah broke out after me hit her boof early and ended up in the curtain of the 16 footer.  Her boat is still behind the curtain as I type this and actually I have to go back and get it right now…… TBC.

Boat helm maybe?  we fit.  look for the Frenchman.

Ok, I could only take a couple people so as not to make a gong show at the waterfall.  I got Christo(ropes), Lenny(power), Kurt(river sage), and the Frenchman all down to the waterfall.  Christo set up the ropes with Lenny, Louis and Kurt sorted out the Inflatable and the plan was to go on line paddle me into the waterfall curtain at its weak spot and pull the boat out of the curtain Kurt on power me on the bow grab at the front of the raft.. 

Kurt Casey Watching my ass. During the Boat recovery.

We couldn’t see the kayak but it was there and we all knew it.  Kurt while scampering about found a little hole behind the waterfall and peered in.   He called me over and said, “ you can get in there”.  I managed to crawl through it Kurt holding me via rope, just between the curtain into the room behind the drop.  I Crawled about 20 feet Kurt feeding me line just in case the Curtain caught me.  I came around the bend just out of sight and there was the boat.  I cracked out our preplan whistle and the boys hauled it out and we were back in Business.

Thermal Springs...  they went forever.

I took a shot of the rescue team all mooning the camera that was in the back of leah’s boat and left it on her camera.  I would show you, but someone, not naming names (starts with chris and ends with toe) might have mooned a bit too much rear end for the interweb to be seeing…….  Happy times, good beer great company and fantastic paddling. 

Havin a mission

EDITED FOR PG13 eyes ONly.

Mission: Headaches, traveling bands, breakdowns. Classic mission.

 

Mission: Headaches, traveling bands, breakdowns.  Classic mission. 

Running a trip has a certain stress about it that comes from a place within I call my empathy curse.  I love making a trip go well and determining the outcome of the trip on my attention, work and determination.   The problem is I feel empathy, way too much of it.  I put my self in the position of every complaint, every mix-up every problem and when I am running the trip its everything that I can do to be sure that I am operating at my fullest potentia.  Not just to make people happy but to avoid the feeling of not doing a good job or worrying about a complaint.  The Trip has been awesome, loving It.  But its not always perfect.

My Suburban blew a wheel bearing yesterday.  Held us up for hours.  We suffered in the hot sun while eating a meal at a gas station, behind the gass station against a pile of bricks.  We ended up finding a cattle truck of all things, riding in the back of it in the less than glorious style of air-conditioned comfort we were growing accustomed too.   My head in my hands shaking back and forth silently saying, “why me” We picked up a bunch of guys on the road hitchhiking and Chuck got the guy to play in the back of the truck as we crept along at 40 kms’ per hours. We were sweating like mad, listening to this guy playing away, while I held him up so he could play without falling over.…  Its all turned out great, got everyone off the Trufel Trufel before a class 5 plus drop with no eddy’s, which stressed me out so bad I think that I may never get them to drop. But we made it back just fine, happy and tired.

I could say a lot more, just check out the photos…..  Special thanks to Dave for keeping an eye on the details running the place smoothly and keeping everyone happy.

Billy Harris no question on a mission.

Mission :Arrival

Mission:  The Arrival.

Well it is in my nature to kind of be a bit unorganized.  I have always had my wife to help me make good plans and set a schedule.  I am sitting here early in the morning making plans and feeling pretty good about them.  I will see how they work out but I have to say I am feeling pretty confident so far…….  I have a great group, the K team and the B team.  K is for Kurt Casey, my guide here. B team is for Billy.  Kurt and the K team is an  Amazing guy, first D’d most of Chile and an amazing resource for the group.  He’s got all kinds of knowledge, stuff you just can’t know unless you live and have a family here.  There isn’t another person I would want to have on our team.   

Loading up gear, drinking coffee with the father in law and just happy as hell to be here.  It’s everyone’s first night and it worked out great. 

Chucks Take

Well, I’m just finished breakfast and waiting for the official start of Day One. It thundered and lighteninged last night for a long time, which is very unusual for Chile, but we awoke to a bright sunny day with a predicted high in the high 20’s.  Billy was up earlier than normal and stressed out as he has a right to be. It’s his first trip to Chile with clients, and he is bending over backwards trying to make sure that they are looked after properly. I am sure that it will all work out, and there will be hiccups, but everyone is working hard to make sure that this trip is a success. David, the owner the Pucon Kayak Hostel, is very accomadating. Kurt, the other guide is a fountain of knowledge, both about the rivers and local lore and legend. We have a mixed group of people with varying interests and backgrounds. Everyone is excited to get started, some with a bit of apprehension, but eager and ready to go. The K Team is off for a full day on a class IV. The rest of us are doing two short runs today. I am in the B Team and here to learn a bit and enjoy myself. So far, it’s been great, and I am sure that it will continue to be so.