Women's Whitewater Festival

Awesome Paddling:

Playing at Gilmore's Mistake on the Wolf's Section III.

I had long been looking forward to the Women's Whitewater Fest at Bearpaw Adventure Resort! The resort was devastated by a tornado last year June, which was particularly heartbreaking and hard to grasp, because in that very area only the resort but pretty much all of the resort were shredded to wood chips and boats wraped around and speared on trees.

The whole paddling community in the Upper Midwest is applauding the courage it has taken Jamie and her friends to rebuild the resort. Yeah they had a lot of people helping with cleaning up and fundraising, but rebuilding your life's dream after complete devastation takes some strenght in character!

I can't do justice to how grateful I am that they did! I came away from this weekend with a quantum leap in empowerment as a person, woman and paddler! The calm energy with which we took on the logistics of getting all the girls, the gear and the boats to the water, the cameradery between all of us paddlers and the emotional and technical intelligence of our instructors was paramount and fuelled this quantum leap. I know, I am not the only one, many have taken a lot more back, than they came with.

It felt so good to see women I had met two years ago, when I was at the festival for the first time and still a very very scared duckling!

Laughing Liz who was celebrating her 50th birthday that very day! I know it was a happy one!

I'm telling you, a bunch of whitewater women can load and unload a dozend boats from a trailer in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

Myra "Talltree", who's always got a witty and to the point comment on her lips!


Amanda, who isn't afraid to swim in class IV water.

Bea G, who is a wonderful travelling and paddling buddy!


Bearpaw's Jamie, who is also an amazing instructor and knows exactly what when wrong and can tell you what to do next time and she does it in a way that makes you understand that it is all part of the journey.

Nothing wrong with dipping the pond lillies along the way :-)




Bearpaw Adventure Resort:

The Kayak Tree. And the Bearpaw Inn: Best Margaritas I've ever had!

Our little cosy rustic. It looks so small looking at the front, that we first drove past it dismissing it as an outhouse! Too funny. But it was a lot roomier inside and very cozy with lovely orthopedic matresses!!! No complaints from Bea and I.


A circle of women sharing what whitewater paddling means to each one of us:

Anna Levesque, Freestyle Bronce Medallist from Canada. One of, if not The most important role model for women's whitewater kayaking in Northamerica and elsewhere today.

So many of us had gained groundbreaking and lifechanging insights into our selves and into the world around us, here's some of the most poignant one's:

Amy V (instructor): ...and then I see a woman find something that wasn't there before and once she found it it will always be there (she was nearly crying because it means so much to her to give her fellows the chance to find these things)

Name forgotten: ...and then you see, that all you have to do is just to get out of your own way!

Anna Levesque: Paddling is my spiritual practice.

Amen to all of those!

I felt very privileged, that all those truely uniquely amazing woman were listening intently to what I had to say and nodding and finding things in what I said, that was helping them find another piece to the puzzle. That was truely empowering for me.

A fitting end to a transforming day/weekend.

I came back feeling good about my kayaking skills and empowered and strong as a person.

All you women out there paddling in whitewater, come and join us next year. I know for sure I will be there in 2009!

Paddlemania! Slot Machine Showcase

Here's what I went up to Paddlemania for: The Slotmachine carnage! I drove up with Nora who was going to run the St Louis, which at 2800 cfs was still a bit much for me. But then I had paddled 4 times in the last 7 days, so I just had a day off for bumming around outside.

Joerg Steinbach (often referred to as the devil), Joel Becker, and John "Kiffy" Kiffmeyer (gotta love those side burns!) looking into the abyss that was their destiny...

Rock, paper, sissor had decided who was to go first and since I don't see Techno Tommy, he must have already gone down to put in as the trail blazer.

Here's what he was facing: Slot maching from above. (Even climbing to a good viewing spot was scary enough for yours truely, but I did, what had to be done :-)

Here's Kiffy, who refined his line after watching Techno Tommy's first run. Check out Nora's pictures, you can see there much better, how steep his stern angle was right down there.

You could clearly see, how they were refining their lines with each run they had been able to watch before them! I'd say, it takes quite the paddler to make such small adjustments to the line!

People expected to have a carnage ratio of at least 50/50. As Peter Noren said: It's just a craps shoot. But, there was only one swimmer, who only just missed his roll at the bottom after going a little too far right in the slot and getting churned. Awesome!

Thanks Tommy, Kiffy, Joerg and Joel for throwing yourself down Slotmaching for us!

Thanks Midwest Mountaineering for the party! I love my new Sex Wax gift :-)

Minnehaha at 135cfs

Sara, Bryan and Art.

Since I had such a hard time with this new boat compared to my creek boat I was looking for some partners in crime to get a better handle on it in moving water.

Art took pitty on me and Sara and Bryan joined us to go to the Minnehaha. Still quite a bit of swimming, but towards the end of the run I was starting to get a bit of a feel for those edges in ferries and eddy turns, which made me very happy. Did a couple of unplanned bow stalls.

It was another exercise to appreciate those really little achievement like. I leaned into a rock! And I hung on to my boat every time I swam! I leaned the right way during a bow stall! :-)

For my river log: Looks like something two people can do at this level easily as long as you watch those strainers!!!

The journey is the destination! But thank you so much Art, that you had sooo much patience with me!!! :-) And thanks Sara & Bryan for the company and rescues of water bottles :-)

Vermillion at 95 cfs

Nora showing us (Sarah, Bryan and yours truly) how it's done!

Nora surfing Donut.
Sarah surfing Donut.

This was the first time I took my CR 250 playboat on moving water, which made for a bit of a SwimFest :-) Gotta get used to those edges in smaller water first. My creeker is sooo forgiving :-) But my creek boat is just killing me, every time I try to get it down to the Verm and then back up again, so I need to get those edges sorted quick!

I still had a blast and got to the take out with a big smile on my face, just like Nora, Sarah and Bryan. For me, that's a successful time on the river: fun times!

Life is Good: Kettle at 3000cfs & Dinner Party

What a perfect run! The only thing: It was over so quickly, because the current was pretty swift at this level. As David said, "we weren't afloat, we were azoom!" In fact, I caught myself attempting my first backward ferry in my desperate attempt to catch an eddy that was zooming past me and to slow down at least a little.

What a wonderful group of people! I didn't know anybody of them, but have I ever met paddlers who weren't good folks to be with? There was Susan & Rob, David, Carol, Charlie & Nancy, Dean & Sarah & Emma and Ann & Scott.

Lunch time at Big Eddy with Nancy's scrumptious "Canoe Trip Brownies". Yumm!

Scott and Ann surfing their IOC2 an inflatable canoe they clearly had a lot of fun in!!!

The water was fun, some nice big waves to bob in, no rocks to worry about. (Actually I was glad to see a rock at some point. Had to have an eddy behind it :-) Quite the contrast, when I ran this stretch last year, when it was an arrid bone yard with hardly a channel to keep afloat in for any length of time and my kayak only needs about 8 inches... I also ran it a couple of weeks ago at a mid level and was surprised, that one eddy line on river left behind a sharp cliff I thought would be unpassable at that level for me was really very mild, where another I hadn't even worried about on river right after a cliff had developed a white border between the water directions. Nice and visible as that line was, I did not follow Ann & Scott into that eddy but joined the others on river left.

In an eddy, enjoying the river beautiful and nearly at the end of our run.

What a nice experience meeting new paddlers and seeing how canoists do it. The group dynamic is a little different than I was used to from kayakers, but fun and good to see, that such a mixed group works well too! But I do appreciate, that there was Susan and Carol with their kayaks, so I wasn't the only one so close to the water. You gotta love Susan, she makes the cutest little seal noises, when she launches :-)

Inevitabley the run was at it's end at Kennedy Landing I was off to catch a dinner party with some friends! Luckily I had brought the dessert along in my cooler...

Frank was hosting at his lovely townhouse, which eventually I actually found after several phone call. I am suburb impared, what can I do...

Laura and Frank laying on some finishing touches.

Tom, Roxanne and Frank. (Not sure, how Courtney got out of having her picture taken... sneaky!)

Ah, you can't beat sitting down with a bunch of good friends with good conversation and good food! Everything was absolutely delicious and mediterranean goodness: Courtney & Tom's Antipasti with cheese, prociutto, olives, fire grilled peppers and asparagus and caprese salad as well as a very surprising grilled corn nibble with a kick. Then there was Franks fantastic chicken dish with a chunky mushroom tomato sauce complemented by Roxanne's flavor rich oven roasted ratatouille and Laura's creamy risotto. I brought up the rear with one of my greek favorites, strained yoghurt with walnuts and honey, which everybody seemed to like as well.

I can't wait for our next dinner circle installment in 2 months :-)

Now doesn't that dinner table look dreamy :-)

Look at that!

Did I already mention, that live is good?

Scouting the Lester

The Lester is a creek that feeds into Lake Superior at Duluth. Nora wanted to have a look at it and here are some pictures from scouting. A lot of the lines look pretty obvious and although I am not quite at that level yet, I liked what I saw. It just felt like a fun friendly creek to me at this level, justified or not. But then again feeling comfortable or feeling "it" is a big part of a good river experience. Aaron did run it the next morning and reported, that he had a very good run, but that he could see how missing a line in certain spots could get you into a bit of trouble.

Here I tried to capture the contrast between the rapids and a very calm eddy right next to each other. The more I get a chance to look at he water the more I can see features and lines. Not all boating improvement happens on the water.

Frowning face whole on the left and smiling face whole on the right.

This waterfall is called "Almost Always". I asked Mike M if it's called that because it almost always flips people. Nope it's because you almost always walk this fall. Bill suggested to rename it to "F*cking Never!" There is another feature above it that's called "Oh Sh*t, Oh G*d". I just love this name! Sorry don't have a picture of it.

I don't have any pictures of the creeking on the Knife River Sunday due to a camera problem, but check out Bryan's blog, he's got some awesome shots that Ole took!

Lower St Louis at 5000cfs and Upper at 7000cfs

Two stroms this week bumped up the Upper Louie from about 1350 cfs to about 7000cfs! Too intense to paddle for me, but a great challenge for Nora and Aaron. So while they were riding rapids I was taking pictures, which I love, no doubt about that! Also, the more I look at whitewater, the better my river reading gets and seeing lines and danger spots to avoid in the midst of what used to be just one white mess.

Thomson Dam upriver of the 210 bridge. Midwest white water = cola fountain.

"Slot machine"

The back of Slot Machine.

I had been going with Nora and as I was approaching the bridge going East she told me to take a look left immediately when I got on the bridge and it was a literally breathtaking moment of awe. I remember two times in my life where I had that kind of immediate reaction to an experience. One was the first time I looked through the Algau Gate at the Bavarian Alps. The Algau Gate approaches after a long drive on the autobahn going South through a canyon of pine forest, which produces a kind of dark green tunnel vision. Then suddenly at the Gate the panorama opens to reveal the mountain range of the Alps from one corner of the eye to the other. I saw it in early December and the range was bright and snow covered, which made the contrast to the dark green tunnel that had narrowed our vision for what seemed hours to open up to a landscape of rock and snow. The second time I had this experience was surprisingly enough walking into a man made structure: Lincoln Cathedral. If I believed in a personified interventionist God, this would be the man made place I would have felt his/her presence the most profoundly.

Looking downstream on the 210 bridge.


At Jay Cook on the swinging bridge looking upstream.


The swinging bridge at Jay Cook.


Looking downstream.



Quite the contrast, here the calm and tranquility of the reservoir above the dam.

When Nora and Aaron came back from their run of the 7000 cfs Upper Louie the were still hopping with adrenaline despite their cool down time paddling across the reservoir. They'd definitely had had a good time. And I definitely had had no business paddling it at the level. So good decisions all around.

Back to the Louie for paddling another time.

At 7000 cfs? Time is on my side!