THE ABC'S FOR YOUR SUMMER 2019

After a long cold winter and very wet spring, the days of summer are finally here. This weekend kickoffs the official unofficial start to summer.  It's time to organize and alphabetize yours for summer list of adventure and fun near the water. Not sure where to start? We have some from great tips A to Z  on how you can make this summer unforgettable. So you waiting for, as Van Morrison said, "Smell the sea and feel the sky. Let your soul and spirit fly."

Abandon your phone Ok, not for the whole summer, but at least day or two. Writer Michelle A. Homme says, "The quietness we encounter will allow us to hear the birds sing and to hear the wind whip lightly through the trees as the seasons begin to change.  We can recharge without feeling like we’re being pulled in so many directions."

Blast to the Beach Whether crowded or remote, sandy or rocky the beaches rules are always the same. Breathe the sea air, rest, relax and reflect with no shoes required. "I feel so lucky to know the magic of travel by way of water," wrote kayak adventure Kate Hives in her blog At Home on the Water, "To intimately feel the ebb and flood of the ocean as it caresses the rocky shores and sandy beaches of this coastal playground. Sometimes I feel like I have been told a great secret of the mystery of the natural world and my – our – connection to it."

Catch a Wave  All of that white snow from this past winter means a summer of whitewater for rafters and kayakers as they anticipating a longer season than normal with rapids. “There’s nothing better than spending a great day in nature, on the river with some friends," said Whitewater Excitement's Phillip Schoenhoff, "If you’re looking to smile all day, laugh until your abs hurt, and experience the excitement and thrill of the rapids, come on out and join us!”

Demo Your Dream Ride You wouldn't think about buying a car without a test drive, so why would you want to do that with your kayak? Many shops have demo programs for people who are in the market to buy a kayak. The River Store
 
Escape the City Did you get outside today? No, really outside, away from the noise, traffic and the endless scurrying about. Scientific research has long documented how just spending time in the great outdoors can have numerous mental and physical health benefits for rebooting your body and mind. As John Muir reminded all of us, "Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."

Feast on Your Float Tired of the normal river food being peanut butter sandwiches, simple freeze-dried packets, and oatmeal? Check out Lacey Anderson's Camp Cooking WITHOUT Coolers cookbook series.  She has developed menus that are nutritious, good tasting and easy to prepare, that is also lightweight and does not require refrigeration.

Go

Live

Incredible

Delights

Experience

Intimacy

Natural

Wonders

Experience

Tranquill

Lush

Amazing

Nature

Delta

Serenity  Paddler and operator of Delta Kayaking Adventures Kathy Bunton loves her experiences on California's waterlogged delta so much she put in the form of an acrostic poem to encourage you to come to glide along.

Help Clean Your Waterway Last year, cleanup organizers and volunteers spend a lot of time outside getting dirty as according to American Rivers the National River Cleanup registered cleanups at 3,166 sites, mobilized 57,228 volunteers and removed almost 2,000,000 pounds of trash. American Rivers
 
Indulge in S'mores What's a good camp out without the best dessert? Who doesn't love chocolate, marshmallow and Graham crackers? But as camping mom, Christy Harris Bryant points out pay close attention, "Because the golden rule with s' mores is. Never burnt, never burnt, Nobody wants a burnt s' more."

Journey Down A River "I love river trips," wrote outdoor educator Jeff Jackson in Paddling Magazine, "The whole trip though, not just the exciting bits or the paddling parts. I love the early possibilities and preliminary ideas, finding the maps and digging for the info I need to connect the dots."

 

Kayak a Lot That needs no explanation. Just go do it.

Love Your Parks "National parks are the best idea we ever had, wrote Wallace Stegner, "Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst." We heartily agree. Whether it's a national park or state park visiting these national landscapes of beauty and history shouldn't just be done in the summertime, but all year round. National Parks State Parks

Mix and Mingle at Water Festival These gatherings celebrate the river community and its history. Some are well-funded mega-fests while others are grassroots efforts led by volunteers with a universal love of showcasing their river. "These unique assemblies of river enthusiasts, first-timers and nomadic paddlers produce intense challenges, excellent learning opportunities, and unforgettable memories," wrote Kalob Grady in Paddling Magazine, "While non-kayaking friends will love the live music, vendors, silent auction and wild party."

Navigate Your Neighborhood When you live somewhere long enough, it has a tendency to stop being interesting by being too familiar. "Throughout my life, I fell in love with places other than where I was living. This feeling is common in many adventurers," wrote Natalie Warren in her paddling town series for Canoe and Kayak Online, but, after exploring the beauty, and history and the attractions she had second thoughts as she treats her hometown as a new destination and recommends you do the same, "While I don’t doubt that you would love it here, remember to love where you live. Explore your home."


Open a New Window "Summer means promises fulfilled, wrote naturalist Sigurd Olson, "Objectives gained, hopes realized. The surge of doing and achieving, of watching and enjoying is finally replaced by a sense of quiet and floating and a certain fullness and repletion, as though one cannot absorb any more."

Plunge into Boating So what's stopping you? If you been thinking about learning to kayak either whitewater or just want to know how to tour the lake lets just say there are boatloads of ways to get on to the water. "We all know adventure and exploration are not just for teenagers," writes Current Adventures Kayaking School and Trips' Dan Crandall, "Learning to kayak is an easy activity that will rekindle your youthful enthusiasm for many years to come." Current Adventures

Quiet Your Mind It's summer. It's time to stop stressing. Chase away those negative thoughts and take advantage of your precious time. Writer Michelle Maros said, "Sometimes we even forget that the whole point of going on vacation is to relax and have fun! This week, let’s leave all the stress behind and focus on how to really enjoy your time away, no matter where you’re going or who you’re with."

Race on the River Whether you want to support a great cause, get in shape or awake your gladiator spirit. Whether with solo or with a team there are divisions and courses for everyone using almost anything that floats. “If you’re in a competitive class you’re gonna go and go fast pounding down the river to beat your neighbor," The California River Quest race director Emily Matthews told the Chico Enterprise-Record about this weekend's event, "In the adventure class you’re out there to play and have fun. But in both classes, you pretty much paddle the whole time.”Race the Red  Great American Triathlon

Swim in Nature I don't mean skinny dipping but then again, why not. Adventure athlete Sophie Radcliffe‏ tweeted, "There’s something about swimming in nature that makes me happy and relieves stress; I love watching the world float by and gliding through the water with the sun on my back."

Time Travel in a Canoe Go back in time this summer. No special effects needed for this odyssey. All you need is paddle and canoe to feel like a voyager discovering the lake for the first time. "We need to be more aware of where we are headed and from whence we came," said famed canoeist Bill Mason, "An appreciation of the canoe and acquisition of the necessary skills to utilize it as a way to journey back to what’s left of the natural world is a great way to begin this voyage of discovery.” Sy Park BWCA

Unwind at Sunset  English Novelist Pamela Hansford Johnson eloquently paints this description of dusk while on the water, "The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire." Who can argue? The sunlight flashing in each droplet from our paddles as the water glows in a golden glitter. How can you resist the sight of tranquil lake basking in the dimming light?

Vow to Wear Your PFD "We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: when you’re on the water, wear your life jacket, also known as a Personal Flotation Device or PFD." states the NRS website, "Year after year, dozens of people lose their lives while boating. And year after year, statistics show that many of these tragedies could have been prevented by wearing a well-fitted, properly-adjusted life jacket."

Wander Like Your Lost  It's the perfect quote for summer from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings that says, "Not all those who wander are lost." It encourages you to slow along the way to the lake or river. Stop in at the paddle shop to get some advice, hike that trail that you have always paddled or stop at that scenic vista. Summer days go by so quickly, you should make them last as long as possible.

X-Out Your Own Adventure "Let’s celebrate that we had our own adventure," writes Pete Delosa in his blog River Bum suggesting in these Instagram days of big water and even bigger drops there is no reason to count out your triumph. "If you went on the water and had fun then you won today and that is worth celebrating. Other people might have been looking paddleboarding kind of day today than we were and that is ok. I hope they found what they were after, but that doesn’t take anything away from our success."

Yoga on Your Paddle Board We get it. Just standing up on the board is challenging enough for some, but as the founder of Stoked Yogi, Amelia Travis told Yoga Journal, "Before you write off stand up paddleboard (SUP) yoga as impossible, here’s what I tell all first-timers: “If you can breathe, you can do yoga. If you can stand on one foot, you can paddle."

Zigzag a Water Trail Whether you want to go the distance or simply float to the next landing there is a water trail just waiting for you. Featuring public water accesses, campsites, rest areas and miles and miles of best paddling anywhere you can spend the day, week or the entire summer just like John Connelly did when he took his epic 1500 mile paddling adventure across the Northeastern U.S. and Eastern Canada. In Dying Out Here Is Not An Option, a chronicle of his trip he wrote, "Seeing the canoe loaded with all I require to survive for the weeks to come," he wrote, "Makes me think. this canoe and I are going to forge a relationship over the next 800 miles. What will that end up looking like? What will be the story?" US Water Trails

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THE FATAL FLAW

“Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else’s.” --- Billy Wilder

I'm that guy who likes to bring on camera on every outing on the water. After working as a photojournalist most of life it just seemed natural for me to tote along with a camera and document my time on the river or lake. When I first started paddling, I would pick out my favorite image for my paddling journals. When social media blew up, I jumped on board and shared pictures with my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. For me, it's been a fun and easy way to look back on my experiences on the water. But along with was that, came that underlining worry that was always out there circling my kayak like a shark or crocodile.

Current Adventures 50+ Kayaking Class

Anybody and everybody who knows anything about photography knows that cameras and water just don't mix. These days most DSLRs can handle a few drops of rain, but a torrential downpour or an accidental drop into the lake can turn that once expensive piece of Japanese electronics and mechanization into one soggy piece of junk.

In the advent of outdoor adventure photography, Timothy O'Sullivan one of the better Civil War photographers went west after the war to document US government explorations expeditions of Isthmus of Darien (Panama) and the Grand Canyon. Using large-format cameras, glass plates, and wagon loads of darkroom equipment and chemicals, O’Sullivan hauled them up and over mountains, across deserts, through jungles, and down rapids while producing a classic and memorable volume work that are sill uninfluential to this day.

Conditions were brutal, as O’Sullivan faced extreme heat and bitter cold, dense jungle and dangerous swift rivers. In today's Panama, on an expedition in search of a canal route, he encountered dismal photographic conditions due to heavy rain. While disaster struck on an 1871 voyage down the Grand Canyon when O'Sullivan lost all the three hundred negatives glass plates he made when several of the expedition's boats capsized in the Colorado River.

Lake Natoma

In a quote attributed to him, O'Sullivan said, "Place and people are made familiar to us by means of the camera in the hands of skillful operators, who, vying with each other in the excellence of their productions, avail themselves of every opportunity to visit interesting points, and to take care to lose no good chance to scour the country in search of new fields for photographic labor."

Since the invention of the camera, scouring of the earth in search of those interesting points and majestic places has been a labor for photographers everywhere. As Ansel Adams said, "“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”

Clean up paddle on Lake Natoma with Bayside Adventure Sports

And for that reason alone, I have strived throughout my photographic career to make my great pictures by putting my camera into interesting as well as usual places. During my TV and newspaper days, I followed the mantra of legendary photographer Bob Capa who said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."

When I got into paddling, my camera always came along in a gallon-size plastic bag. Those were in the days before I knew what dry bags were. I can remember on my first canoe trips carefully taking the camera and lens out the plastic bag, shooting a few pictures from the bow and carefully stowing it back into the bag and then into my backpack in the hull of the boat.

Lake Natoma with Bayside Adventure Sports

Thank goodness technology sped along and gave me a rugged and affordable waterproof camera that shoots both pictures and video but could also survive all kinds of tough and watery environments that I could dish out for it. Compact enough without ditching quality, it fit perfectly under my PFD making it easy to pull out and photograph others with me on my adventures, while simple enough to use to position it in a tree or on a rock to recorded my outing while alone.

In a recent report published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care found that 259 people died between 2011 and 2017 while stepping in front of the camera in an often dangerous destination. To achieve that dramatic shots, in most of these incidents shot these selfie-risk takers defy their personal safety to get that photo, that is until that would-be photographer slips and tumbles down over the cliff into a ravine or body water. Drowning, falling from a moving vehicle or high location was found to be the most common cause in leading to their deaths.

"It’s easy to write off these tragedies as catastrophically bad judgment," wrote Kathryn Miles in Outside Magazine Online, "Armchair internet commentators have had a field day with each reported death. For every lament of young lives, lost...you’ll find an equal number of comments about how the two were “surprisingly stupid,” “coddled,” “careless,” or “self-obsessed."

While I don't condone the high-risk selfies culture in any way and my heart goes out all these young victims families. Nevertheless, in a way I can see what they were hoping to achieve by putting themselves and their cameras in a distinctive and different position and away from the so-called standard shot despite the threat of peril.

A bobcat along the shore of Lake Natoma

Last month, to avoid that conventional and traditional and somewhat standard over the bow shot, I haphazardly station my camera on that slippery slope of peril and paid for it. Now I've done this many times before in other places and have had great results. I would put the camera with a float strap on a flat rock and set the timer to shoot a picture every few seconds or more and would paddle out into the water making a few passes in front of the lens.

As I paddled away, I could only watch in horror as the camera slipped off its perch into the water. Float strap stayed above the surface for only a moment, but the attached carabiner weighed it down. Who knows, I might have made things worst as reached out with my paddle in an effort to scoop it up. It sank even more.

In the clear water of the American River, I could, now only watch helplessly from my kayak as the camera, float strap and carabiner made a spinning slow-motion dive into the dark deep of the river. My heart sank as I watched the camera faded out of sight while relearning an old lesson that I always knew. Cameras sink.

Lake Natoma

Moving Day at Lake Jenkinson

Here is a look at some of my favorite images from this year so far. 

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Lake Clementine

Lake Natoma

Full Moon Paddle with Current Adventures

Snowshoeing in the Sierra

Lower American River

Bayside Adventure Sports on Lake Jenkinson at Sly Park

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SPRING RUSH

Waterfalls are exciting because they have power, they have rainbows, they have songs, and they have boldness and craziness! ---Mehmet Murat ildan

Paddling up the narrow creek that feeds Lake Jenkinson at Sly Park Recreation Area, this past weekend, we heard the sound like a rush wind coming through the trees. As we approached the small wooden footbridge over the water that clamor had turned into a rumble. Beaching our kayaks and walking along a short trail that reverberation steadily became louder and louder as we follow the path along the stream. Following the roar, we turn the corner and were rewarded with a crescendo of thunderous of white noise. Sly Park Falls are gushing again.

Area waterfalls, like the one at Sly Park, are flowing with spectacular majesty this spring. This year's extra wet winter and spring have increased water levels and river flows across Northern California providing awe-inspiring beautiful views of these cascades.

Located at the far east end of the lake, this bubbling man-made waterfall is always a popular destination for those visiting the park by either hike or paddle. Flowing from a pipe, the falls are only about 33-feet high as they drop into a translucent pool of water. It's just a brief stop before the water rushes on down to the lake.

The pool beckoned the folks in my group from Bayside Adventure Sports to dip their toes and maybe even wade. But at this time of year, the water temperatures proved to be just a little bit chilly for most of us. We have to settle for the fresh and rejuvenating coat of cool mist spraying up from moss covered rocks. Science tells us that waterfalls like this one can really help you relax with all the negative ion-rich oxygen in the air to breathe. We don't need to know how it works, we just welcome the calming effect taking over. Maybe that's why we found it so hard to return to our kayaks and to the lake. There is no need to rush now.

What to go...Sly Park Paddle Rentals will be open on weekends 9 AM to 5 PM throughout the summer. Slip away on to the lake by renting a single or tandem kayak, canoe or standup paddleboards and spend the day fishing, finding a swimming beach or taking a sentimental trek around the bend to Sly Park Falls.
Start your Reservations by Clicking HERE

Rescue Rush

Courtesy of Jacksonville Police Dept.

There has been a spring rush of first responders in Ohio, Michigan, North Dakota, Missouri and in San Francisco Bay have rescuing boaters after capsizing their boats this year.
According to NBC Bay Area TV, a pair of kayakers, in the bay incident, called 911 in the and told authorities that their kayak tipped over, leaving them floating in the water with the help of their life jackets but still in need of being rescued. Roughly two hours a CHP helicopter spotted the kayakers bobbing in the water. The helicopter crew alerted first responders in the water of the kayakers' location, leading to a successful rescue.
But in Jacksonville, it was kayaker Jeffrey Rancour who is credited to pulling the pilot of a downed seaplane to safety after it flipped into the water near the Arlington area during a sudden storm.
"He was out of the water on his plane already and we just paddled back to shore," Rancour told First Coast News Television, "Yeah, I’m glad that I was there.”

Spring Break
Paddle along European waterways for free all while helping the environment. GreenKayak, a Denmark-based nonprofit allows people to kayak for free if they pick up trash and clean up the rivers and lakes in the cities of Hamburg, Bergen, Dublin, and Copenhagen. Paddlers can use a two-person sit-on kayaks free of charge, in exchange for collecting waste on the surface of the water.

Courtesy of GreenKayak

The project began in Denmark in April 2017, where, with the help of a thousand kayak volunteers, three tons of trash was collected from Copenhagen harbor that year (11 tons to date). The goal was to expand to other cities and waterways.
Tobias Weber-Andersen, GreenKayak founder and CEO, told USA Today, "In Denmark, people hang out on canals and eat pizza and unfortunately see trash floating by,” “You can’t take your shirt off and jump in, but you can get in a GreenKayak and make an impact.”

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THE TRASH PADDLE SCAVENGER HUNT

Environmental pollution is not only humanity’s treason to humanity but also a treason to all other living creatures on earth! --- Mehmet Murat ildan


"Over there," called out one of my fellow paddlers, Mark, "Up there. Do you see them? You might have to get out the boat."

I turned my Necky tandem kayak around and paddled up alongside him. He was pointing at three glass beer bottles that had been aimlessly tossed into some blackberry bushes along the lakeshore. They were out of reach and tangled in a web of thorns. They would be difficult to retrieve.

I beached my kayak and waded into chilly ankle deep water and climbed onto the embankment to look into the underbrush to see the glass bottles. The first one I could reach and I carefully pulled it through the vines of thorns and tossed over my shoulder into the water for Mark to retrieve. The second took a little more work as I used my paddle to bat closer to me and the edge of the bank. The third was even further out of reach. I stretched in the brush with my paddle and similar to a hockey player trying to get a hold of the puck as I used it to force the bottle out of the thorny bushes to the edge of the bank. After rolling toward me, I grabbed like it was a treasure and carried it to my kayak with a trash bag the cockpit.

"Who would bring glass bottles to the lake?" questioned Mark's wife Cathy as she paddled up to join us, ""You would think they would know better."

"You would think they would no better than just tossing alongside the lake too," I growled as I got back in my kayak.

I have paddle along the lakeshore of Lake Natoma many times before. This is my neighborhood lake. The popular narrow 5-mile lake, located near Sacramento, sits on the western end of the California State Parks' Folsom SRA. Open year-round the lake garners a crowd on weekends during the warm springs days into the summer months. This day was no exception

Being my neighborhood lake, usually, when I paddle it, I pick up trash along the way. Over the years, I've made a good the habit of steering toward a floating plastic bottle or fishing a beer can or plastic bag out of a tree. As a steward of any lake or river, I feel it's my obligation to pick up and pack out litter along the waterways I travel.

To celebrate Earth Day, I hosted a clean up on the lake with Bayside Adventure Sports, an active Sacramento based outdoors church group. To make it fun, I turned it into a scavenger hunt by giving the participants a list of the biggest trash culprits most commonly found during river and lake cleanups.

Cigarette Butts  Can you believe they only weigh one gram or less but they account for 30% of all litter in the United States. In recent cleanup at Lake Tahoe volunteers removed 750 pounds of trash and over 6,000 cigarette butts, according to the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

Plastic Bottles and Bottle Caps  As of 2015, around 9% of all the plastic waste ever generated had been recycled, while 12% was incinerated and 79% was sitting in a landfill or the natural environment, according to research published in Science Advances. The bad news doesn't stop there. As reported in Mother Nature Network, our earth's oceans receive roughly 8 million metric tons of plastic waste every year, washing there from its shore and carried there by inland littered rivers.

Food Packaging  The NRCM reports that plastic foam food containers are among the top 10 most commonly littered items in the US. In efforts to curb this the state of Maine has become the first state to officially banned from using food containers made of Styrofoam. According to CNN, this law will go into effect Jan. 1, 2021, prohibiting restaurants, caterers, coffee shops and grocery stores from using the to-go foam containers because they cannot be recycled in Maine.

Plastic Bags  The good news. So far only 2 states California and Hawaii have banned plastic bags. The bad news. But they are still being commonly used across the United States. According to ReuseThisBag.com, the average bag you pick up at the store has a lifespan of about 12 minutes. When discarded, they clog sewage and storm drains, entangle and kill an estimated 100,000 marine mammals every year, and degenerate into toxic microplastics that fester in our oceans and landfills for up to 1,000 years.

Aluminum Cans  According to American Rivers, almost 100 billion aluminum cans are used in the U.S. annually, and only about half of these cans are recycled. The rest goes into landfills or into the environment. Beverage containers account for 50% of roadside litter (though this statistic includes plastic containers), and much of that is washed into our waterways.

And Items That Just Don't Belong  The executive director of Columbia, Missouri based non-profit that focuses on keeping the river clean is never that surprised by what they find in the water during cleanups. In a TV interview, Missouri River Relief's Steve Schnar said, "Anything that floats from our lives, and that's everything from plastic bottles, to styrofoam, to tires, refrigerators, and surprising things, anything that floats."
I can only agree. Believe or not I once found a picnic table that had been tossed into the lake. So my list included those surprising things clothing, construction supplies, fishing gear and just about anything else.

When we paddled back to the access, our garbage bags included all of the above. Most notable to our addition were three car tires that we recovered from the other side of the lake which I strenuously had to tow back.
We were amazed as well as disheartened by the amount of trash we found in and around Lake Natoma. Cleanups like ours are critical to ensuring that lake and rivers remain as beautiful places for us all to enjoy, yet they are only part of the solution. Ultimately if we want to protect our lakes, rivers, and waterways we need to create an awareness to others to reduce the amount of trash being littered into our environment. We should make Earth Day every day by encouraging everyone to pack out their trash and dispose of it properly.

Act Now! Make the River Cleanup Pledge  Outside Adventure to the Max and American Rivers is asking for you to take action and clean up and protect the rivers in our own backyards. We need your pledge. The premise is simple. Every year, National River Cleanup® volunteers pull tons of trash out of our rivers, but by picking up trash you see around you every day, you can prevent it from getting into the rivers in the first place.

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