PARADE OF PADDLING

Has I'm writing this on New Year's Eve, rain is beating down on my rooftop, pelting the window and creating hundreds of small rivers along the hillside of my home. Weather forecasters say that a significant storm system will plow into the West Coast, bringing heavy rain, mountain snow, and strong winds fueled by an atmospheric river of Pacific moisture. An atmospheric river is a long narrow region in the atmosphere that can transport moisture thousands of miles, like a fire hose in the sky. Forecasters say this active jet stream pattern will continue to bring a parade of storms across much of Northern and Central California this weekend.
As 2022 comes to an end. It's time to look back on a parade of paddling memories and leap forward in planning new adventures. And as the rain hits the windowpane, I'll take that as a good sign we might have more water this year than last. At least, that is my hope.

I send a big thanks out to my paddling family for helping me paddle through another year. Thanks to Dan Crandall and the other superstars on Current Adventures Kayaking School and Trips, who have been there for guidance and encouragement. We have some big plans for 2023. I'm looking forward to a full schedule of classes, tours, and moonlit paddles.
To the rangers and staff of Sly Park Recreation Area, thank you. I hope for another successful season on shimmering Lake Jenkinson this year, with more water.

I lost count of my paddling events with Bayside Adventure Sports this past year. The highlights of our year included our annual Lower American River run, our camping kayaking trip to Loon Lake, and our popular sunset and moonlit paddles on our area's lakes. Of course, none of it would have been possible without our leader, John Taylor Sure, I had some great ideas, but John made it happen.
We are losing our spiritual leader Greg Weisman the longtime founder of Bayside Adventure Sports. He will be retiring in 2023.

My wife, Debbie, is and will always be my guiding light and inspiration. She has a deep devotion to God and a love for everything, living both great and small, like the starving kitten that found its way to our doorstep and our neighborhood deer herd. I continue to strive to be like her in mind and spirit. We are both excited about landscaping our new home.

Happy New Year everyone.

Paddle Day #148

I paddled close to my record of 152 paddling days in the calendar year. I did get to some new places and enjoyed some of the old ones. I'm eagerly anticipating an exciting new year in 2023.

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A PADDLE WITH ST. NICHOLAS

We have all heard The Night Before Christmas about Santa and his sleigh.  But did you know there's other about him the paddling river on Christmas Eve day? Today I will tell the tale that's way past its due. It's about the time I met Santa in a canoe. 

'Twas the day before Christmas and all across the waterway,
The water looked splendid I'd just have to say
Not a breath of wind even stirred the air,
And how the stream glistened so bright and so fair

The ducks and geese floated about without a care,
While the otters and beavers swam both here and there
The deer all were nestled deep among the tall trees,
While I waded my boat out, just below my knees.

I slid into my kayak and snapped on my spray skirt,
Picked up my paddle and pushed away from the dirt
Just downstream, I could hear the rapid's rumble and chatter,
During the summer, it's always a fun place to gather

I paddled down to the top of the flume,
Catching the eddy above with plenty of room
The bubbling whitewater poured over the stone,
Swirling and churning in frenetic foam.

When looking upriver should what did I see?
But another boater who was following me
He had a great stroke it was lively and so quick,
I couldn't believe it, I was paddling with St. Nick

Now he wasn't in a playboat, you see, he needed lots of room,
Not a sea kayak either, too small for him I can only assume
He paddled a big boat as comfortable as an old shoe,
Yes, yes, Santa was in a canoe

It was bright red as the color of his sleigh,
Dancing over the ripples without delay
With a wreath at the bow and streaming with tinsel,
It was quick, I will tell you, like the down of a thistle

In the fast current, he lined up his route,
Past the rocks, he angled toward the chute
He moved his craft forward with a powerful sweep,
Over the first wave, that looked pretty steep
The bow of his canoe arose in mid-air,
As the spray and the splashes flew everywhere

He was heading toward the ledge, it would be a big drop,
Downstream with the current, he went over the top
I was out my boat on the shore at this time you see,
Trying to get a selfie of Santa and me
I raised up my camera, you see I needed some proof,
As Santa and canoe came down with a boof

As I looked over the water it seemed like a dream,
Santa had turned and was now surfing upstream
Dressed in a PFD and bright red dry suit from head to toe,
As he bounced up and down in the waves, both to and fro
His cheeks were rosy, his beard as white as sea foam,
Donning a red cap and sunglasses, he was one cool gnome
His laugh shook the canyon and it echoed below,
Yes, you all know it, it was ho ho ho!

He ferried his canoe out of the current and into the eddy,
Then waved to me to follow as soon as I was ready
I jumped back in my boat to join the fun
I couldn't believe it; I was joining Santa on a river run

He peeled out quickly heading downriver,
He was in a hurry you see; he had toys to deliver
His mechanics were precise, his stroke was the truest,
I've seen lots of paddlers, but there was no better canoeist

I stay up close, for a while side by side,
But he quickly outran me, I have to confide
He needed to get back to the North Pole and the reindeer
The elves had loaded up his sleigh to spread Christmas cheer

But he waved his paddle, to me as a sign,
Before he would disappear below the horizon line.
And I heard him say as he canoed away
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all, have a great paddling day!"

Merry Christmas from Outside Adventure to the Max

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2022 IN REVIEW: PICTURES OF THE YEAR

Gaily bedlight, A gallant knight, in sunshine and in shadows had journeyed long, singing a song, in search of Eldorado --- Edgar Allan Poe

The picturesque Coloma river valley is stunning with beauty and steep in history. It was there, not far from where I slid my kayak in the churning flow of the South Fork of the American River, it all happened.

The quirky and rather odd John Marshall had a scheme about getting a sawmill going on the banks of the river for the much-needed lumber for the influx of new settlers coming to California. Financially funded by John Sutter, Marshall was constructing the mill in the Coloma Valley. By January 1848, workers had erected a building, installed the machinery and a water wheel, and dug a ditch to divert water from the river. Inspecting the work, Marshall peered down into the trail trace through a foot of water. If there would have been a camera there to record it, this is what we would have done seen.

"My eye caught a glimpse of something shining in the bottom of the ditch," Marshall gave a historical account, "I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold."

 

Lake Jenkinson

And as the story goes, after he found those flakes precious metal of metal, it ushered in a wave of steely-eyed prospectors. Along with them came adventurous storytelling photographers ready to capture the historic frenzy around them. The Gold Rush was the first event in the country to be documented extensively through the then-new medium of photography.

Using daguerreotypes, an early photographic process employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor. Photographers would polish a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish, treat it with fumes that made its surface light-sensitive, and expose it in a camera for as long as it was judged to be necessary. It could be as little as a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer for regarding the light; removed its sensitivity to light by liquid chemical treatment; rinsed and dried, and then sealed the easily marred result behind glass in a protective enclosure.

The photographers would travel about in wagons/studios, taking portraits of the miners young and old, holding the tools of their trade, a shovel, a pick, a pan. Some would even show off their precious nuggets or flakes of gold. They would show the men working as they dug away at the earth, searching for Mother Lode.

Lake Jenkinson & Sly Park Paddle Rentals

Their images were also the first to detail the environmental damage inflicted on the landscape.
Pictures show men digging away with shovels and building scaffolds in large mining operations that upheave the earth and ripped away hillsides.
The first prospectors worked their claims manually with pans and picks. But, as more arrived, the miners took to diverting entire rivers and using high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment to speed up their excavations. This caused a devastating effect on the riparian natural countryside. Long after the hype for gold subsided, much of the environmental damage of this form of mining still lasts to this day.  

  

Lake Clementine & Robber's Roost

Their haunting images captured historic people and places I now call home. As I document my paddling adventures, it's a bit easier with our cell phone technology. I only hope that can create the same excitement of the Gold Rush. So as 2022 draws to a close, let's look back at some of my favorite images from this past year. 

Great American Triathlon training with Current Adventures 

  

Bayside Adventure Sports at Loon Lake

John Taylor at Sly Park 

The annual Glow Paddle on Lake Natoma

       

Salmon on the Lower American River

Kayaking with Current Adventures on Lake Natoma

The Sacramento River with Bayside Adventure Sports

Debbie Carlson at Yosemite 

Sly Park Paddle Rentals 

   

Our new home in Placerville, California

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OVER THE BOW: THE RED RIVER

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different. --- J.B. Priestley

In the northernmost tier, most stow away their kayaks, hide their canoe behind the garage and stash their paddles and camping gear back in the corner where they put the cross-country skis and snowshoes the spring before old man winter arrives. It's inevitable. Those lakes and rivers will either be frozen over or soon to be.

"There is one thing I should warn you about before you decide to get serious about canoeing," said Canadian canoeing naturalist, author, artist, and filmmaker Bill Mason, " You must consider the possibility of becoming totally and incurably hooked on it. You must also face the fact that every fall about freeze-up time, you go through a withdrawal period as you watch the lakes and rivers icing over one by one. Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing can help a little to ease the pain, but they won’t guarantee a complete cure.”

It was a magical experience for me, kayaking after the first snow in Fargo ten years ago. My skiing friends woke up excited about seeing a new blanket of snow, but for me, I still knew there were still a few more paddling days before the Red River iced up, and I would hide the kayaks away for the season.
The water was flat, the wind calm, and my hands were cold but warmed up nicely while on the river. The first snow was a sure sign the time was running out for paddling on the Red River.

Over the Bow is a feature from Outside Adventure to the Max, telling the story behind the image. If you have a great picture with a great story, submit it to us at nickayak@gmail.com
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