HARVEST MOON

"Shine and shimmer my Harvest Moon, illuminate the shadows in the sky." A.F. Stewart

I guaranteed the group from Bayside Adventure Sports that this time they would see the moon on our full moon paddle on Lake Natoma. This past summer,  I had miscalculated the moonrise more than a few times while our group was on the water, meaning that the people I was leading surely to got to see a full moon, but it was usually on their drive home.

But earlier this week, we got to enjoy the glow on the moon for the whole evening. According to NASA, the harvest moon, that occurs around the autumnal equinox rises about 25 minutes after the sun sets in most of the northern US. That's a whopping 25 minutes earlier than your typical moon.

Of course, we had only observed the waxing moon. The full glowing moon will light up the sky tonight. And as luck would have it, the last time we had a full moon on Friday the 13th was Oct. 13, 2000. It's a rare occurrence and won’t happen again until August 13, 2049, if you want to plan ahead.

All and all, there's something enchanting about paddling at night under the moon. The orb's ethereal light glistening off the water accompanied a peaceful sense of stillness makes this one of my favorite paddling activities. It's very serene "zen-like" experience on the water.  I can think of no better time to be on the water.

So as summer is quickly coming to an end, perhaps there was no better way to celebrate its conclusion and help usher in the autumnal season than with a Harvest Moon paddle

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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. 

We are always looking for guest bloggers to share the stories and pictures of their adventure. Keep up with Outside Adventure to the Max on our Facebook page and Instagram.

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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"PINK MOON" PORTFOLIO

The moon, like a flower In heaven's high bower, With silent delight Sits and smiles on the night. --- William Blake

The first thing the folks paddling with me noticed last week was the shining full moon wasn't pink. Its silvery-white complexion arose over the tree-lined the shores of Lake Natoma much like it always does. Like an overpowering searchlight, its bright beam illuminated the lake and created a silhouetted outline of the shore with an ethereal light. Looking down into the black water a single shimmering mirrored image of its reflection danced on the water alongside our kayaks.

"How come it's not pink?' asked one of my fellow paddlers in an almost a disappointed fashion. She was expecting to see the moon with a bit more of a rosy glow.

"Calling this full moon "Pink" is kind of a misnomer," I said quietly, "The "Pink Moon" is just a nickname for April's full moon passed down from the Native Americans and the early settlers in days before calendars. January's is the "Wolf Moon" because it's when the wolves howl, March's is the "Worm Moon" because earthworm casts reappear from the frozen ground. It's called the "Pink Moon" due to the pinkish moss and wild phlox that flourish in the spring."

Of course in the moonlight's peaceful enchantment transfixed me and the other boaters. Illuminated by sunlight, this bright disk for centuries has had a power over us earthlings. If it can control the tides of the sea, rending one speechless under its luster would seem effortless. As contemporary Turkish playwright, novelist and thinker Mehmet Murat Ildan wrote, "Under the beautiful moonlight, there remains no ugly reality; even muds turn into the diamonds!"

By this time of the evening, we already had been out on the water for an hour. The sun had already tried to steal the show by creating a blazing sunset before slipping behind the horizon of high bluffs. Not to be outdone, the creatures of the lake from fuzzy baby geese to the powerful eagle circling overhead with a fish dangling from its talon, only added to the spectacular evening display.

In the stillness of the breathless evening, my senses seemed to be rekindled while gliding silently along the peaceful waters of the lake. All around me, I hear the gentle sound of the lapping of the water against the bow of my fellow paddlers while the brightness of the moon caused my eyes to intensify. The shore appeared clear yet bluish illuminance. Bright enough to see the faces and bodies of my fellow paddlers that usually hid in silhouette. It was one of the first moonlit paddles I can recall where we didn't even turn on our glow stick, Luci lights or headlamps because of the moon glow was so bright.

Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory in Rome, told NBC News MACH he was unfamiliar North American terms for naming the full moons but he applauded their use.
"I think it’s great that people personalize it so," he wrote in an email. "I just wish more people actually looked up and paid attention to the moon, just to be aware of the universe around them and to get their noses out of their cellphones."

Speaking for all the paddlers I was with last week we can only agree. And where best to observe this full moon phenomenon? We can think of no better place than from a kayak. Get your paddles ready, the next full moon will be May 18. That one is nicknamed the "Full Flower" Moon.

What to go...Check with your outfitter or local state park to see if they offer any moonlit paddle nights. Across the country, many of them provide guided sunset and full moon paddling sessions and with all the gear for a reasonable price. In Northern California's Current Adventures has been taking paddlers of all skill levels on their popular moonlit kayaking excursion on Lake Natoma near Sacramento.

If you want to go contact:
Current Adventures Kayak School and Trips 
PHONE: 530-333-9115 or Toll-Free: 888-452-9254
FAX: 530-333-1291
USPS: Current Adventures, P.O. Box 828, Lotus, CA 95651
info@currentadventures.com
owner Dan Crandall dan@kayaking.com

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OVER THE BOW: LAKE CLEMENTINE

The shows of the day, the dewy morning, the rainbow, mountains, orchards in blossom, stars, moonlight, shadows in still water, and the like, if too eagerly hunted, become shows merely, and mock us with their unreality. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have paddled Lake Clementine many times before. The Northern California's narrow Sierra foothills reservoir is a jewel to the area's paddling community.  The lake with its four-mile-long tapered waterway in the Auburn State Recreation Area has been enchanting boaters and hikers for decades. Fed by the North Fork American River, the reservoir was formed in 1939 when the Army Corps of Engineers built the dam to prevent gold mining debris from flowing downstream.

"Thus, the reservoir's water level remains the same year round," stated in an excerpt from The American River Insider's Guide to Recreation, Ecology and Cultural History of the North Middle and South Forks, "Wildlife tucks itself into the quiet forested water along the shore; riparian plant growth is thick an lush. There are precious few reservoirs in all California that have and hold their beauty like Clementine, whose stillness contrasts elegantly with the surging wild waters upstream."

Paddling here is relatively easy on these still and transparent waters. There is almost no current except at the upper part of the lake. Even then on most of the times I've have visited, the current has been just a gentle tug where the clear and cool North Fork begins to intertwine with the lake body.

On the lower part, Robber's Roost towering 1,457-foot piece of limestone outcropping dominates the view. Under this giant rock, the lake pools in a calmness before rushing over the spillway of the dam. It's winter, and gone are the speedboats and skiers, who usually come here to play.
When paddling here, it's best to come early or stay late to dodge those blustery winds that tend to kick up usually in the early afternoon. They have a way of tiring out paddlers on the return trip to the boat ramp. But this past weekend, the sky was clear and breathless. The waters of a lake were absolutely still. There was not so much as ripple as the lake reflected the trees, hills, the sky, and everything around it perfectly.

My Bayside Adventure Sports paddling partner John Taylor welcomed the quiet placidity of the lake. In a message on Facebook, he wrote, "Usually, this lake is very windy in the afternoons, but we got lucky what with a very calm day without much of a breeze. Once the sun was clouded over the temperature dropped over 15 degrees at the end. Great day paddling, 10+ miles paddled, and my arms feel it too!!!"

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, we would love to see it. Submit it to us at nickayak@gmail.com

Duncan Mine: Class V Kayaking With Carson Lindsay

Outside Adventure to the Max friend Scott Blankenfeld is excited about his new projects showcasing athletes doing their thing on their home turf. Along with Robby Hogg, he created Duncan Mine, a Northern California Production Company, last year and began producing videos

In the first of their series, they profiled area world-class kayaker Carson Lindsay on the South Fork of the Yuba River near Donner Summit in California's Sierra Nevada.

"It's was pretty impressive watching him paddle these rapids at ease, considering he was basically paddling solo the entire time," wrote Blankenfeld in an email, "Growing up in Truckee, CA, this run is where he honed his whitewater kayaking skills and first started running Class V whitewater."

Courtesy of Scott Blankenfled

Blankenfled who spends his summers on the water following the action on the North, Middle and South Forks of the American River photographing whitewater rafting is looking forward to featuring more of these extreme athletes.

"We are looking to take this series across several different sports including Skiing/Snowboarding, Mountain Biking, Running, Surfing, etc," wrote Blankenfeld, "Each segment will highlight a new personality, sport, and location."
You can learn about Ducan Mine at www.duncanmine.com.  To follow Blankenfled and to check out more of his images go to www.scottblankenfeld.com. 

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UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES

 

Today we stand at the threshold of the unknown. Before us lies a new year, and we are going forward to take possession of it. Who knows what we will find? --L. B. E. Cowman

 

My friends who have gone down the Grand Canyon say it's truly a life-changing experience. From its breathtaking beauty to its adrenaline-pumping rapids, navigating the canyon is an exhilarating adventure.

“It’s still just reverberating in my brain and coursing through my soul, everything I felt in there,” paddler Steve Baskis told The Colorado Sun, "That place, it changed me. It washed away some things, … and it gave me so much. It tested me, and I came through energized, empowered, revitalized, invigorated., ”Everything you can think of. I want to do it again.”

This past September, Baskis a US Army veteran who was blinded by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2008, kayaked the Grand Canyon with four other blind veterans with support from Team River Runner.

Think about that. Paddling the Grand Canyon is an amazing achievement in itself, but running it blind is just not just inspiring but extraordinary.

“They kept telling me I took the hero line,” Steve Baskis told The Colorado Sun, “I tell you, I was nervous about this whole thing, but then I got thrown into that washing machine and came out all right. I was like, ‘Wow. Let’s get this thing going!’”

After a breathtaking 12 day and 226 miles journey down the canyon, Bakis and crew emerged transformed.

"It makes you think about life and the different things you can do," Bakis said his interview, "Things really aren’t that impossible. If we can work together, we can figure out a way through anything."

Like the Colorado River, the year 2018, has had its share of both serene flat water and turbulent rapids for me. But, surrounded by my solid foundation of love support and community I have once again been able to ride out those unexpected bumps and challenges and come out all right on the other side.

I'm was so grateful this past year to once again paddle with likes of Dan Crandall, Kim Sprague, John Weed, Paul Camozzi, Thomas Bauman and the rest of the gang at Current Adventures Kayaking School and Trips and The River Store. Any outing with these guys is always a great day on the water.
We gave a sentimental goodbye to Eppies Great Race the area's annual summer celebration, however, added Sly Park Paddle Rentals on Jenkinson Lake to our lineup. In 2019, we're hoping to expand that service even more at its scenic venue. As for kayak racing on the Lower American River, Dan has pledged to somehow keep it going.

One thing leader Greg Weisman and  Bayside Adventure Sports can always guarantee at being a guiding light of faith and hope to those who take part in their many outside activities. With the manta, GOD created the Earth. RIDE IT. CLIMB IT. CATCH IT. EXPLORE IT. PROTECT IT, the church-based outreach put a special emphasis on protesting by taking part in several Earth Day events this past year, including a special one of their own. I only hope for many more adventures with them in the coming year.

A big thank you goes out to our 2018's guest bloggers, John D'Amelio,
Lacey Anderson, Tim Plamer, and Kate Hives,  for their insights and views this past year. They have certainly make OAM better by providing thoughtful and compelling views into the world of paddling. We certainly look forward to future posts from them in 2019.

I would also like to thank, Dirt Bag Paddlers & DBP Magazine Online, Canoe & Kayak Magazine, Paddling Magazine, AquaBound, American Rivers and NRS Web, for sharing my posts on their social media pages. It's always a fun Friday for me when post Outside Adventure to the Max. Thanks for helping spread the word about our weekly post.

My biggest thanks, of course, goes to my wife Debbie. I couldn't do any of my kayaking without her support and encouragement. Here is hoping she will finally get to stand up on her new paddleboard, after a mostly just be able to sit on it due to a foot injury.

As poet T.S. Eliot wrote, "What we call the beginning is often the end, and to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."
I'll finish 2018 with a little over 140 days of paddling days spent on the water, a personal best for me. Broken up mostly into mini outings and weekends trips to my areas' lakes and rivers the year proved to be a never-ending journey of both planned and unanticipated trials and tribulations on the water that took my paddling into a new dimension.

“It’s one thing to pursue challenges," Baskis told The Colorado Sun, after his trip down the fabled canyon,&nfabledut it’s the unexpected challenges that really try us and change us and ultimately make us better. And there were a lot of unexpected things going on in the Grand Canyon.”

That's good advice going into the new year. Be ready for anything. The good and the bad. The stretches of rough water and the calm seas. Outside Adventure to the Max will be with you along the way.  Happy New Year.

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2018 IN REVIEW: PICTURES OF THE YEAR

And so for a time, it looked as if all the adventures were coming to an end, but that was not to be.---C. S. Lewis

It's that time of year again when I look back on some of my best images of the last year. Like always, it's difficult to narrow it down to just a dozen. I have so many favorites,  involving an anecdote or recollection behind each image captured while at the river or lake. From those fast times on the Lower American River to the slow-motion days at Sly Park each photo has its own story. So Yes it's hard to pick just a handful of pictures that stand out above the others.

A bent rack

"Someone once said that wherever I am is the perfect picture," long-time famed sports photographer Walter Iooss Jr told WPB Magazine, "I didn’t like the way it sounded but I believe that. It’s not that I’m positive of it deep down inside, it’s that I have to believe it. When you make that decision – ‘This is the place to go’ – you’ve got to live with it. There’s no alternative.”

As a young photojournalist, I followed the career of Iooss, the undisputed maestro of sports photography, boasting an exceptional career that spans over four decades. His iconic photographs of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, the memorable “catch” by Dwight Clark during the 1982 NFC Championship Game, and dazzling portraits of basketball superstar Michael Jordan have been showcased in Sports Illustrated where he has over 300 covers to his credit.

Eppies Great Race training

“Photography is not a job. It’s a way of life,” he told WPB Magazine,  “I live it, think it, and feel it. It’s just in my DNA. I’ve always felt the moment."

I feel the same way. I just love taking pictures of special ripples in time and telling stories. For most of my life, I worked as a photojournalist in both print and broadcast media in a daily grind of trying to provide storytelling images or video to the folks reading the paper or watching their local TV news. At the end of every year, I would usually gather up my best of the best pictures or TV clips and send them off to an array of contests and judgings.

50+ plus paddle with Current Adventures

I won a few awards but never lost. As Iooss has said, the real joy of photography is in the discovery and magic of the moments like shots of Current Adventures' John Weed providing protection while shadowing a young paddler through his first rapid, an anniversary kiss on the water and an Eppies racing smile.
There is one of a lone paddler in the smokey veil of a wildfire and another of my wife Debbie paddling past the remnants of a past fire. There is fun on a glow paddle with Bayside Adventure Sports but also the slog of a portage back up river.

The Lower American River

“Passion, curiosity, excellence, the drive to always want to do it well,” he said Iooss, “You have to reinvent yourself. You can’t stay in one spot.”
So as 2018 draws to a close, I look back at some of my favorite moments I had kayaking with this past year.

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Current Adventures Kid Classes

Current Adventures Kid Class

Eppies Great Race training

Lake Jenkinson

Stumpy Meadows

Lake Natoma

Duck photobomb

Glow Paddle with Bayside Adventure Sports

The Lower American River

KAYAK SUMMER 2018

         Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. --- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have found that summers linger in Northern California. There are no hurricane warnings or threats of frost or snow. The mornings at the lake have a certain crispness where you just might need a sweater, at least through breakfast. Outside of my favorite Starbucks adding Pumpkin Spice Latte to the menu board and slow traffic coming from nearby Apple Hill, it feels as if summer is not all that anxious to concede to autumn just yet. But it's on way.

"There is something deep within us that sobs at endings." wrote American author Joe Wheeler, "Why, God, does everything have to end? Why does all nature grow old? Why do spring and summer have to go?"

Lake Jenkinson

Bittersweet for some. A celebration of the change of seasons for others. No matter how you regard it, this Saturday marks the first day of fall, which of course subsequently, means its the official end of summer.

To keep my memories burning bright heading fall, I like to look back at some of my favorite images I created over the summer. Some picture-perfect tranquil moments are accompanied by some fast-paced and lively shots of my time on the water. They compose the snapshots of my summer recollections. But, of course, they are not the whole story.

In a recent Paddling Magazine article title Unforgettable, Everything Instagram Won't Tell You About Canoe Tripping, writer Kaydi Pyette says that her most memorable moments aren't always perfectly lit and beautifully composed, but are the gritty and hard moments hard moments of her trips.

The American River Parkway

"What Instagram so rarely shows is the side canoe tripping not so splendidly picture perfect. There are bugs,"  she wrote, "Followers don't get to see the hours of tediousness invested in capturing this one outrageously perfect moment. we don't see the work it takes to align the gear, sunlight, smoke signals and hang those twee tinkle lights just so."

Guilty as charged. Because I'm not going to tell you how I rolled and swam in front of everyone at San Juan Rapids, ripped the seat of pants while working the boat dock at Sly Park and sliced my big toe on rocks on North Fork of American River. The same goes for loading and unloading trailers of boats, dumping kayaks full of water and long shuttle drives, they just go with the territory.

They were all outweighed by watching a shy kid learn to kayak, helping a father, in an age-old tradition of taking his children on their very first canoe ride and coaching a determined Eppies Great Race participant take on the rapids of Lower American River. Summer 2018, like all my paddling summer before, those are the memories that will kindle in the consciousness of mind.

Sly Park

"When summer opens," wrote American transcendentalist essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, "I see how fast it matures, and fear it will be short; but after the heats of July and August, I am reconciled, like one who has had his swing, to the cool of autumn."

There is something incredibly nostalgic about paddling into the fall season. The lakes are quiet. Gone are the crowds and motorboats and the only sound you will hear are those of nature. The trees are ablaze with a canvas of bold-colors reflecting on the undisturbed peaceful waters.

It was early morning on the lake last weekend. Idly in a canoe, I lingered just a bit longer, before dipping my paddle. The water is still warm enough for a swim, but the air was noticeably cooler. In the distance, a wispy veil of mist hovers over its surface. It's the ghost of summer, I suppose.

Sly Park's Lake Jenkinson

A moonlit paddle on Lake Natoma with Current Adventures.

John Weed and kids classes with Current Adventures.

Debbie Carlson's new SUP on Lake Natoma.

Paddling after dark with Bayside Adventure Sports.

Eppies training with Current Adventures .

Fall comes to Lower American River.

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@nickayak
The official feed of Outside Adventure to the Max. Follow us on river trips along the American River and the lakes of the Sierra with Current Adventures as we count my paddling days of the year.