Outside Adventure to the Max: Mokelumne River

Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more. ---Vincent Van Gogh

I'm a sucker for that golden light. You know, that time of the evening when the low hanging sun burns in a smokey orange and reddish amber over the water. When the sky's palette turns into dimming purplish luster offset by the soft warm glow of the clouds. When kayaks and their paddlers are silhouetted in shadows or backlit with fuzzy bright halos. When the water's reflection is in that a radiant splendor of a hallucinogenic melting ember of tranquility.

Lake Jenkinson

For those reasons alone it makes that time on the lake or river a bit more magical and mysterious than any other part of the day.
Most others have already left the water, So away from the crowd, my images are clean and crisp, but mostly serene and tranquil.

Trust me, when I see golden light like that, it's easy to see the pictures. Like Ansel Adams said, “Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.”

In my paddling days and outside endeavors in 2019, I got to those natural places often and sometimes just in time and sometimes with all the time in the world to see all its glory about me. Every destination whether new or even after I have visited many times before came with a new adventure that I'll carry with me for a lifetime. And because I saw it from the perspective of my canoe or kayak, well that was just an added bonus.

The Lower American River

As the old saying goes, "You cannot step into the same river twice." After this past year, I can only agree after I often ending up in many of the same places I had visited before. But as noted, those adventures were never the same, for it was the journey that mattered most.

"It's the thing about river running that I've always loved the most," wrote adventure author and paddler Peter Heller, "You go into the country on a natural magic carpet, moving at a speed that is normal to all its denizens, and if you quiet, you can be absolutely silent in a way you can never be walking, and if you are on wilderness river, you slip past scenes you would never, ever witness any other way."

In every outing this year I encountered a new and dynamic experience, whether being a quiet Sunday morning on Sly Park's Lake Jenkinson or a brilliant sunset on Lake Natoma. I have paddled along the pristine shoreline of Loon Lake and hiked a scenic waterfall trail high in the Sierra.

Bayside Adventure Sports on Lake Natoma

While alone in my solitude, I enjoyed the quick water and the slog of the portage back upriver on reinvigorating in perspective trek on the Lower American River. I mostly came to appreciate all the companionships with others as they shared my same passion for the water. From the fun-time glow and sunset paddles with Bayside Adventure Sports to all my interaction with the folks and clients from Current Adventures and Sly Park Rentals Paddle to every paddler, I have met along the way. They have inspired and motivated me and I only hoped that I have inspirited them to get outside and explore and cherish their neighborhood waterway.

As American photojournalist, Steve McCurry said, My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.” So as 2019 draws to a close, I look back at some of my favorite images from this past year.