Alice....

If you havent seen this you should. Music remixed only from the sounds of alice in wonderland!!

Wet Fangs of Fury....

A day off.....

With dog training class intermixed with rafting I bring you this....

Fishynessnous....

The author, at the Taos Box put-in, whispering to the troutness of the Rio Grandenous, and a small application of some "Happy Fingers". A fish in the hand is worth 2 in the hole.

Exciting News....

1st: The house I grew up in burned to the ground (1/2 of it). The basement was chest deep in water and two brave firefighters were hurt from the major smoke and heat. Pictures soon I hope.


2nd: I dont like people on horses. I am a firm believer in sharing, especially on public land, and in the last five years of biking up on the mesa, I have seen a total of 8 people, non of which were on horses. In the last two rides I have seen people on horses each time. Once on a double track and once on an atv trail. Both times I was chastised for being evil and dangerous and in the way. I cant think of a nicer person than myself to meet on the trail (the guy who pulls off the trail, asks to help lead the horses, trying to make some light morning conversation....). Instead I get "fuck you's" and "get the fuck outta here's". Im starting to get the urge to fist fight. Assholes.

Meanwhile I have been readjusting the 426 and making it more trail worthy. Carb and suspension were the big hitters. I rejetted for the SF altitude and tried to get some of that kick that the 450 has. After months of research and doing nothing, I decided it was finally time to start riding again for the season. I got the jets and installed em, cleaned all the filters, and softened up the compression and rebound damping on both the front and rear suspension. And perhaps the most influential was lowering the sag on the rear spring.
But in reality, the major player to a smooth ride was changing the tire pressure from a retarded 60 psi to its recommended 15 psi front and back. Smoove Operator....

On the river there have been some really good action sequences. Jake gettin dashboarded....Me too, and Me getting pulled back in the raft by my chinstrap. Ouch.

Hand Gestures....

I have never once had a group so ridiculous as to start throwing hang tens while dropping into Souse Hole. They DID receive their ownage though...

and after the pause there will be some stunning news!! Stay tuned!

Loaded with Action!!....

River Rats be ridiculous....


5:45 am - Alarm goes off. I think about how much I hate that stupid ringtone. I feel muscles, and wonder about the weather. Brush teeth.

6:00 am - Coffee begins brew. Begin Examining amount of sand I brought home in shoes from days previous, and are they dry yet? Load gear from clothesline into gear bag, or simply start throwing shit into back of car. Thinking of coffee.

6:15 am - Meander towards kitchen. Refill water bottles. Eat 1/2 gallon of yogurt to motivate my system and discourage fullday turtleheading during big water descents.

6:35 am - Coffee meets my lips. Instantaneous reaction leads me towards bathroom.

6:45 am - Commute to Santa Fe, jamming in the cool morning breeze, completely blinded by the morning sun.

7:00 am - Rigging the trailer for the Box Trip, drinking coffee, discussing yesterdays photos.

9:00 am - Picking up guests at the Visitors Center in Pilar after a 1 hour drive. Turning down the dude with the 5 stints and walker, the extremely overweight person that could only help themselves to another sandwich and the dad with the tw0 5 year old kids.....youre not coming today....sorry.

10:00 am - Arrival at the Dunn Bridge put-in. Rigging boats and equipping people.

10:45 am - On the Class IV water and loving it.

3:30 pm - Dropping into Sunset Hole sideways, high siding, possibly flipping, getting chundered, laughing, derigging....

4:00 pm - Driving home, tired, exhausted, dreaming of the beer that wont be in your hand for at least an hour.

5:00 pm - Beer in hand, derig, bullshit, find shade.

6:00 pm - On way home. Wanted a beer but fell asleep on the kitchen counter before beverage aquired. Wake up in clothes, so thirsty for water consider drinking out of toilet due to mass quantities in sight. Asleep for good.

Creeking and Carnage....

As Ive been very tardy on the blog for such a long time I thought you would like to hear the latest story in high adventure.

On the move down from Montana I bought a sweet LL Huck, a bigger rounder boat for when the tiny play kayak just doesnt cut it. I was originally hoping to use it on the class 4 drop section in Cody, but never happened. Yesterday it saw the creek it was made for. It was a truly epic adventure!

Red River I think it was called. The book called it class 4 creeking. we saw the pics and watched the videos. game on. If you dont know, classes go from one to five, that latter being extremely difficult and dangerous. as we put in the read and ran the top two miles like cake, and really fun little pourovers and boofs and snakey maneuvers. The creek is only a 4 mile stretch before it coagulates with the Rio Grande Middle Box. So were thinking "no problem, we ll be back in town to BBq by 5". Not the case. After 6 swims, two pin/wraps, some emergency strainer portages, my lost boat, two zdrag recoveries, lots of scouting, and lots of abrasion, we made it out of the last two miles of the creek to the Rio. Holy Shit. Then after that we had a 3 hour commute on the middle box to our completely unlocked shuttle car, where no one stole the beer, ariving at a prompt 8:45 pm.

The Beat Down:

Fearing foot entrapment, I did this kiddy cannonball slide down a rough rapid. It hurt. So do my knuckles and helmet.

The birthday paddle never left my hands, though it took some abuse with me on the swims.



I finally got to mechanical advantage a pinned boat off a rock. it was rad. glad I brought the gear, unfortunately when we found my boat 1 mile downstream, the unpin kit was still IN it, so we got to use some live bait, and muntner hitches to retrieve.



Overall awesome experience. Saw an elk too!

Also broke the K-stik last weekend dropping into a mile long Class 4 rapid. Talk about Oh Shit!

For the Birds....

We were wondering where the humming birds were? theyre up in MT already so why arent they at our feeder yet? Then I found em....in the garage skylight, stuck.

Big Water....

Its official. Dust off that NRS catalog. Find your straps. See if your lifejacket still floats.

Spring is here and the runoff is coming. The Rio Grande is welcoming the enthusiasts and it time to go rafting!! In celebration of this annual event I present a few whitewater movies to get the blood pumping and body thirsty.

Fill Er Up!!

The container is finally empty. And I just got text from mom about how many awesome dishes she wants to buy in Greece. I cried.

The Cheat, errr......

So I tried real hard to name the dude The Cheat. But to no avail. Hyside became the name, for obvious reasons, not based on hypalon.


So heres how it broke down:
There was this shelter dog who had a head too small for his body. A tried and tried to get me to cave on this dude but I wouldnt have a Betelgeused dog, or just any new dog arriving at my door. She was gonna have to work harder than that.
Then I got back from town one day and IT happened. Everywhere I went I saw this picture of a puppy that had come into work from the abandoned puppy thief, as I like to call her. I dont know how she does it but she drives down to the casinos and reservations and gathers litters from underneath broke down cars, brings em back to life and adopts em out. Sweet.

So I get home and head straight for the lappy...

Get thirsty and jet for the fridge

Go for a beer

Then I gots to pee

Unbelieveable....

So Dan and Kristina just got Maya the sun dog and Brian and Dawn just got Jeff for the Clyde Show. Time for the announcement.

Hes got biggum paws....


And his eyes are turning colors....

And hes going in for the nurse....

Which for obvious reasons Kona is not ok with

Vertigo....

Taos Box....

Pure awesomeness. The flow is coming up and the boats are going down. Check out the link for some funny pics of Amanda and I almost flipping. Facial expressions are the best. You cant tell from this angle but were part way to dropping in this massive hole. I had to reverse ferry to even pretend I had a chance at missing it. My face will tell you when were right on top of it. Sick!! 2070 cfs and rising!!

Link

Interviews....

So Im going in to ABQ for an interview this morning. gonna be fun. I applied for a stereo imaging position. Wish me luck.

As well I made this last night.


You can critisize all you want, but its not done yet and it shows.

Tequila is Bad News....

Floor is done, yes. Stove installed, yes. Shrimp has babies, yes. Hangover in full effect, yes. Chimney painted, yes.

Let There B Darkness....

I had such a productive day planned for yesterday, and then the blinds arrived, so I HAD to put them up. And I put one of the floor moldings in. And its super snowing this morning, very unlike the 80 degrees and sunny of yesterday.


Note the light gap on the bottoms, the material is still reall stiff so it doesnt fall all the way yet, funny. Should be done with the floor today, itll get molding tomorrow, and the stove goes in tomorrow, bc its obviously not quite done with winter.

Pump It Up....

Remember this? I believe I was in 7th grade maybe?



And then theres the other classic...

Non-Toxic but Completely Lethal....

Last year we had the mouse massacre. Then Kona found a relic of poison, but didnt die. This year the game is on again. Though Im calling out for a good name to festivities. the spring has been quite moist so the rodent population is going to skyrocket. Terms of this years genocide will be waged with an electric mouse trap. Bought on a whim, we now have have 2 kills 3 days. I bought another and they changed the design, so we shall see. Let the games begin!!!



[EDIT] After I wrote this I went back and found 2 mouse in there....thats a two'fer!!

800 Reasons....

So the sweetest plotter Ive ever owned just arrived at my door. Its missing things that it said it should be coming with, is 3 weeks late, and its in spanish. I just learned a huge lesson on ordering shit online. Luckily, I know spanish, and have extra cords laying around thatll work, butI dont have 2 rolls of paper. Other cool things that I noticed is that it has a huge RAM card in it as well as an ethernet hookup. Thats tight. It may actually have Post Script, which speeds up printing 10x. What a day. All this even after losing half of $100 grocery purchase somewhere, and losing my pizza in the oven last night...disaster stuck.

The Ninth Gate....

Actually theres only two. One of em has been replaced. I got a wild hair, and instead of doing something i was supposed to be doing, like finishing the floor and related tasks, I made a gate. Its super cheesy but actually works now, and looks neat. I love power tools.

Theres the old coyote gate, never worked, shotty design (shotty is a synonym for shitty, which I shoulda just used in the first place).