Leif and Natalie

I know everyone out there has come to love my amazing poetic style, but I don't have time now for a full exploration of all the different aspects of the Thanksgiving break trip that Natalie, Brent, and I went on. As a brief outline, we left two or three days early and drove straight from Fort Collins to Skookumchuck without stopping, then gradually worked our way back down through oregon and washington through the rest of the week-long break. We surfed the ocean for a few days, had a great T-day run on the North Santiam, and squeezed in a Farmlands and Green Truss run on the last day. We couldn't find the putin, so the Farmlands part of that run was accidental. I haven't had time to go through the photos in full detail and write cunning captions for every one of them, but enjoy the slideshow below.

Conor Flynn during warmups. Photo by Leif Anderson Head Judge Gary Mullins and head announcer Ken Hoeve. Photo by Joel Shute. As you probably already know, there is a whitewater park in Glenwood Srpings now, and it kicks ass. The thing that really sets the Glenwood park apart is that it's on the Colorado River, so (unlike certain other spots that usually host Freestyle Nationals), this park will be good all year long. This means that just when everything (and I mean everything) else in the state is starting to wind down, the Glenwood park is still as good as ever. So, on the last day of summer, Glenwood Canyon Kayak and the town of Glenwood hosted the last rodeo of the season. The weather cooperated until right at the end of the competition, at which point fall officially settled in, with a chilly rainstorm. I had been waiting for this rodeo for a long time. I was very excited to finally be able to compete in my home town. Natalie had a field trip on saturday, so I spent t...

I'd wanted to run Cheeseman Canyon for a long time, ever since I saw it in the CRC, many years ago. So when I heard that it was in, Conor, Natalie and I jumped at the chance. Planning a sunday expedition, we spent most of saturday night trying to find the takeout, working off some rather sketchy directions. We finally found a really great spot to camp near the takeout, and got some rest. To anyone else trying to do this run: the road that the New Testament refers to, FR211, is also the road to the Stage Stop Campground. See eddyflower.com for more details. Knowing that the access situation was strained, we planned a ninja strike putin. As far as we knew, this was all okay, due to the great work accomplished by AW in their 2002 agreement with the Sportsman's Paradise, which is perched across the putin and has historically tried to block access. We put in, and made it halfway through the infamous anti-kayaker "paradise" before a polite gentleman (who turned out to...

Louise Falls The slave is far away. Like, real far. The drive is not that exciting on its own. So As Natalie, Conor and I drove back, we looked for entertainment on the way. This entertainment took the form of Louise falls and Lundbreck falls. Louise falls is the little sister of the famous (former) world record Alexandria falls, first run by Ed Lucero, then later by Tyler Bradt and Rush Sturges. I believe that the current record is held by Paul Gamache. Anyway, we looked at Alexandria, and decided that we were not up to it. However, Conor and I have been curious about Louise falls for a while. On the drive back, we scouted it out, and it looked good to Conor. I was scared (there, I said it) and opted to run safety. "You see, Conor, you want to go over there." "Thanks Leif." Hiking down to the falls Conor ran the slide on the left side of the falls. We decided that the water was low enough and the view bad enough that we wouldn't try the straight drop....