80 Mile Kayak Excursion on the Delaware River

 On August 4, Chrissy and I set out down the West Branch of the Delaware River around 6:40am. There was a light mist falling on us as we set out, which made for some pretty cool pictures. We passed by the Buckingham Access after about 1.5 hours and reached Lordsville in another hour after that. We would snack every once and awhile and Chrissy got the "Goldfish" song stuck in my head for at least an hour. We stopped in Stalker for lunch around 12:40pm before setting out to conquer the rapids by Red Barn Campground. We came across a group that was kayaking down to Callicoon and I happened to know the three guides. They were kind enough to inform me that they had seen my dad a half hour before up in Stalker. We continued on and made it to Callicoon around 3pm. I stopped there to re-coat myself in sunscreen before meandering on towards Damascus. I helped out a fishing tour boat by returning an oar to the guide as I was paddling downstream. By this point it hurt a lot to move my arms and my paddle felt like it weighed about 20 pounds. When I caught up to Chrissy, we decided to just relax and float for about an hour. During this hour we decided that it would be best to only paddle for 3 days to see how far we got as opposed to attempting the entire length of the Delaware River. We finally reached Skinners Falls campground around 6:30pm, which is where we decided to stop for the day. Luckily this happened to be my place of employment, so we were able to just pick a campsite and setup our tent.
After we got situated, I started hearing sirens coming from both sides of the river. A pickup with lights pulled into the parking lot across the road, followed by a fire truck. I assumed that the old Victorian house was on fire, but I didn't see any smoke. I went inside the store at Skinners Falls and asked my co-worker if she knew what was going on and she informed me that she had gotten a call that there was a missing 18 year old. That was when every possible vehicle from police cars, to an ambulance, to the park service started arriving and I knew that it couldn't be a good situation. I watched as numerous men put on scuba gear and air boats were sent into the river to go search for the missing swimmer. A couple hours went by until, unfortunately, an EMT came in asking for tarps, which meant that they had found the body and had to set up a tent in order to wait for the coroner. It was a very sobering moment and a good reminder to always wear my life jacket and to be thankful that I am alive.
Given our long evening and extremely sore muscles, we decided to sleep in until 8:30am the next morning. We got up, disassembled the tent, and gathered our gear before setting off on Day 2 of our excursion. We passed through Narrowsburg and avoided the eel weir on our way to Ten Mile River. After hours of paddling, we made it to Minisink around 4pm. We stopped and ate lunch and I used the phone to call my house to inform my parents of our progress. My goal was to reach Knights Eddy, but given our exhaustion and tendinitis, I knew in the back of my mind that wouldn't be possible. We kept on paddling down the river and saw an eagle, which was pretty cool. I was able to float down directly underneath the eagle and got some good pictures while it was perched in the tree. It was slowly getting dark as we approached an unmarked eel weir near Pond Eddy where I happened to spot my mom on shore waving us over. We paddled over and were informed that we could leave our kayaks there overnight and sleep at my parents that night. We were very grateful for a warm house to sleep in and some hot dinner.
The next morning we awoke at 8am and my mom drove us down to Pond Eddy. We set off down the river once again despite our sore arms and hands. Our boats were much lighter since we kept the gear at the house because we were only paddling another 3 hours to Matamoras, PA. I was very grateful for this considering the rapids that we encountered on our journey, which were definitely the most fun we had the entire trip. I got some pictures and video along the way, which are compiled in a short movie at the bottom of this post. We definitely enjoyed ourselves and plan on doing the rest of the river in increments until we do the entire length, including the Delaware Bay. I will definitely post again whenever we decide to continue our excursion.

Whirlwind on the West Coast

Jeepers it's been a busy week. We left off in Gold Beach, Oregon I believe. Well on Thursday, June 3rd, we drove south along Route 101 so that we could travel through Redwood National Forest. It was stunning to see such gigantic trees lining the roadways. When stopping at a visitors center, we happened to come across a herd of elk, which was pretty awesome. We decided to then travel along the Avenue of the Giants and paid a few dollars to literally drive through a tree because not everybody can say that they took the time to drive through a redwood. After the park, we located a Starbucks to do some reading, but I was too intrigued by the women's Bible study to actually do any. Once we relaxed for a bit, we continued on down the coast and detoured at Point Arenas Lighthouse just because it was there. The facility was closed, but it was beautiful seeing a lighthouse at night. Finally reached our campsite in Gualala State Park around 10pm. I was greatly amused by the security guard who spoke to me in German and actually knew how to pronounce my last name as "moot" which hardly ever happens.

Friday morning Chrissy and I got up bright and early at 6am (well not so much bright as it was still pouring rain). After showering and disassembling a wet tent, we ventured towards Calistoga, CA to go wine tasting at Chateau Montelena. The venue was gorgeous and the wine was decent. I drove afterwards since I only had tiny sips, whereas Chrissy finished off the wine and it was pre-breakfast at 9am. I continued south through Napa Valley to get us onto 120 east towards Yosemite National Park. Yosemite was absolutely breathtaking! We saw Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls, Brideveil Falls, El Capitan, and Half Dome. What made everything even better was the fact that the sun finally came out after almost a week straight of rain that was really wearing on my psyche. After Yosemite, it was off to our campsite on Half Moon Bay. We were truly blessed with the location of site 16 because it just so happened to be literally 50 feet from the beach so we got the luxury of falling asleep and waking up to waves crashing along the shore.

Saturday was a fun-filled day. We started the day by visiting the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA. This mansion was designed by the late Mrs. Winchester, who was married to the son of the man who invented the Winchester rifle. The mansion is quite intriguing with its low-rise staircases, the door to nowhere, and windows with views of elevator shafts. Some say that the reason the house is so unique is because Mrs. Winchester was trying to confuse the spirits of those killed by the Winchester rifle. Chrissy and I opted for the Grand Estate tour, which included both the mansion tour and the behind-the-scenes tour. It was very entertaining to learn all of the inside stories about the house and Mrs. Winchester's bizarre behavior. Following the tour, we trekked up to San Francisco so that we could take the ferry out to Alcatraz. If you remember, I happen to have a great fascination with 1920s gangsters, and Al Capone happened to do time on the Rock. Also, I really enjoyed Clint Eastwood in Escape From Alcatraz, so to be able to see the actual cells that those men chiseled their way out of was pretty epic. The audio tour was quite intriguing and made you feel like you were really experiencing certain events such as the riot that occurred and stabbings in the dining area. Once back on shore, Chrissy and I wandered Fisherman's Wharf and found some nice bargain shops before stopping for a loaf of sourdough bread at Boudin's Sourdough Bakery. We then took pictures of Ghiradelli Square and the trolley turnaround on Hyde Street before hiking up Hyde Street to get a view of the bay area. Next was walking down Lombard Street, which happens to be the crookedest street ever. As a surprise, I found Aladdin Street for Chrissy because that is her favorite movie. After our own personal walking tour, we decided to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge before finding our campsite at Sunset Beach State Park along Monterey Bay.

Sunday we drove down the Pacific Coast Highway along Monterey Bay and through the Big Sur area. The blues of the water were absolutely stunning, and the cliff views were nerve-racking and spectacular all at the same time. Around 4 in the afternoon we reached our destination in Santa Monica. Former members of our church (Nathan and Jess Kollar, Josh and Allison Kollar, Ryan and Katrina Connell, and Dan Crismon to name a few) planted a church called Clarity about 6 months ago, so we decided to crash their place for two nights. There was an event Sunday night with a nice pasta dinner and some worship music led by Nathan and Jessica Kollar, along with a short message by Nathan on the Power of One, which focused on the story of Stephen being the first Christian martyr and how his sacrifice fulfilled God's Word of spreading the gospels across the globe. After the event, we all went back to the condo to socialize and eat leftovers.

Chrissy and I got the luxury of sleeping in until about 10am Monday morning, which was awesome! Josh Kollar was the first person to wander into the kitchen, so we celebrated by all eating chocolate cake for breakfast (we needed some sort of excuse to make that okay). After lounging for a bit, Chrissy and I ventured to the 3rd Street Promenade. I got sucked in by the World Cup hype and bought a soccer magazine that came with a World Cup Guide. I then came across the Adidas store and now have a new Germany soccer jersey and zip-up track jacket. It was totally worth it though. After the shopping spree, Chrissy and I decided to be brave and each dunked ourselves in the Pacific Ocean. It was definitely not as cold as I expected. Jumping in the Delaware River in January was definitely much worse (nor very smart haha). We went back to the condo and then went out to dinner at In N Out with Nathan, Jess, Novi, Josh, and Allison. Novi was quite entertained by my phone, so I let her play with it while we were stuck in traffic. Following dinner, we had a quick Mario Kart tournament before Allison, Chrissy, Jess, and I all went to Pink Berry for dessert. I got a mini chocolate topped with brownie bites, chocolate chips, and crushed oreos. It was delicious! Once back at home, we all watched some bloopers on Youtube before settling on watching G.I. Jane on Netflix. Chrissy and I then hashed out what we are planning on doing for the next couple of days. I am currently losing at finding any sort of campsite near Kannaraville, UT, for later in the week, so I should probably sleep considering how late it is. Sorry it's been so long since the last update. Hopefully the next won't be too far down the road.

Natural Wonders and a Moose

After updating the blog in Minneapolis, Chrissy and I drove straight through the night so that we could make it to the Badlands National Park near Cactus Flat, SD (Don't worry we alternated sleeping and driving and would switch when necessary).
On Wednesday, we drove through the Badlands after purchasing the America the Beautiful Pass, which will get us into every national park that we visit. We did a one mile hike on the Notch Trail in the Badlands. We only saw chipmunks, but there were signs warning us about rattlesnakes. The hike has a ladder that leads up to a ridge along the rim of a cliff, but the trail is wide enough that there was no chance of falling. At the end of the trail, there was a beautiful overlook that showed more of the rock formations and flat plains of South Dakota. We continued driving the scenic byway through the Badlands and stopped at a handful of other viewpoints before exiting the park into Wall, SD, so that we could get gas and coffee.
After refueling, we found our way to Mt. Rushmore and took pictures from along the road. We then drove back down the mountain into Keystone and shopped for souvenirs. We enjoyed chatting with this one guy who worked in the store about our trip. Another worker commented on my colorful shoes (imagine that haha). We drove back to I-90 west and ate some lunch and drank Starbucks while I made reservations for camping and horseback riding before driving to Sundance, WY, in search of the statue of the Sundance Kid. I am a big fan of the classic movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, so I was really excited to be able to go to the town where the Kid took his name from. Our next stop was Devil's Tower, but we did not enter the park to explore considering there was a nice thunderstorm brewing. We did stop at the store on the outskirts of Devil's Tower and chatted with a woman who was hanging out on the porch and watching the approaching storm. She asked if we were spending the night in the local campground, but I told her we were driving to Cody, WY. That eased her mind because she didn't want us to be in the bad weather.
Chrissy and I trekked to Cody, WY, through Bighorn National Forest and slept at the Ponderosa Campground. We were too tired to put up the tent, so we curled up in the front of the truck and slept. The next morning (Thursday), we showered and I chatted up the manager of the campground. He gave me a free map of Wyoming and a booklet on Yellowstone National Park. We set off and drove about an hour to Crossed Sabres Ranch, where we had reservations for a 2 hour horseback riding adventure. Our guide's name was Jacob, and a woman named Bayley came with us too because she had never gone horseback riding before. Jacob is originally from Arkansas while Bayley flew in from Georgia to work in Wyoming for the summer. I rode on a gray horse named Smokey, while Chrissy rode on Rowdy. Our ride took us up into some mountains with a great view of the Rockies and the ranch down in the valley. Smokey enjoyed looking at the scenery more than keeping up with the rest of the group, which I was perfectly content with. We bonded over enjoying being loners every once in a while. We saw some bear tracks on our ride, but no bears. Jacob was really nice and stopped to take some pictures of us.
After our ride, we drove the 8 miles to Yellowstone National Park. We stopped at a viewpoint to take pictures of Yellowstone Lake, but when Chrissy turned around, she noticed there happened to be a bison eating grass on the hillside right across the road from us. A little farther down the road there were 6 more bison that were really close to the road so we got some really good pictures. The first sight that we stopped to view was the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. We then went and took pictures of Upper Falls before driving over the Continental Divide to see Old Faithful. Our timing was great there because we arrived a half hour before the geyser was to go off again.

Following Old Faithful, we began our trek south towards Jackson Hole, WY, where we were planning on meeting up with my friend, Julie. I was amused by the construction signs in Grand Tetons National Park because they are completely serious when they say "pavement ends". One second you are on a nice road then BAM dirt road. I bet the Porsche that was following us was none too thrilled. As we continued through the Tetons, we saw bunch of cars pulled to the side of the road. I took the advice of the woman at the ranch who said whenever cars are stopped, pull over because there is an animal there. Chrissy and I wandered over to the other people and found out that there was a mama moose who had just given birth about 10 minutes before we showed up. We saw the newborn on its wobbly legs and got some great pictures and video of the mama. After the pitstop, I continued driving towards Jackson Hole and followed Julie's directions to the gas station in the town of Wilson so I could find her. I then followed her up Teton Pass into Idaho to her house in Victor. While driving up the pass, a moose ran across the road in front of Julie, which amused me.
Once we stretched our legs at Julie and Josh's house, Julie brought us to the Wildlife Brewery in Victor for dinner. Chrissy and I were both really excited for an actual meal finally. We chowed down on some pizza and I drank a Porcupine Porter because I thought the name of it was fun. The conversation was entertaining over dinner and Josh made some suggestions of what to do today. Once we got back to the house, Chrissy and I unpacked and then pretty much crashed because we were exhausted and were really excited for a bed to sleep in.
Well I guess I should go shower and call my Uncle Bob to inform him of our impending arrival tomorrow. More again soon!