Cali Update

I can’t say that my trip to California has gone exactly how I had planned, but at the end of the day I have still been having a good time. When I got to California at the end of May it was still raining and cold. It turned out that team Kiwi was heading to Vail for the Teva Mountain Games. So on a spur of a moment decision after being in California for a two days I was in a car driving 19 hours to Vail. I travelled with Leela and Toni, in Terry the Toyota Tercel.

Terry the Toyota Tercel – Photo Toni George

On the first day about 6 hours into the drive Terry started shuddering violently. Luckily we were savvy enough to identify the fact that the shuddering was caused by those ‘pluggy things’ ie spark plugs. After a quick stop at an auto parts store we had the shuddering fixed. However at this point a man in the parking lot was nice enough to point out the fact that our tire was in the process of disintegrating. So we stopped by a tire store and got ripped off, but soon had a new tire that wasn’t about to explode on us.

Detour?

We made it to Vail two days later without anymore incidents but didn’t end up having time to do a run on Homestake Creek to get ready for the race as we had hoped. I was a little nervous about racing as I hadn’t been in my kayak for two and half months and Homestake Creek isn’t exactly a great warm up run. So we ended up getting two runs in the day before the race and after having a swim I can’t say I was feeling very confident.

Race Day

However on race day things went well and even though I didn’t have fast lines I had clean enough lines to make it though to the finals. So I was pretty happy ending up with seventh place in the women's race. It was also an awesome day to be a Kiwi in Vail with Sam Sutton winning the mens, Nikki Kelly coming in 3rd, and Leela Samuels getting 6th!

Team Kiwi Celebrating

It was great to have the race over and just be able to relax and enjoy the rest of the Teva Mountain Games which was a fun event. I think it would be safe to say that with 20 Kiwis renting a house in Vail we probably also managed to win the party.

Party Time – Photo Toni George

 

The Team

Terry the Toyota Tercel was not that pleased with the idea of driving all the way back to California so he started to play up again. First we had problems with the brakes, which we were lucky enough to have Toni’s friends help us out and fix. Then in the middle of the night the alternator died in the middle of nowhere. So in the morning we inched our way all the way to Salt Lake City to find a new alternator that would fit Terry. Again we impressed ourselves with our mechanical ability and replaced the alternator ourselves outside the auto parts store. Needless to say three girls in short skirts changing an alternator in a parking lot in America drew a lot of side ways looks. Finally that night we made it home to Coloma in the early hours of the morning.

Surgery – Photo Leela Samuels

So at this point things were looking good. I was back in Cali with two months off and the season was looking to be a good one. However after two runs on Slab creek my right wrist developed some serious tendonitis. Unfortunately it took three weeks for my wrist to get to a point where I can paddle on it again. However after letting myself get depressed about it for awhile I decided it was time to find out what other people who don’t kayak do when their not working. I had some good adventures driving shuttles for South Merced, Middle Feather and Royal Gorge. I have also had some good hiking missions into the South Merced (where I managed to get covered in poison oak and nearly bit by a snake) and into Royal Gorge to take some food in for the ‘A team’ on their second night on the river.

The snake I nearly stood on

Cooking Dinner in Royal Gorge

Hiking

I also took on the role of party coordinator for awhile which brought about few awesome nights. I’m not 100% sure that this is what people who don’t kayak do but at least it kept me entertained.
So it is now the start of July and I have one month left before I have to go to work. Things are looking good though, there is still a lot of water around and I am beginning to feel good in my boat again. So hopefully my next blog will actually be about kayaking in California!