Expeditionettes

Yukon Ho!

2008-07-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

And now for the latest adventures of Molly Malone, the dirtpatch anthropologist...

That's right folks, I've headed to the northwest corner of Canada to live out the dream Calvin & Hobbes inspired in me so long ago.

I'm here working as a research assistant to Professor Patrick Moore of the University of British Columbia, where I am currently a PhD student in anthropology. Pat is doing linguistic research on Kaska, a native language spoken in parts of the Yukon and BC, mostly by people in their 50s and older (referred to as elders). I haven't been on the water as much as the other Expeditionettes, but I am getting to learn a lot about how people have lived off the land for the past few thousand years.

The photo up top is of the sign at the BC/YT border: "Welcome to North of 60." When I first saw it, I thought it said "Welcome to North of Go," in reference to Monopoly. I was wrong.

This is some typical southern Yukon scenery. The white trees are poplars, the other trees include spruce and jack pine. There are berries all over the place: strawberries, soap berries, bear berries. A grizzly bear is probably about to jump out and eat you.

This is me at work with Kassua, my 3 year-old half-Kaska, half-German intern. My jobs include running the video camera while elders tell stories, setting up really fancy voice recording equipment (Marantz, anyone?), taking notes in a language I neither speak nor understand, fetching lunch meat, brewing countless pots of tea, and driving the elders wherever they need to go. I make it sound tedious for humor's sake, but it's actually a really awesome experience.

These are my new moccasins made from moose hide and beaver fur (don't tell PETA). They were sewn by Kaska elder Minnie Caesar. Kaska women like Minnie tan their own hides and do intricate bead work on things like moccasins, vests, and headbands. They make a good living doing it, too, since tourists are willing to pay top dollar for Indian-made items.

This is what the back of your car looks like after driving for 400km on the Robert Campbell Highway--a road that is only paved for about 40km--in the rain. Check out the little gold miner on the left--killer facial hair, eh? I also like his "toque." Words of advice for driving in the Yukon: if you don't like mud, stay on the Alaska Highway.

This is the sign at the entrance to Lower Post, a Kaska community right across the border in BC. I've been driving here almost every day to bring some elders up to where we are working in Watson Lake. The top of the sign is written in Kaska.

Watson Lake has a signpost forest. What is that, you say? Obviously it is a forest of beams where you nail up a sign you stole from home. And I found one from Asheville.

This is what you have to drive up here, so you can bulldoze the grizzly bears before they kill you. Just kidding--they'd kill you anyway! Yukoners just love big machines. The better to extract all the minerals with, my dear...

And how do you transport all those minerals so they can sail to China? In a muffin truck, of course.

Fireweed!

On Monday we head to Frances Lake for some more research, and the elders are all bringing their boats and their guns. Stay tuned for tales of fishnets and mooseheads...

Fourth of July Celebration- Honolulu Creek and Chulitna River

2008-07-09T10:48:00.001-07:00

Fourth of July is an important holiday for the Dirtpatch. This 4th represented two years since our Honduras adventure, which ended with an emergency flight home and a cancer diagnosis. Last year, Stacy and I made our way down the Middle Fork of the Salmon river on the 4th of July. A few years before, Stacy and I had gotten lost in the Olympic National Park on the 4th of July. And a few years before that we were engaged in some major firework wars at the Ocoee River on the same holiday. It is becoming a tradition to have some sort of adventure/ celebration on the 4th every year. This year was no exception, except that I was on my own for this one. I am sure that the rest of the DP was celebrating somewhere as well.

For this year's celebration, I got to fly into Goat Lake with Scott and Allen Warren. Goat Lake is an incredibly beautiful and pristine mountain lake near Denali National Park. A couple of photographers from SELF magazine were also flown in to take some pics. They are doing a story on cancer survivors and I am one of the survivors in the article. We spent a day shooting pictures, hiking, and fishing, and then paddled out via the clear waters of Honolulu Creek.

Scott making Thai food at Goat Lake

Goat Lake was one of the most beautiful places I have been, and the weather couldn't have been better. It was a great feeling to be flown into this place, knowing that the only way to get out of there was by kayak, plane, or a really long hike. A few Carribou decided to join us for dinner that night on the other side of the lake. We also spent some time catching Dolly Bartons (Not sure if that is spelled right, sounds like Dolly Parton with a 'B'), which became dinner on night two.

Beginning a kayaking trip with photographers was a unique experience. They were really nice guys, straight out of LA, and we really enjoyed camping with them for the night. They had been photographing several other cancer survivor athletes, and it was great to hear about them.

SELF rapid on the creek that feeds out of the lake and meets with Honolulu Creek

After the photos were taken, Ray came back and picked up the photographers. Allen and Scott and I decided to take a little hike. We pointed to the top of one of the peaks around us and decided to go there. It turned out to be a pretty long, intense hike, and the views were spectacular. With the weather being as clear as it was, we were able to see Denali (Mt. McKinnley) from the top really clearly, although 'the Great One' didn't show up very well on camera.

The boys taking a short break and checking out the view

The view from the top: my feet and Denali, which doesn't show up that well on camera

5 hours later, we were back at Goat Lake. Allen fished for our dinner, catching a few Dollies which we through in with some couscous- oishi (delicious)! The next morning we managed to make it down the small creek and eventually into Honolulu Creek.

packin' it up

Me and Goat Mountain in the Background

Honolulu Creek was a really nice class IV creek with amazing views. It was 12 miles back out to the road from the lake. It flowed into the Chulitna river, which became our next river trip.

Scott on Honolulu Creek

Me on Honolulu Creek

The Chulitna rafting trip was the greatest fishing trip I have ever been on. The river was beautiful and the company was fantastic. Unlike the Charlie, the weather was bright and sunny most of the time.

Allen's raft near the put-in

We didn't catch many fish the first day, but found a perfect camp spot to celebrate the 4th. We were up bright and early the next morning and floated down to the sweet fishing spot. The place is called Spink Creek, and it is a clear creek that flows into the silty Chulitna. It was big and slow moving and an ideal place for Kings. To get here, you have to know where the creek is, and make a big ferry move to avoid the logs and enter the mouth of the creek.

Newman caught one before we decided to stop for dinner. As soon as dinner was over, the skies let loose with a huge hail storm. We all took cover in our tents and eventually all fell asleep.

The next morning at 5 am, Scott and I snuck out of the tents, and took the raft out to fish. It was the best fishing I've ever been a part of. :) We pulled in four Kings, two each before we stopped to wake up the rest of the group.

Catching my first King! Fish on!!!

As soon as everyone woke up and saw the fish, they piled into the raft and took off in pursuit of their Kings.

The Chulitna Group: Newman, Tera, Allen, Me Scott, Dale, Char, and Ben

Not only was the weather perfect that day, so was the fishing, and so was the view. We were able to get a clear view of Denali all the way to the take-out.

Denali, also known as Mt. McKinnley, means Great One.

Real Alaskans don't call it Mt. McKinnley, since president McKinnley never even came up to Alaska.

Fourth of July has become a celebration of life and adventure for the DirtPatch. Life is short, but it is wide, and it is made to be packed with experiences. Flying through the air over the beautiful mountains, living it up next to a pristine mountain lake, watching the carribou, hiking to the top of the mountains, kayaking with the boys, floating and fishing the Chulitna, and seeing the powerful snow covered Denali, I felt ever so grateful for the life that I have, and the gifts that I have been given, and independence from the threat of cancer. I felt really free and really blessed.

Newman caught the big fish that morning.

Mine's the big one on the ground! :)

Charlie River Fishing Trip

2008-07-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

The third week of June, we rafted down the beautiful Charlie River. It felt good to be on that river, even as the wind whispered past my ears, trying to cut through my jacket, stinging my bear toes and fingers.

To access this run, we had to hire a plane to take us to the put in. The first member of the group to arrive at the put in had to deal with a curious grizzly until the rest of us got there. The river was pretty technical at first for the rafts and then gained more volume as we floated out further out of the mountains.

Here is our crew...

Allen, Jason, Matt, Mindy, Dale, Newman, me and Scottie

Scott's Dad and his friend, Rusty, flew their float planes in and picked up Matt and Mindy to take them back to the airport so they could fly home to Utah. It was pretty cool to be out there for 3 days and then see two float planes land on the river. Not a bad trip for Matt and Mindy, too, to fly into and out of a river in Alaska during their vacation.

It was pretty rainy on 3 of the 5 days we were out. The fishing could have been better, but we managed to catch 2 or 3 pike and a she-fish. The trip itself was beautiful and our group was really entertaining. At one point, Scott and I stopped and checked out some wild sheep that were pretty close to the river. They seemed so much bigger when they were closer. As we watched them we began to hear sounds of thunder in the distance shortly joined by the sound of another cold summer shower, which began to fall from the sky all around us.

We saw several bald eagles and I did catch 5 little greylings, which I threw back since they were too small to eat.

We did a hike one morning and were able to get a good birds-eye view of the river. Here is a picture of me with Newman and Dale, two of my favorite Alaskans.

The Charlie fed into the Yukon river, which the rest of the gang (minus Matt and Mindy) floated out until we reached the city of Circle, AK. Back during the 'golden' age of Alaska, this town was a bustling hub for prospectors. There was a theatre and about 12 saloons there, now there are only a few buildings, and not much else. It was really cool to see that town. There were some hotsprings nearby that we went to and then we headed back to Fairbanks.

Here are some pics of the Yukon river:

living in a van down by the river

2008-07-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

Scottie and I have been in Alaska for a few weeks now. This place is amazing. After arriving in Fairbanks, we fixed up Scott's van and took it out on the open road. We drove through Denali around 11pm on the 5th of June and the sun's golden glow was still shining, illuminating the earth, the clouds, and the snowcapped peaks which surrounded us. It was like that all night until the sun decided to rise out of it's colorful repose and rise up into the sky the next day.

We first ran the Nanana river, camped at Troublesome Creek, and did some fishing. We didn't catch anything, but you could see Denali (aka Mt. McKinnely for non-Alaskan people) from our fishing spot and it was gorgeous. Scott and I headed south afterwords, took a nice hike up the little Susitna river. The hike turned into a breath taking run towards a glacier under imposing snowcapped mountains. Afterwards we put on the little Sue and it ended up being a really fun, continuous class IV creek. Sort of like Big Creek back home. We met a nice couple who took some pictures and emailed them to me... here is one of them.

here is another...
and one more...

After that, we paddled 6 mile creek (no photos of that one, sorry) and stayed with Beer Can Dan in Anchorage. Then we picked up Scott's friend, Matt, and paddled Ship creek. We had a small brush with the law there, and got some warning tickets for being on military property (no photos again, sorry). We hiked into Ingram Creek one day, but no one had been in it yet this year and it looked pretty snowy. We were worried about the logs and ice bridges that may still be in the river, so we are gonna save that one for later this summer. Maybe when Stacy gets in town. We paddled Canyon Creek and Bird Creek as well. The water up here is really cold, but the weather is pretty nice.

Here is a picture of the falls at Bird Creek.

Here is a picture of our hike up the little Sue

Here is one of the hike into Ingram Creek

After that, we went to the Charlie River. That'll be the next post.

California Update

2008-06-29T10:50:00.001-07:00

photo: robin betz

This June I headed back to California with a couple of goals in mind. Even after having logged two runs down the Middle Fork of the Kings on past summer trips, there were still several California Classics that I had never experienced. The Kaweah River, Dinkey Creek, Fantasy Falls, West Cherry.... and more. You hear from everyone that Dinkey Creek should not be missed, that Fantasy Falls is an incredible adventure, and that West Cherry is almost as badass as Upper Cherry. Let's just say I got my birthday wish - and enjoyed an incredible line-up of classics! Stay tuned to Liquid Logic Ladies Lounge , Astral Buoyancy Gallery, and Shred Ready Beatdown for the rest of the story.

Boof Against the Odds slides back into home

2007-08-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

I finally have arrived back in Asheville after an incredible summer of boofing against the odds. Before BOA was officially kicked off in June, I was able to warm up by kayaking in California, North Carolina and Colorado. I paddled the Nordheimer section of the Salmon river and South Silver in California, then back to Old Faithful, the Green River in North Carolina, and then back west to Oh Be Joyful in Colorado and competed in the Homesteak Creek Race (3rd place). This was all to get in shape for the Boof Against the Odds fundraiser, where Stacy Heer, Robin Betz and myself were trying to paddle 300 miles in the months of June and July (61 days).

So here is the breakdown of the miles we were able to accomplish:

Colorado

June 1- Day one of Boof Against the Odds!
Tommy, Scott and I kicked off BAO by paddling 8.1 miles, putting on at the Barrell Springs section of the Colorado and following it down to Tommy's house.
Day 2, I had come down with some kind of bug already and decided not to get into the water. I figured if I rested, it would go away and I would get better faster and paddle more whitewater.
Day 3, I paddled the same section of the Colorado with my brother, logging another 8.1 miles.

Then I left for California! So far I had logged 16.2 miles, driving on day 4 and 5 to pick up Robin on Day 6

California

Day 6, I picked up Robin in Reno at the airport and we head to the Truckee River. We paddled there with loaded boats to get in some kind of practice before paddling the hooha with them. We logged 2 miles on the river and then hiked 2 miles through the urban jungle back to the dirtpatch mobile. This is when I decided that hiking with a kayak should count as miles because it is actually much harder to carry your kayak than for your kayak to carry you.
hey, it's our fundraiser, we get to make the rules. :) So, here we logged 4 miles.

We drove to meet Jason Hale on day 7 and went hiking with him up to Donner Summit, waiting to see if the Middle Kings was going to run and if the boys were going to meet us there to run it. On day 8 we drove to run Cherry Creek of the Tuolomne (Cherry Proper), which I think we ran on day 9, giving us 9 more miles.

We drove to set shuttle for the Middle Fork of the Kings adventure on day 10, and began hiking on day 11. Team Idaho, Team Sketch and Team Vermont were with Tdub and ourselves (the dirtpatch) on that part of the journey. We paddled on days 12-14 before I had an epic swim/hiking/camping adventure on day 15. I hitchhiked back to meet the rest of the crew (who paddled the Garlic Falls section of the Kings) on day 16. Before driving back to Lake Tahoe to stay with our girl, Molly, we had logged 29 miles of kayaking and 12 miles of hiking, bringing us to 54 miles in California. So, now we had a total of 70.2 miles!

Oregon/Washington
On day 21 I met Stacy in Hood River Oregon. We decided to do an overnighter on the Clackamus River and logged another 29 miles there on days 22-23.

The next few days we spent around Hood River. About day 24, Stacy and I met up with Lana and ran the Green Truss logging 4.9 miles. Stacy got lit up by some bees that day, taking 15 stings to the face and ears. Day 25 I paddled the Truss again with Lana, Heather and Christie G (ladies' trip!), then went to run the Little White that afternoon with Keel, Jay, Ian and Evan logging 5.5 on the Ldub and 4.9 on the Truss. Day 26, I spent with the ladies on the Lower Wind River logging 5 miles and running some water falls that were really pretty.

Day 27, I paddled the Ldub again with Matt Gaudette and Chris Jones. And finally, on the last day in Hood River (day 28) , we paddled down one last time on the Ldub with Matt, Jay, Keel, Ryan, Boone, and Russell. That was a really fun group and I finally fired up Spirit with Jay and Keel setting safety from below. That was 11 miles for those two days.

So all together in Hood River, we logged 55.4 miles, totaling 125.6 miles for the entire trip so far!

I drove to Boise to meet up with Stacy on day 29, and spent day 30-32 in Boise with Stacy and Collin.

Idaho

On July 3rd, day 33, Stacy and I put in on Marsh Creek, which feeds into the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. We had a great time logging 118 miles on that creek and the rest of the MFS during the next few days, taking out on July 6th.

On day 37 we drove to the North Fork of the Payette, running the top five miles on day 38. It took us 2 more days to run 2 miles of the middle 5 and all of the bottom five due to lots of scouting and one boat going down in a blaze of glory. (logging 12 miles)

On day 41, we paddled the entire South Fork of the Payette from around mile marker 30 to the confluence with the North Fork. The river winds away from the road, and after looking at the information on AW's website, I believe we paddled about 35 miles.

Therefore in Idaho, we totaled 165 miles. Bringing us up to a total of 290.6 miles! Stacy and I then decided to head back to Colorado to finish the Boof against the Odds Challenge there.

Back in Colorado!
Stacy and I had the opportunity to paddle with the wonderful people from Pike's Peak Whitewater Club on day 45, after spending some Q-T with my nephews. We paddled the Arkansas from Pinnacle Rock through the Royal Gorge to get a total of about 19 miles.

On days 50- 56 I had the opportunity to spend a week with First Descents outside of Vail, Colorado. During that week, we paddled Shoshone twice (2x2=4 miles) , a section of the Colorado near the Dotsero exit on I-70 (about 5 miles), the section from the take-out of Shoshone to Glenwood Springs (about 5 miles), and the Pumphouse section of the Eagle River (about 5 miles). We racked up 19 miles that week! Giving us 38 miles for this trip to Colorado and brining the total up to 328.6 miles!

Alaska

Boof Against the Odds was finished in Alaska on days 60 & 61 on the Copper River in Alaska! It was so beautiful and a perfect way to end this unbelievable summer. There was no way to tell exactly how many miles we did those first two days of the five day trip, but I would guess it was about 35 miles. 10 the first night and probably about 25 the next day. Bringing the grand total of Boof Against the Odds first summer challenge to.... 363.6 miles!

Alaska!

2007-08-15T07:42:00.001-07:00

The final days of Boof Against the Odds were spent in Alaska of all places. I flew there the day after I left First Descents. Alaska is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Scott Dillard, who I paddled with on the first days of the fundraiser lives in Fairbanks and I finished up BAO on a river with him again along with some of his friends that were in California with us on the warm-up trip to the Cal-Salmon. The summer was really coming full circle now.

Cindy and Dave

When I first got to Alaska, Scott picked me up at the airport and we went fishing with his mom, Cindy, and his dad, Dave. To get to the river we were fishing on, Dave flew me in his super cub float plane. It was incredible to fly there and to see Fairbanks from the air. We caught several Pike that evening. Cindy and I caught the big ones (a first for me) and we ate them for dinner!

We spent the night on the river and fished some more. The sun set around 9 or so and just stayed a sunset for hours, well past midnight. The next morning we flew back to Fairbanks and drove to meet 18 of Scotts friends to float down the Copper River.

This was an amazing Alaskan adventure with a stellar group of really funny people. With 20 people, 5 rafts, and two dogs and lots of ammunition to protect us from the bears, we were quite a crew. I felt as we traveled down the river like one of the Pirates or Peter Pan's lost boys, finding adventure along the way.

We put on the same night after returning from fishing trip. It was a little chilly and raining, luckily that weather did not last for the rest of the week like that. We barely missed our planned campspot and were forced to continue down stream as it began to get dark. Fortunately we found a good spot that night and even ended up with a few Copper River salmon to eat for dinner. As we continued each day down stream, the river grew and grew. It was the largest moving body of water I have ever been on. It was difficult not to get stuck in huge eddies that take forever to paddle out of. We stopped at several beaches on the banks to get out and explore.

Dan and the potato gun

One beach was known for having a lot of bears, so we stopped to check them out. When we got out of our raft, the sand was covered in huge bear prints. It looked like hundreds of bears had been there that morning walking the beach. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I didn't get a chance to see one, but a few people in our crew saw a big grizzly bear when they first landed on the sand.

Scott amongst the paw prints

We also saw lots of seals that had come up from the Prince William Sound, and plenty of bald eagles. The river itself was a relaxing class II, but with a swift current to keep it interesting. The scenery was incredible.

Everywhere you looked there were beautiful waterfalls pouring down into the river and glaciers which looked like frozen lakes tilted and perched on the sides of the steep mountains.

On the last day, we paddled across a lake for a few miles. It was cloudy and I could hear what sounded like thunder in the distance. The sound grew louder as we continued downstream. Finally Scott told me that the thundering sound was coming from an enormous glacier a mile ahead. When we reached the glacier, we parked downstream and hiked up and watched iceburgs calving off the face of the glacier. As they fell, they would make a loud booming sound, and sometimes form huge waves. One wave was so big that it picked up our rafts and moved them 10 feet up the bank. It was a strange feeling to watch skyscraper size chunks of ice suddenly break off and crash down into the river. It was an amazing experience, another simple life adventure coming to an end.

A week at First Descents

2007-08-15T07:12:00.000-07:00

On July 20th I drove to Vail to spend a week with First Descents, a kayaking camp for young adults with cancer. This was an amazing experience to meet and spend time with people my own age who had also battled cancer. This was the first time I had been around so many cancer survivors, or in a place where those who had had cancer outnumbered those who had not.

When I first arrived at camp, I met Tex, Crampster and Beef, 3 of the couselors and we all went to paddle Shoshone together. It was great to be on the river with these guys. The next day we met the campers. They were an interesting group and so much fun to get to know.

On the first full day of camp, we all drove to a large pond and taught the campers how to wet exit. Many of them had never been in a kayak before and were really apprehensive about pulling their spray skirt. It was amazing to watch them conquer their fears and join us in a game of kayak polo by the end of the session. Even more amazing was watching them get out on the river the very next day and paddle through rapids.

The first river day was on a section of the Colorado near the Dotsero exit on I-70. I am not exactly sure how many miles, but it was at least 5 or more. Then we all went to run Shoshone again. The campers rafted it and Beef, Buttons, Crampster, Mateo and I paddled it. Also Forrest and Tex took two of the campers down in Topo Duos.

The next river day we took the campers from the take out of Shoshone into Glenwood Springs. It was a beautiful day and the campers styled the river. I was amazed at how quickly they progressed in just 3 days.

We took a day off to go rock climbing and to ride the Gondola in Vail the next day to rest up before the biggest challenge for the campers. The final river day we paddled the Eagle River 'Pumphouse' section I think it is called. It begins at the takeout for Gore canyon. It was my favorite day on the river with the campers. They did so well out there. Several of them tried surfing, and a few got their first rolls.

I had such a good week with First Descents. It was so good for me to have the opportunity to talk with them about my experience the past year and learn from their experiences. I think this camp is a valuable experience for those who choose to go. I can't wait to spend another week there next summer.

Four toes and a phlange...

2007-07-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

This is this guy, Daniel (from Pikes Peak Whitewater Club)'s foot, if you notice, his little toe does not even touch the ground, unless he strains to put it there. Weird, huh?

This past week Stacy and I had the opportunity to paddle with the wonderful people from Pike's Peak Whitewater Club. We paddled the Arkansas from Pinnacle Rock through the Royal Gorge to get a total of about 19 miles. Having the chance to paddle with this group of people was a real honor for us.

After my diagnosis with colon cancer, this group of people (who I had not even met yet), headed up by Mike Brown put forth a huge effort to raise money to help me with all the medical bills I had aquired. By doing so, they gave me the encouragement and support I needed to continue going through the treatments. I will forever be a huge fan of PPWC, and will always feel a special connection to them.

Stacy and I had never paddled this section of river before, and we had such a great time with the crew there. We did some surfing and just had so much fun cruising through the rapids.

The Royal Gorge was a really cool place to see. The rapids were fun class IV between tall rock walls. We saw some Big Horned Sheep and a deer next to the river. We also crossed under the Royal Gorge Bridge (possibly one of the highest spanning bridges in the world... or at least that is what we were told) and also a ramp a few hundred feet off the water that someone said Evil Kinevil tried to jump across the river on (that may just be the legend, as told by Daniel).

We had so much fun paddling with everyone from PPWC, and really hope to paddle with them again sometime. Thanks so much to those guys for paddling with us and also for all the support given to me through the hard times last year.

Another one bites the dust...

2007-07-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

After the incredible Middle Fork of the Salmon trip, Stacy and I headed to the Payette River to spend some time running the North and South Forks. 5 years ago, Stacy and I had paddled the North Fork, completing our first class V run on our own. Now we were planning a reunion trip down the river. I am honestly not sure of the level, but I think it was a bit high this time, at least higher than last time.

We decided to paddle only the top 5 miles the day we arrived. That section was great fun, but we spent a lot of time scouting these really long, continuous rapids.

The next day, we planned to paddle the the next 10 miles to the confluence. After the first mile, Stacy and I got out to scout another long rapid, and as we were looking at it, we see Robin's blue Jefe I had been paddling come screaming down the middle of the rapid on its own. Apparently I had not pulled the kayak far enough out of the surging river. We went scrambling down the bank, but there was no way we were going to catch that boat.

So, to make a long story short, we found the boat pinned a half mile down stream in the middle of the river. We unpinned it and knew the boat was passed the point of ever again floating down another river.

Fortunately my boat from Pyranha had just arrived in Boise, so we were able to pick it up and try again the next day. We put on right where we had taken off the day before and continued working our way downstream. After tons of scouting and some portaging, we decided it was going to take us forever at this pace and we skipped the next 2 miles and put on at the top of the bottom 5.

We met a guy named Ben who paddled these 5 miles with us to the confluence. It was such a great 5 miles, and more melow than the middle 5 had been. So, all in all we had completed 13 miles of whitewater (in only 3 days).

To make up for lost time, we paddled the South Fork of the Payette the next day from the top (around mile marker 30) to the confluence. It is a beautiful deep gorge, complete with incredible riverside hotsprings. At the end of the day, we loaded up the Matrix and headed to Colorado.

one of the more interesting signs we saw while exploring the area

Scrambled, fried or poached?

2007-07-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

The adventure continues... Katie and I left the sweltering city of Boise and headed northeast to run the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. In true dirt patch style, the adventure began with a brief stop at the hospital after running shuttle due to a pretty nasty stomach virus I had acquired. That same day(July 3) we put in at the headwaters of the middle fork called Marsh Creek and paddled 14 miles to the standard put in of the middle fork. We had bought a river book that had all 100 miles of the river detailed with rapids, hikes, history, and geological info. July 4 found us at mile 36 at sunflower hot springs. This was a very important Independence day for Katie and I because it was a year ago that we went searching for a doctor in the jungles of Honduras. We toasted Independence and freedom with chocolate and champagne as we soaked in the hot springs. The canyons in this gorge were incredibly rugged and beautiful. The rapids were class III with a few IV's so we were able to keep a great pace. July 5 found us around mile 74 in the Impassible Canyon. The name is strictly a guess. The book could have confirmed this however I was paddling with it on top of my skirt for easy access and around mile 73 it decided to travel its own way. It might have been extremely informative and waterproof but it could not float. What's the point then, right?
This is a picture from our last camp. We left on July 6th and paddled all the way 5 miles past the normal cache bar take out to the end of the road take out. It was great paddling so many miles through wilderness. I definatly plan to return one day and take more time to fully explore this magical place.

Things to add to your Safety kit...

2007-07-02T09:44:00.001-07:00

Kelly Hilleke photo by Polly Hilleke

So, after our last post, Stacy and I met up with a cool girl in Hood River named Lana and ran the Green Truss for the first time in 5 years. That river is so fun, especially Big Brother. The kayaking part was awesome, but there was a mini epic that happened on the banks. Basically the mini epic involved one dropped and lost paddle, hand paddling a large portion of the river, and Stacy getting lit up by at least 15 bees that we know of and then a slightly early hike out to get Stacy some Benadryl.

The next day, I paddled the Truss again with Lana, Heather and Christie G. It was so fun to be on the river on a ladies trip. We fired up Big Brother and BZ Falls.

That afternoon, Lana and I caught up with my friend Jay (originally from Tennessee) and Keel and Ian (who was on the middle kings with me) and Evan and ran the Little White. It was really beautiful there and we had a great, and uneventful run. Ian and Evan and Keel all fired off Spirit and it was so fun to watch them. I wasn't quite feeling it yet, so I decided to save Spirit for the next time (or the next).

The day after that, I paddled the Ldub again with Matt Gaudette and Chris Jones.

And finally, on the last day in Hood River, we paddled down one last time on the Ldub with Matt, Jay, Keel, Ryan, Boone, and Russell. That was a really fun group and I finally fired up Spirit with Jay and Keel setting safety from below.

Then I hit the road for Boise. Stacy and I are here together again with her man, Collin, the firefighter from CA. We are beginning the Idaho/possibly Montana phase of the trip.

Scott Dillard on Spirit, photo by Lana Young

A year ago today, Stacy and I were together in Honduras kayaking the Rio Cangrejal. We didn't realize that that would be the last time I would be kayaking until that one day on Thanksgiving, or that we wouldn't be paddling by ourselves on the river again until the Clackamus almost a year later. If you have time, check out the 2006 archives of this blog and you will see how the whole cancer thing completely took us by surprize two days later. Stacy and I are planning a secret river trip for the 4th of July, celebrating life and independence, exactly one year after C-day.

Nothing in my life has so profoundly stopped me in my tracks and forced me to take a closer look. Life is so amazing and such a gift, and I am, especially now, treasuring these sunny river adventures, peak adventures, and even a few misadventures turned peak adventure with people who are amazing and who also get it.

Dirtpatch, on the Road Again!

2007-06-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Stacy and I are back on the road together for the first time in awhile. We are in north west Oregon in the Hood River area. Last time we were paddling here was back in '02. Wow, time flies.

After I left California, I drove up to Hood River and met up with Stacy who just got finished fighting fires in the east. I am sans kayak right now, except for Robin's broken Jefe. I took my borrowed leaky vessel along with Stacy and ran the Clackamas river, 29 miles of class II-IV in the beautiful Ponderosa Pine forest of north west Oregon.

It was fun to be back on the river, living out of my kayak. I could get used to that.

On the way to the put in we did a 3 mile side hike to Bagby Hotsprings. They were amazing! We did an early morning hotsprings tour and then went to put on the Clackamas.

Shortly after we put on, we paddled to the Austin hotsprings, right on the side of the river. The water was so hot(boiling) that it melted the vinyl mastic (sp?) on the Jefe and it began to leak for the rest of the run. Here is Stacy perched between the incredibly hot hotspring, and the incredibly cold river.

The river was pretty mellow, but was filled in with these huge lava-esque rocks.

We ended up camping on a beautiful sand bar and built a camp fire. The wood was dry and Stacy contemplated setting the woods on fire to give her firefighter friends some work. However it bagan to rain as the sun began to set. We had to batton down the hatches under a rainfly(the first picture is us battoning down). It was another adventure.

It continued to rain and was a balmy 53 degrees much the entire next day, but when we took off the river that afternoon we got to see 3 beautiful rainbows on the way back to Hood River.

The Adventure continues... We are glad to be here and happy that each time we go kayaking we get to help beat up on cancer and help those that are still fighting the battle.

Fight to the Finish!

It don't matter at all where you've played before, California's a brand new game!

2007-06-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

Robin and I just got back from an epic trip to the Middle Fork of the Kings River in California with Tdub, Team Idaho, The Vermonters, and Team Sketch. I think it was definitely too big for my britches.
After our last post, Robin, Hale and I met with the McClaren brothers, and Boomer and did a practice run with loaded boats down the Cherry Creek section of the Tuolomne (Cherry Proper). We started to get our groove on through the big holes, seeing exactly what it feels like to get worked with gear in our boats. We were studying the river levels on Jason's blackberry, hoping to get on Middle Kings, but thinking it may be too low. But we got the word from Grace and Tommy that we shouldn't worry and we should start running the eight hour shuttle with the Sketch mobile, the Dirtpatch mobile and Jason's pimp ride. To build our caloric reservoir, we must have eaten In-N-Out burgers at least 4 or 5 times in the day or two before we started hiking.
We made it to Bishop at 3am and found team Idaho camped out at the put-in for the hike at South Lake. We crashed for a couple of hours in the parking lot and woke up and put together our carrying systems and loaded our kayaks for the next 6 days of hiking and paddling.
Let me preface the next part of the story by saying it is not the greatest idea to run the Middle Fork of the Kings Canyon as your first overnighter in California. Or as your second attempt at paddling with a loaded boat. Or only 4 months after completing 12 rounds of chemotherapy. But it was a lofty and valient goal, and we gave it our best shot. If you do try this at home, make sure you bring your Jedi brother along with you.
Here is what we did:
12 miles of backpacking 90 pounds of gear over Bishop pass (12,000 ft of elevation)
Day 1 on the river, manky drops, lots of logs, steep, narrow boofs.
Sweet camping at Sick Camp.
Day 2 on the river, put on the shooshoo right away, bigger drops, big slide, water fall gorge (4 gorges total). One long portage for the dirt patch. One incredibly broken wrist (shout out to Dave...we missed you Dave, and wish you the best recovery) and an amazing evacuation by Ryan and Dave.
Emergency camping 4 miles short of our intended camping spot, waiting for Ryan to hike Dave back to the pass and rejoin our group.
Day 3 Ryan makes it to our camp by 10am. Then on the river, it was like the west prong and the Linville put together, but longer (16 miles). All was good, but burly. Thank goodness for the young gun probes. (shoutout to boomer, ian and tristen) Also, thank goodness that Tommy and John have such a great memory for where we were on that long section of river.
Sweet camping at Tehipite Valley under the dome.

Day 4- Robin's Birthday- Bottom 9- First of all, Robin stomped it down, but katie made it about 75% percent of the way down. Big hole birthday beatdowns. This is where I realized that I wasn't quite strong enough yet to paddle 9 miles of the hardest river I have ever been on with a loaded boat. So, while trying to keep up with everyone, and continuing to get beat down, I got super tired. Eventually I finally swam out of a big hole and lost all, including my shoes being sucked off my feet. As Jason put it, Middle Kings-1, Katie-0. The river swallowed my boat and gear and paddle and shoes and said maybe you should spend the night out here and think about what you've done.
This is where my brother came in (for probably the 12th time since we had put on) and rescued me. He gave me his headlamp, food, and a radio and I bushwacked through the thick, wild forest for 2 miles, climbing steep embankments, scaling cliff faces, and 'angry moosing' through the poison oak (which is currently covering 40 percent of my body). The rest of the group was forced to make it to camp before dark, and Tommy hung back and waited for me to make it back to the bank of the river. We were cliffed out on that side of the river, so he ferried me across on the back of his boat, and we tried to continue down stream, hoping "against the odds" to make it to camp by dark. We didn't make it, and ended up spending the night in an emergency bivi on an animal trail. We did some serious bonding, and pondering the decisions I had made that led up to us being in this situation.

Day 5- We left at first light and somehow made it back to camp before everyone woke up. We celebrated with eating a ton of potatoes, mac and cheese and oatmeal and one bottle rocket that Freddy had toted down the river. I hiked out there, 4 miles from yucca point and hitchhiked to the park entrance and awaited the rest of the crew to finish the Garlic Falls section of the Kings River (the last 20 miles of the trip). (Now Robin is talking here)... So after the bottom nine miles of the Middle Kings (aka, the scariest Birthday of my life), the river converges with the South Kings and we had twice the amount of water. Let me tell you even though we finished the Middle Kings the river gave us no mercy. The Garlic falls section was full of gigantic holes, huge burly boofs and tombstone rapids. It was all so good-to-go especially with the strong crew we had. Such a fun stretch of river, but I was really tired by this point and got beatdown in every hole possible. Basically we just 'mad-bombed' down this stretch so we could get back to car and find Katie. But it was like we were still running the gnar. The Sketch mobile had to fix their racks, change a flat tire, and then get a jump start, and our car had the most dirtpatch rack situation ever (towers falling down, and six boats and people crammed in). But luckily we had enough gas to find Katie awaiting us at the park entrance. We celebrated with pizza and beer.

After running another long shuttle, sleeping in the car and the dirt again, the only goal that Katie and I could focus on was how we would get our next shower and real bed. We found an amazing sanctuary on Lake Tahoe with team member Molly Malone and her mom and sister and lisa. Now we feel like we are almost normal again.

Getting Ready for the Hooha

2007-06-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

Donner Summit. We have arrived in Cali at last! I left Colorado on Monday evening and headed through the desert to pick up Robin in Reno on Wednesday, June 6. so Fired UP! I woke up in the snow in Nevada wed. morning. The morning before, I ran 4 miles through the desert. Reggea tunes, warm wind in my hair. Bringing sexy back.

Grabbed Robin in Reno, we logged two miles on the Truckee River and two miles hiking through the urban jungle of Reno, the biggest small city in the world. It was like one of those lunch adventure magazines, simply an adventure.

We made it by that night to Lake Tahoe, stayed with some of Robins friends (shout out to Sue and Jeff and the whole massanutten crew). We met up with Hale and are waiting for some more of the boys to arrive and go run the hooha.

Meanwhile, keeping it real by hiking to the beautiful Donner summit.

Boof Against the Odds begins!

2007-06-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

After kicking off our journey at the Teva Mountain Games, Boof Against the Odds has officially begun. Here are some pics of Tommy and I during the extreme race on Homesteak Creek. These photos were taken by Brian Kelsen, who came up with the idea of the Katie's Krew merchandise. All the proceeds of Katie's Krew go to First Descents and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Below homesteak is a great section of river called Gilman's gorge (I think). Jules, Scott and I paddled this the day before the race.

On June 1st, the first day of BAO (Boof Against the Odds), Tommy, Scott and I ran 8.1 miles of the Colorado river. We put on at Barrell Springs and took off at Tommy's house in Glenwood Springs.

On the second day of BAO, I came down with something, so I rested up instead of paddling.

On day 3, Tommy and I paddled 8.1 miles of the same section of the Colorado, taking out at his house. So fun! So officially we are at 16.2 miles of river in 3 days. Not bad!

Stacy called today and said Robin is going to be in Reno on the 6th (wednesday), so I am heading out tonight to pick her up. Stacy is leaving in a few days to meet us in Cali after that. I can't wait to be paddling in the warm california sun with my girls!
Meanwhile, I am spending some QT with my nephews here in Glenwood Springs. They are so cute!

Oh, be JOYful!!! I'm in Colorado!

2007-05-29T18:32:00.000-07:00

I made it out to Colorado and my truck is still running like a scalded dawg! Kansas is so big and flat, but seeing the Rockies rise up in the distance was worth the drive. So beautiful!

The first stop was Lake Creek, where I watched my brother, Tommy, Pat and Jules run some huge rapids at high flows. It was beautiful there and the river was very impressive. It was fun to be hanging out with the boys, too.

Next stop was Oh Be Joyful. I really can't believe I have not been here before. It was one of the most beautiful places I've seen. We ran into lots of the Green River crew from Asheville when we got there. What a small world it is. This was the first time I have paddled with Tommy since last March, over a year ago. It was so fun to see his smiling face on the water. I kept looking around, and everywhere I looked it was sunny and beautiful! I love that place.

John, Tommy, Pat, Jules, Scott and I paddled the river once the afternoon we arrived, and then twice the next day before leaving for Tommy's house in Glenwood Springs. That makes it the 10th and 11th day of kayaking since finishing chemotherapy. Scott and I have now paddled in California, North Carolina and Colorado in the same week. That is definitely a first for me.

That night, we went to see a friend huck his meat off a 500 foot drop in Glenwood canyon-base jumping! wow, I have never seen anything like that before. The next day, he hucked his meat off a 800 foot drop in Rifle. I got vertigo for him, just watching. Amazing!

I am heading to Vail tomorrow and I am going to kick off the Boof Against the Odds challenge there at the Homestake race on June 1st. I am really excited to be out here paddling, and raising money for a good cause. Robin and Stacy will be joining the crew in a little more than a week. I can't wait to have the entire Dirtpatch out here in full force! We are hoping the water holds out for California. If not, we may be heading North.

We are still in need of pledgers to sponsor me per mile of river I run this summer after beating down cancer last year. All donations and pledges go to First Descents and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. If your interested in pledging, log onto www.simplelifeadventures.com and send us a pledge form.

Nothin' like California to get you Fired Up for California!

2007-05-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Dirtpatch is just about to launch Boof Against the Odds! It will all begin May 27th and continue through July 27th. We still need lots of pledges, though. Anyone can pledge by logging onto www.simplelifeadventures.com and clicking 'donate'; just download a form there and mail it in or email me the information. Flat donations can also be made online or by sending a check made out to First Descents or the Lance Armstrong Foundation and mailing it to the Dirt Patch.

Amazingly, I had an opportunity last week to do a quick preview of California and of what we will be doing. My friend Scott, from Alaska, and I went to the Cal Salmon for a few days of the Slammin' Salmon Fest (a camping 'festival' started by some of Scott's Alaska buddies). We paddled the Buttler section one day and then Nordheimer and Buttler the next day. It was beautiful and so fun!

Then we drove to South Silver and ran that two times before catching the 12:30 red eye back to Asheville, making it back home sometime yesterday. Today I got back out on the Green River with the boys and had another beautiful day on the water!

I will be driving out to Colorado to begin Boof Against the Odds on Friday. The official dates are going to be May 27th- July 27th. I will kick it off with my brother and friends on the Black Canyon of the Gunnison (hopefully) and end it with First Descents. If I can get on the river with Tommy that Sunday (may 27), I will have paddled in California, North Carolina and Colorado all in one week.

I am feeling fully recovered now and completely back in the game. It is amazing to think that less than four months ago, I was still dealing with all the mess of chemotherapy. I can't wait to get back in that warm California (and Colorado) sun and breathe in the air, knowing that I am happy and healthy, lovin' life~ Life is so good!

Simple Life Adventures

2007-05-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

We want to thank everyone who has begun to contribute by sending in their pledges. So far here are the names of those wonderful, amazing people. Thank you so much!

Ken Porter-Shirley

Tim Flanagan in honor of Tom Flannagan

Elizabeth Hanke

Jack Eastis

Brid Beckwith in honor of Jerry Beckwith

Robert Thrasher

John DeLaVergne in honor of Daniel DeLaVergne

Noah Clayton

Jason Hale

Kim Barrs

Mike Brown

Russell Noble

Lee Whipple in honor of Laurie

Andrew Brockmeyer

Lynn Bratton

Kat Yarboro

We have an awesome new Tshirt design in support of Simple Life Adventures and our Boof Against the Odds campaign this summer. We will be selling them at the Teva Mountain Games (May 30-June 2). You can contact us from our webpage www.simplelifeadventures.com and request a Tshirt for $20. We have mens and womens sizes in brown and black with either pink or white text. Check out the design....
Please continue to spread the word about Boof Against the Odds and stay tuned to LVM, LVMTV and Simple Life Adventures to follow the progress of our pursuit.

BOOF AGAINST THE ODDS

2007-04-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

"Boaters Teaming Up To Make A Difference"

We've been thinking about it....

And we've decided that we want to celebrate the gift of life after facing down cancer by kayaking rivers throughout the country this summer. We are also raising money to help support cancer fighters. Combining both we are embarking on a kayaking/fundraising tour from the east to the west to raise awareness about the growing impact of cancer among young adults. Help us inspire others to face challenges on and off the river, by contributing to two organizations that are close to our hearts.

Please sponsor our team for every mile of river we complete this summer. For example, we plan to average 5 miles per day, for June and July, that would equal 300 miles for the summer.

A pledge of 5 cents per mile x 300 miles = $15.00
A pledge of 15 cents per mile x 300 miles = $45.00
A pledge of $1.00 per mile x 300 miles = $300.00

A gift of any amount is appreciated and tax deductable. 100% of all donations will be divided between the Lance Armstrong Foundation and First Descents (A kayaking camp for cancer survivors).

To sponsor us please fill out the sponsorship form and return the form to khilleke@hotmail.com
At the end of the summer we will total our mileage and contact you. At that time you can send us a check made out to the Katie Hilleke Assistance Fund. From there your gift will be divided and donated between the Lance Armstrong Foundation and First Descents Kayaking Camp for Cancer Survivors.

If you wish to donate directly to these organizations please follow these links to the Lance Armstrong Foundation and First Descents

Thankyou for your generous support!

I finally made it back to the Green River!!! It was like coming home. This is a picture of me walking Gorilla. Like Jerry says, I'll do it next time. The day was perfect! The next day we came back to the Green at 200%! Another perfect day. So training for our summer fundraiser has officially begun.

Boof Against the Odds

2007-03-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

Cherry Bomb Falls

Great news!! In her fight to the finish, Katie Hilleke is rockin out because the colon cancer which brought her and Stacy home from Honduras, is officially in remission. Katie Hilleke is a survivor, and inspirer. This summer she has inspired us to paddle as much gradient (total vertical drop) as we can, launching the "Boof Against the Odds - Cherry Bomb Tour 2007" On a sickbird paddle tour of Colorado and California, raising funds and awareness for cancer recovery and some of the organizations (First Descents , Lance Armstrong Foundation, and Green River Access) who provided support for Katie during recovery. Giving back and helping others is the goal.

Katie Hilleke

To get ready for all this, Stacy is rockin out as a Wild Land Fire Fighter, fighting fire across the nation. Not only is it great training for multi-day paddling trips, it keeps her busy when it's too hot and dry to paddle.

Stacy Heer

As for me, while I've been creating terrain maps for surveyors and engineers here in Asheville, I've become obsessed with the latest fad that allows anyone to claim "Today I flew over the Middle Kings Canyon in the high sierras!" -- on GoogleEarth, that is.

Robin Betz

What can I say, it's late March and the snow pack is already starting to melt .... and we've got California on our minds. In preparation for paddling in the High Sierras this summer, we have mapped a virtual tour of the Middle Kings Canyon. The tour starts in Bishop, California and flys through the 14 mile hike over 1200' Bishop Pass and dramatically back down the western slope of the sierras to the put-in. The tour flies down the entire length of the Middle Kings Canyon with custom views of features such as Devil's Washbowl and Tehipite Valley.

I haven't yet uploaded the Tour, but once I do it will be right here, and it's easy to view. Just follow the steps.
1) Make sure you have the free GoogleEarth program installed on your computer. If not, download the free GoogleEarth program.
2) Download the .kmz file which has the tour stored in it.
3) Lauch the Middle Kings Canyon Tour.kmz file
4) Turn on "Geographic Places" in the Layers Tab
5) Press the Play Button in the Places Tab.

Enjoy the Tour!

And join us in the Boof Against the Odds - Cherry Bomb Tour 2007 -- more details to come.

How Kayaking Saved My Life....

2007-01-16T18:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, I am going to tell the whole story. Were there any symptoms prior to Honduras? That is what I have been asked over and over by the medical profession. There were. But hindsight is 20/20. I remember feeling abdominal cramps often, especially towards the end of the school year, and they were painful. But I can’t remember when they started exactly, maybe even a year ago or so. But they didn’t start out painful, it just gradually got worse over time. It happened so gradually that I never thought to go to the doctor. I didn’t have time because I was planning for Honduras.
Oh Honduras, there was a lot of heart in that plan. The mission was to practice my Spanish, do some kayaking and have an adventure. In that sense, mission accomplished. On the other side, the mission was to be part of a successful all women’s expedition to a third world country and run the hair! Unfortunately for Stacy and I, our part of the mission self destructed in 5 days.
Stacy Heer and I have been down many crazy trails in our journeys together. I loved all of them and I was blessed to have such a great friend to get us through the harder ones. This adventure started out like the rest of our adventures, facing down a challenge (and even some criticism) and going for it anyway along with Robin Betz, Jessie Rice and Laura Nash. We had plans for the “First All Women’s Expedition into Central America”, which sounded good to us. I was so excited to plan for this. It gave me so much to look forward to. I bought a new pin kit, a new rope, camping gear, hammock (with mosquito net, thank God), knife, new kayaking gear, etc. Each item was a step closer to being on our own in Honduras. I even wrote an article about planning for our trip in AW.

FIVE DAYS IN HONDURAS

photo by Robin Betz

Our adventure into Honduras basically went like this. The night before we left, my brother Tommy and I set up a Z-drag in the back yard and a backpack carrying system for my kayak. I was so FIRED UP and nervous. I was nervous about the language, about getting around, running into guerrillas (not the animal type) and basically just getting in over our heads. I was not worried about colon cancer.
Stacy and I flew into Honduras the week before the other ladies, Robin Betz, Jessie Rice and Laura Nash, were scheduled to arrive.
Day 1: We arrived at the airport and were relieved to see that Jessie’s friends, Paul St Ruth and Rachel VanSloun, were waiting for us in a British edition Land Rover (below).

photo by Robin Betz

Day 2: We kayaked the Rio Cangrejal.
Day 3: We paddled the river again and then took a ferry to the island of Roatan.
Day 4: We took glass-bottom sea kayaks to snorkel on the coral reefs.
Day 5: I began throwing up, but we went wake boarding that day anyway. That night: I began to experience severe abdominal pain and vomiting. Unfortunately the hospital was on strike on the island, so I had to wait till the next morning to go to the hospital on the mainland. It was not cool to be on a tiny airplane experiencing relentless pain surrounded by lots of strangers. Not surprisingly, the hospital in La Ceiba was also not the type of hospital you want to be in when something is terribly wrong with you. There was something that looked like blood on the floor, and the doctor had the pocket of his jacket stapled on instead of sewn on. But I was desperate, and I knew it was serious when I peed into a cup and it came out looking like cherry coke. They did an X-ray and an ultrasound, but couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong with me. No one at the hospital spoke English, so we were communicating in Spanish. This was great under normal circumstances, but I happened to be in severe pain, so it was a little frustrating. There apparently was some kind of blockage they thought, but didn’t have anyway of knowing what it was. They admitted me into a room at the hospital and let me know that they planned to exploratory surgery if I didn’t poop by the next morning (exploratory?). That’s when Stacy and I decided that I needed to cash in on my AirMed flight insurance, which I highly recommend having before leaving the country. Stacy did some major finagling, which involved several trips to a phone four blocks away to keep in touch with my parents, the insurance company, and Rachel (who played a key role in booking my flight home with the insurance company) since we didn’t have a phone in our room. They also wouldn’t give me pain medication because they were planning to operate and didn’t want me to OD before they actually performed the surgery.

Day 6: The AirMed people waited till day break, since there were no lights on the runway, to pick me up at the hospital and flew me to Birmingham where my parents and a very handsome gastrologist (Dr. TDH, Tall, Dark and Handsome, we called him) were waiting for me at the hospital there. They ran some test, and told my parents that they thought it was colon cancer, they spared me that knowledge for a few days.

Day 7: I had surgery to remove part of my colon, but I still had not been told it was cancer. It’s funny; I don’t remember how I found out that I have cancer. I must have been on too much morphine, but I don’t remember the words “you have cancer” coming from anyone. I knew it was serious when I found out Tommy was flying back to Alabama after just returning home to Colorado. I am sure someone told me it was cancer (they say it was the doctor), but in my memory, it was like I just knew.
After several days in the hospital I spoke with an oncologist (Dr. Doom, we called him) who explained that it was found in 5 lymph nodes, which meant that it was at least Stage 3c (I knew nothing of what that meant, but it sounded bad) He explained rather frankly that we would not know how bad it was for several weeks, when we could do a PET scan to see if it had metastasized to other organs, which apparently is also a bad thing. I never felt devastated, shocked, or frozen in a vision of death as fear set in like I would have expected to feel. The feelings I was having were actually somewhat familiar, although greatly amplified and inward.
I definitely asked myself, “why me?” many times in the past several months. It really bothers me that I was only 26, perfectly healthy, and took care of myself and I still got “colon cancer”, which as far as I knew was an old man’s disease. It had no business in the body of a 26 year old woman. In fact, 90% of all cases are found in men over 55. It didn’t seem fair that my body, which had no previous health problems, was marred in some way by this disease. But it is not fair that this disease can affect anyone, even men over 55. That would mean it should have picked my uncles, grandfather, or my dad. To tell you the truth, I’m glad it picked me this time. As a perfectly healthy young person, I’ll beat this soon and I won’t have to see someone I love struggle. Tommy, one of the most unquestionably optimistic people in the world, helped me to keep looking to the positive. We just refused to allow anything negative enter the picture.

Stacy Heer

photo by Robin Betz

The most daunting part of the entire experience has been going through chemotherapy. I have never felt so sick and so frustrated at knowing I have to feel that every other weekend for three days at a time for six months. It is a complete sickness where I am shut down the entire time and don’t even have the energy to watch a movie. The infusion lasts for three hours in the hospital and then another 46 hours through a portable pump at home. Getting through these times has been the hardest part. I can’t stress enough how important my friend, Stacy, has been to me while facing this part of the episode. She has been there for me in everyway, since packing my stuff while I was in the hospital and then riding back on the AirMed flight with me. She helps remind me to take my medicine when I am too nauseous to think about taking nausea pills. She sits and helps me to gather my courage as I watch nurses in gloves and protective clothing handle poison that they are planning to infuse into my bloodstream. She cracks a joke at the perfect time when the doctor visits are a little too heavy and my feelings begin to lodge into my throat. She helps me to remember that this is only temporary and I have to deal with it as each infusion gets slightly worse as it begins to accumulate in my system. She also helps me to remember that I am not the only one in the world going through this. There are lots of heroes out there going through much harder treatments than I am that last for years.

RUNNING THE GNAR (Treatment and Recovery)

I have been thinking for a while of how to write down exactly how important kayaking has been to me while facing this. Without kayaking, we probably would not have formed the bond that is carrying me through this.
It was truly a gift that paddling was in my life at this time. Kayaking really helped me to view the situation in a unique way. Kayaking became my analogy for approaching this new and dangerous challenge.
I had actually felt a similar feeling before when hiking into the Ravens Fork or the Lynnville thinking that maybe this river was going to be too hard for me. I remember this feeling distinctly above some rapids I had run, and more often rapids I had decided not to run. I began to think of cancer as a difficult rapid that was unportageable. My brother and his friends are actually the ones more used to this type of adventure. He provided some serious mentoring for me to help me grasp the seriousness of the situation and what I needed to do. First I was going to scout out the best line I could. I asked for all the opinions I could get, but when it came down to it, I made the decision because, after all, I was the one in the kayak. My family has been so supportive. They have given me opinions, and then have rallied behind whatever I decided to do. We all have been keeping a positive attitude, which I truly believe is the key to surviving anything. We checked out lots of different lines: different hospitals, doctors, and treatment options. The plan was to pick a line, deal with whatever happens in the middle, and be in the right place at the end of the rapid. I could do this.

Katie Running Left at Sunshine on the Green, first time

photo by Robin Betz

I think that analogy kept me from being afraid and helped me focus in the beginning. Tommy and Stacy, who I had kayaked with on lots of challenging rivers have been helping me to keep that correlation in my mind. What I didn’t count on was the support from my friends and the rest of the whitewater community. I thought I wouldn’t see or hear from that many people for a long time. But I was so wrong.
My friends in Birmingham and the kayaking community pitched in and helped me out, just like they would help someone who was getting worked in a dangerous hole on the river, or pinned on some rocks. I had never seen anything like it. I felt love and support and encouragement from all around the country pouring in to help me face this daunting time in my life. I realized these people were made of the stuff that made good survivors: determination, a positive attitude, and a willingness to help out their buddies when the odds are stacked against them.

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE!

photo by Robin Betz

I would really like to mention everyone who has contributed to help support me through this. There have literally been hundreds of people who have sent support to me in the form of letters, cards, and donations to help me pay my medical bills that continue to roll in. I couldn't possibly mention them all here without leaving out some important people. So I'll just mention a few that come to mind off hand.

My parents are amazing and have really stepped in and picked up the pieces for me. I am so fortunate to have had them to fall back on right now. Also my uncles and aunts and cousins down in Alabama have really cheered me on.
We are really greatful to Paul St. Ruth and Rachel VanSloun with Marble Hill Farms and St. Ruth Adventures for helping us get on our feet in Honduras, giving everything they could, including transportation, places to stay, river beta, and most importantly caring for me in Honduras when I was sick and helping Stacy and I get out of the country.
My friend April Lambert and the Martin family first picked up the money raising effort. They opened up a bank account through Cahaba Heights United Methodist Church that was non profit, and held a benefit for me in Birmingham. It raised about 5,000 dollars and everyone I knew from Birmingham was there. George and the G men played for us and were great! I want to thank Megan and Joseph Hoskins and Elizabeth Hanky for helping out with that. Then a snowball effect began. Mike Brown, a friend of my brother’s in Colorado, picked up the torch with the Pikes Peak Whitewater Club and began a raffle, then became the organizer for all the donations coming from the whitewater community. Jason Hale and the boys at the Green River began a Green River Cancer Fund, which meant so much because these guys are like family to me. All the while Ken Hoeve and Dagger motivated the first custom built boat auction, followed by Wave Sport and LiquidLogic. Then my friends Kirk Williams and Charly Albin held a fund raiser in Atlanta where lots of companies contributed items that were used to raise money for me. My friend April once again stepped up and contacted my friend Jeff Lane from the band Outformation, and they held another benefit in Birmingham for me. They auctioned off rock and roll memorabilia like paintings donated by Scramble Campbell and “Frenchy”, a poster signed and donated by the Drive-By Truckers and more. Bryan Kelson, started a website featuring "katie's krew" stuff, which is so fun. Other companies and people that contributed to the cause were SouthMain, Jayne Clamp, WRSI, Shred Ready, John Grace, Penstock Productions, Immersion Research, Colorado Kayak Supply, Waterdog Productions, Jackson Kayak, Palm, Kokatat, The Range Life, Pyranha, Sweetwater Brewing Company, Patagonia, High Country Outfitters, High Gear and many other generous and incredible people from all around the country. In fact, the response was so powerful and so amazing that my medical bills that keep rolling in will probably be covered by the fund and there will be some money left that will be given to the Lance Armstrong Foundation and First Descents.
Despite the difficult nature of this particular adventure, many blessings have come out of it. After six weeks of lots of praying from people all around the world, we did some tests and it turned out that the cancer had not metastasized and that after the surgical removal of cancerous lymph nodes and part of my colon, there was no cancer left that was detectable on a PT scan. I was still facing months of chemotherapy. I now have two treatments left and one more minor surgery, and then I just wait and pray for the next 5 years that it doesn’t come back. I have learned so much through this journey, but I can’t wait to get back into my kayak!

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’

We are now planning a fund raising kayaking effort into California this summer. Stacy Heer, Robin Betz and I are planning on raising some money through kayaking to donate money to First Descents and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. This is still in the planning phase, but we hope to make it available for anyone who wants to kayak for cancer. We want to raise as much money for donation as was raised for me. Most of all, I just want to be able to give the way people have given to me. I also want to feel that I am being proactive and that my battle with cancer doesn’t end when I finish treatments. We want to fight this cancer to the finish. It is a serious disease that a third of women eventually experience and half of all men. We all, as a community, need to participate in finding a cure and supporting those in their own battles with cancer until a cure is found. Our trip to California is just the beginning, but I am sure it will help me feel I have stomped down cancer this time in my own way on my own turf.
Maybe when this is all over, I will have the same feeling that I have had at the take-out of those same beautiful rivers. Maybe I will be so glad that I accomplished something so difficult to visualize myself doing. Hopefully, I will look back and see that no matter how hard it was, it was a beautiful thing.

photo by Robin Betz

WIDE OPEN

2006-12-04T21:16:00.000-08:00

I had an incredible Thanksgiving Break hanging out with Katie and Stacy in Chattanooga, seeing good ole friends there and playing frisbee golf, all the while training Katie's puppy Sadie with a healthy mix of fear, intimidation, scoobie snacks, and sarcasm.
When we got hungry for Turkey we drove to Katie's and Stacy's home town Birmingham Alabama, to spend time with family. I was missing my own family at the time, but there were plenty of warm hugs to go around at the Hilleke household on the river. There were also a ton of huntin' fishin' boat ridin' and boat crashin' stories to go round.
And then I learned one of Bill Hilleke's (Katie's Dad) favorite things to say..."Wide Open"
And I've decided it's not really an expression that can be defined very well in words, but when you hear someone use it you immediately understand.
The day after Thanksgiving Katie paddled the Locust Fork as her first whitewater river since day 2 in Honduras, it was wide open <-- video link

Searching for Gradient in Gracias, Lempira

2006-08-03T13:19:00.000-07:00

Our purpose here began to strike me as ironic when I began to learn the history of this small town named Gracias (Thankyou). It was named this by it's founders who had been wandering the rugged terrain in search of a flat piece of land suitable for agriculture. When they came across this valley they were weary and greatful to have found their home, though it is a rather small piece of flat land in the midst of huge mountains. We three girls had come to this region in search of elusive waterfalls and river gorges that might never have been run before. So far we had had better luck with a lot of other things like experiencing the week long Lempira festival. The Honduran dollar, the lempira, is named after this national hero who died attempting to truce between the natives and the Spanish. The day we left Gracias was the last day of the festival and all the youth of the town of Gracias were dressed up for the reenactment of the slaying of their martyr, Lempira, and a grand day of fiesta.

Photo by Robin Betz

The day before we left Gracias, Jessie was busy directing our mechanic with her new found spanish vocabulary, Laura was on point wrapping up our Jungle Fashion photo shoot at the hotsprings, so I set out for one more scouting mission while we were there. I took a picture of this coffee stained topo map to guide me and grabbed a bus ride about 45 minutes south of Gracias to the small and 'quaint' little town of La Campa. You can see the steep gorge walls and a pretty good gradient on the map but that tells you nothing about the composition of river bed.
Photo by Robin Betz

After jumping off the bus I looked up and saw the skyscraper gorge walls that must be the beginning of the river I wanted to scout which flowed north east away from town.
Photo by Robin Betz

I started hiking downhill toward the river, and as the river gave way, even though it was too low, I noticed a healthy high water mark indicated about 10 feet above the river bed by coke and pepsi bottle eddy trash and debris in the riparian shrubbery. It was disappointing to realize, based on the amount of trash in the river, the people here must not realize that the rainwater and trash flows to from their streets...and into this beautiful gorge right next door. But as I rock hopped and bouldered my way downstream I realized that there were 3 basic criteria that must be met to some degree, which would satisfy our definition of a "runnable creek" These criteria are the following.
1) there must be a healthy flow of water
2) there must be a gradient of at leat 80 fpm, hopefully more
3) there must be a 'clean' or well-channelized river bed.

We all know that the Sierra Mountains in California have some of the best creeks in the world because of the great combination of these three criteria, 1) predictable river levels in a snow-melt environment, 2) sicko gradient, young mountains dropping fast into the ocean, and 3) Granite bedrock, enough said.
Well here in Honduras, things are not quite as straight forward, but I like this next picture because it says alot about what we found, and makes me think...is this Honduras or West Virginia?

Photo by Robin Betz
1) the river levels here are rain dependant, and even though it rained everyday and were in the quasi rainy-season, we needed a rainier season, or a tropical storm event because all the water was getting sucked up by the surrounding lush vegetation.
2) no problem here finding gradient, but we still had to be careful that we were looking for gradient that had at least 10-15 miles of stream contributing to that section.
3) most of the creeks we found were much like the south east dominated by tbe boulder garden type rapid, however in this creek I found a strange type of bedrock that created some strange pothole features and narrow slots.

Photo by Robin Betz

Even though the walls were super steep, the gorge contained a healthy river bed in which I could rock hop and scramble down stream for roughly 2 km until the confluence as you can see on the map. At this point I realized I would need a machete and a set of climbing ropes in order to continue downstream, or maybe a rainstorm and a kayak for next time. So, I hiked out via the ridge and here is the view of the river below.
photo by Robin Betz

Sometimes it was disappointing finding rivers but no water, but we realized that this is what happens to all explorers; nothing ever goes as planned, travel takes three times longer than expected, and you end up finding something totally different than what you set out searching for. But someone has to go check it out, or else you'd never know. I think that more time is needed to fully investigate the whitewater potential in Honduras. I think that we were merely beginning to scratch the surface as our time ran out. Next time I would like to go in November, during the full-on rainy season, and ideally we would have a helicopter, or at least a set mules and a personal trail cutter, since road access made things quite difficult here.

At this point with about a week left we decided to check out the rivers in the mountains surrounding the city of Tegucigalpa. At this point the rivers drop abruptly to the south and west toward the Pacific Ocean. Again we found some potential but had limited time to scope them fully. From there we took a quick trip to surf the coast of Nicaragua. Stay tuned for this final trip report...

Is that a Jack in the Box?

2006-07-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

photo by Robin

After 3 breakdowns on the way to Gracias we finally made it. The town of Gracias is located high in the mountains in the Department of Lempira, so it has been a wonderful break from the heat. It only gets hot for a couple hours during the day and you can count on a refreshing breeze in the evening followed by a thunderstorm. Unfornately the daily thunderstorms are not enough to fill the rivers.

After getting the Land Rover towed behind a banana truck, we dropped it off at the local mechanic, Julio, and began developing a strategy for scoping out the local creeks. We decided to scout out the creeks flowing from the Parque Nacional de Celaque. This is the largest national park in Honduras and contains one of the largest remaining cloud forests in Central America. From the topo maps, it looked like the watershed had a couple of creeks with just the right type of gradient for creeking and locals spoke of an abundance of waterfalls. We packed up enough gear, food, and ammunition for 3 days in the jungle and caught a ride with our bilingual friend Walter to the park entrance. Robin carried the GPS and water filter, Jessie the tents and food and Laura, the machete, along with a determination to slice something up.

Ironically, the park´s name, la Celaque, means ´box of water´. Unfortuantely for us, the box of water was more like a box of rocks... all the rivers and streams we scouted were far too low, even after a torrential downpour our second night there. We did, however, salvage the trip by summiting the tallest peak in Honduras, glimpsing a ketzal and killing a scorpion. I felt a little bad about the scorpion incident, but in our defense it was the middle of the night, it was right next to my bed and Laura insisted it was ´hella poisonous´. We ate dinner with a 75 year-old woman who had been living in the park her entire life. She cooked in a one-room shack over an open fire some of the best food we´ve had on the trip so far. The experience there was priceless, and my only regret is our Spanish wasn´t good enough to fully comprehend the abudnance of her knowledge and experience.

Right now, it is 2 PM local time and we are having a down day to figure out some logistics. I am writing this blog, Robin is running around town doing who-knows-what and Laura is sitting at the bar drinking cervezas with some locals who are pretending to understand her hack Spanish, but really they are just looking at her boobs. We are going to continue studying the maps and try to figure out our next course of action. The sickest waterfall ever seems to still be eluding us, but hopes are high we will track it down soon. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Updates soon...

Rio Aracagual...

Photo by Robin

Broke Down In the Jungle

2006-07-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

Stuck in the middle of the jungle with a broken 33 year old truck, all we could do is laugh at our ridiculous situation...

We finally made our way from the comforts of Struth, La Ceiba and our gracious hosts at the Jungle River on the Rio Cangrejal and headed towards Gracias. We did everything we thought appropriate, studied the map, decided on our route, filled the gas tank and double strapped all our boats and bags... Unfortunately this wasn´t enough. We were about halfway between La Ceiba and nowhere and the story goes something like this - Robin was getting into her new four wheeling in the third world skills and Laura and Jessie couldn´t have been more encouraging. We made our way down some mountain gravel roads with proud gradient when the road abruptly went into the river. Laura and Jessie went to scout but instead only found an old toothless naked man with a machete and some fish on a stick. So we then ran back to Robin and told her to get turned around pronto. But the truck was really, really stuck. So we giggled and video taped in case our families needed the closure of actually seeing our deaths on Robin´s new camera. Luckily our machete-wielding local man was friendly and probably thought we were crazy. Plus Laura took ownership of our machete and swore she could take him. We ended up getting turned around but by this time the truck was smoking with a vengeance and it was about pitch black outside. So I guess that is how we got our first camp spot in the jungle...
Robin set up her hammock and Laura and Jessie shared Laura´s one-man tent and to quote her journal entry, it was ´tight and hot´. Morning came with lots of locals on horseback trotting through... Laura and I went to get antifreeze, aka agua de radiatore. We had some interesting experiences hitch hiking through rural Honduras but we finally did get the truck working, made it back to the main road and a town where we proceeded to burn through our fan belt. Finally AFTER that was fixed, we began our journey, on only major roads, to Gracias. Our new route had us driving about 4 hours out of the way. Perfect. So now we are finally, at 10 pm the next night, close to our destination - the elusive town of Gracias, Honduras. We miss you Katie and Stacie - we wish you could be here with us!!!! Love Jessie Robin and Laura

Indepence Day to Nightmare

2006-07-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

July 4-July 7
July 4- Independence Day and Struth's 26 birthday... We spent the day on Struth's boat wakeboarding and roughing it in Roatan. We saw a local man spearfishing and bought lobster off of him. Katie started to feel really sick. She was having horrible muscle spasms in her stomach. She was a trooper though and did some 360's on the wakeboard. She could not keep either breakfast or lunch down. That night she could not handle the pain anymore so we woke up Struth and Rachel and headed to the local clinic. The doctor there examined her and said that the local hospital on the island was on strike. He said we needed to go to the mainland to receive medical treatment. The only flight out was at 6 am so we waited two hours and boarded the plane. At the hospital a man in a beige coat with staples on the pockets examined her in a room with blood on the floor. They admitted her to the hospital. The "internalist" (if they actually have those there)said that they did not know what was wrong but they were going to operate on her the next day. We thought this sounded like a bad idea. I, with the help of Rachel, called Katie's insurance company and started the medical evacuation process.
July 5- The medical evacuation people picked us up at the hospital at 6 and we headed to the airport in an ambulance. We boarded the private medical jet and they whisked us back to Birmingham, AL. We spent a record 3 minutes going through customs(they met us at the plane) and sped off to Brookwood Hospital. The flight nurse thought it could be kidney stones so we were really optimistic. The doctor examined her and they did a CAT scan and found a mass.

July 6- Katie was operated on today. She went in with a positive attitude and a fiery will. That is pretty much how she lives her life! They found the mass and under further investigation discovered that it was cancerous. The doctor believes that she has had it for 6-8 weeks. They sent off her lymph nodes to further investigate. She will be given time to recover from surgery and then begin chemo. This is all I know at this time. We are all floored but we are trying to stay positive. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts! If you would like to get in touch please e-mail me at stacyheer@hotmail.com. I love her so much as I know all of you do too. Life is a crazy thing . The other ladies are headed down the next couple of days to represent. Katie and I will be here getting better.

Roatan

2006-07-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

July 3

Our first night in Roatan found Katie and I sleeping in our hammoks at Marble Hills Farm where Rachel and Struth work. They grow all kinds of fruits and make delicious jellys. We found an incredible place to sleep on the two story dock at the ocean. The breeze was blowing and it was a marvelous night until a bad storm with horrible lightning blew in in the middle of the night. Katie did not bring her tarp so when the rain began she escaped her puddle and crawled in my hammok with me. The weight of two people lowered the hammock below the tarp and we were once again sleeping in a puddle. After weighing the pros and cons of getting struck by lightning, we decided to escape to Rachel's casaitta. We woke the next morning to beautiful skies and hot temperatures. Roatan has the second largest barrier reef in the world, which is right at Marble Hills Farm's backyard. They gracefully let us have full use of all there beach equipment. We picked the glass bottom sea kayak and took a voyage out to the reefs. We spent a delightful day snorkeling, exploring the reefs and irritating the fish. We then headed back in for banana and pineapple smothies.

A salty bath is better than nothing

2006-07-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

July2-We woke up this morning refreshed from a bug- free night of jungle sleeping. After a breakfast of eggs and frijoles with tortillas at the Jungle Lodge we headed to the truck. We got there just after a raft bus rolled into the back of Struth's truck. Part of a rack and Struth's bike tire later, we loaded up the truck to go back up river to the Rio Cangrejal. Struth droped Katie, Rachel and myself off at the top. Rachel took a refreshing bike ride in the mid-day Honduran sun while Struth went to the "cousin" of the guy who hit the truck(a welder) to get the racks repaired.

Katie and I had an exceptionally good day on the river. It was higher than the previous day due to a heavy rain the night before. The killer heat drove us to periodically stop to swim in eddys in the river. To cool off, we jumped off a ~20 ft cliff into the river at the take out.

The truck needed to be put into the shop for some repairs so we headed to the island of Roatan. We took the 2 hour ferry and headed to the top deck. The waves were so big we hid in the life boats to protect ourselves from the huge waves crashing on the boat. American refugees in Honduras...a first?

Man Boatin'

2006-07-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

July 1- The first day on the river. Katie, Struth, and I paddeled the Rio Cangrejal. After paying some local elementary school kids to watch our big-honkin' truck, we put on the high volume Rio Cangrejal. It was higher than normal due to the rainy season but fantastic for kayaking. This is a local run that is rafted commerically even though it is risky due to abundant undercuts and large hydrolics especially at higher flows.

It is hotter than Alabama in August here. While paddeling we felt things crawling down our legs but after checking we realized that it was just sweat. On the bright side we are paddling in near to nothing, and traveling light. The views were incredible with locals cheering us on as we decended downstream.
We took out at Jungle Rivers and relaxed in the fresh spring pool and jumped off of the 20 ft. cliff next to the river.

At night we hung out with Oscar, the owner and a few of the guides at the hostel bar. We even helped in the removal of a scorpian spider(nice name huh?) from another guest's room. We returned to our hammocks for another night of spider/scorpian spider free sleeping.

Spiders, Hammocks, and Jungle Fever

2006-07-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

June 30- Well the trip has begun. We arrived in Honduras unscathed. Paul St. Ruth and Rachel Van Sloun picked us up in a 1972 brittish army issue land rover with racks large enough to fit Cox's army on top. We head to La Ceiba to a place called Jungle River on the banks of the Rio Cangrejal. The hostel/ rafting outpost is a lush beautiful paradise deep in the heart of the jungle at the take out of a solid class IV+ run complete with bilingual mecaws. Culture shock first set in at bedtime when we went to our bunks. As I laid down I happened to notice the largest hairy spider I have ever seen in my entire life a foot above my face. After screaming like a little girl, Katie and I decide to embrace the out of doors in our spider free netted hammocks.

Expeditionette Profiles

2006-06-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

We know you are wondering, just WHO are these girls? And how do we know they have what it takes to run the gnar in Honduras? Check out our short bios for now, and I am sure you'll get to know us better as the trip goes on....

Stacy Heer

Been Around Since: June 9, 1981

Loved By (Sponsors) Pyranha and for this trip: Astral, Immersion Research and watershed

Years paddled: 9

Hometown: Alabaster, AL

Residency: presently homeless but Chattanooga, TN in august

Favorite Boat(s): Pyranha 245 and a shred squirt boat

Favorite Rapid/Why? Big Timber Falls in Montana because it is fast, steep, so much fun AND in the crazy mountains

Biggest Huck: Tallest would have to be Spirit Falls in WA

Most Notable Accomplishment: 1.graduating college 2. Quitting my real job as an Industrial Hygienist with the State of Tennessee

Other major interests besides kayaking: mountain biking, hiking, reading, traveling, snow boarding, anything outside

Most Played on the iPod: John Prine, The Beastie Boys, and Jurassic 5

Laura Nash

Been Around Since '84
Loved By (Sponsors) Dagger, KAVU, AT Paddles, Smith Optics, Level Six
Years paddled 9
Hometown Belleville Ontario
Current Residency Victoria, BC
Favorite Boat Mamba 8.0
Favorite Rapid Widowmaker on the Nile
Biggest Huck Hoyin Falls
Other major interests besides kayaking: 1 year left of undergrad!
Most Played on the iPod “skiing in march” playlist

LNash at Qualicum...

Vida Kathleen Hilleke (Katie)

Been Around Since October 30, 1979 but I’ve only been kayaking since 1996.
Loved By (Sponsors) Pyranha
Years Paddled 10 amazing years
Hometown Birmingham, Alabama
Current Residency Nowhere right now, but most recently I lived in Burnsville, NC (near Asheville).
Favorite Boat Pyranha H3:235, until I try the Burn, which I hear is the best creek boat ever.
Favorite Rapid/Why? Gorilla on the Green. That rapid has some serious meaning to me. There is some powerful juju there.
Biggest Huck I think Mike Tyson’s Punch Out may be the biggest rapid I’ve run. But Spirit Falls on the Little White Salmon is the tallest. I also ran Lower Mesa Falls, which was the second tallest waterfall.
Most Notable Accomplishment I don’t know…I think graduating from college and working in a career that I love is my biggest accomplishment, I am not sure what my most notable would be.
Other major interests besides kayaking I have so many interests most of which I am still learning. A few of my favorites are Surfing, Yoga, Wakeboarding, and being an Aunt to my new nephew.
Most Played on the iPod I haven’t bought one yet. I am saving up though! Right now, I listen to whatever everyone else is playing on their iPods.

Vida going left at sunshine...totally sweet!

Robin Betz

Been Around Since June 15, 1980
Loved By (Sponsors) Wave Sport, Shred Ready, Astral Buoyancy, IR (hooking us up for this trip!!)
Years Paddled 6
Hometown Annapolis, MD
Current Residency Blacksburg, VA
Favorite Boat The small Habitat (aka the new Wave Sport Creek Boat)
Favorite Rapid/Why? Groove Tube straight into Sunshine on the Green at 200%
Biggest Huck Wabeena!! (just kidding, haven’t got much vert.) The random 20-30 footers from the Royal Gorge are definitely some of my favorites.
A Notable Accomplishment Got to run the Middle Kings Canyon summer ‘05!
Other major interests besides kayaking been writing my thesis on the topology of stream networks in the mid-Atlantic highlands…it’s going to be on Oprah’s list so, get ready! ;)
Most Played on the iPod – KT Tunstall rockin’ alright now

Robin in the 20' plugger above Wabeena...

Girls At Play Donate 100 Luna Bars to Fuel Our Expedition

2006-06-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Anna Levesque and the team at Girls At Play, we now have 100 Luna Bars for our expedition to Honduras! Even if all 5 of our poor gringa stomaches can't handle the sketchy tomales and empanadas, we will still be able to match our calories burned from long days on the river with Luna Bars.

Thanks Anna!

The First All Women's Kayaking Expedition to Honduras

2006-06-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

This July a group of five female expedition kayakers will be heading south to run the steep creeks of Honduras and Nicaragua. This team of Expeditionettes includes a well rounded team of kayaker athletes and expeditionists from all over North America, featuring Katie Hilleke (Asheville, NC), Stacy Heer (Chattanooga, TN), Jessie Rice (Truckee, CA), Laura Nash (Vancouver, BC) and Robin Betz (Blacksburg, VA).

Photo by Robin Betz

Katie Hilleke launches left at sunshine (above) on the Green River, NC. Stay tuned for more bold moves by the Expeditionettes and updates on this kayaking extravaganza to Honduras.