A quick note before I get into the meat: I'm heading out to BC tomorrow for some sea kayaking in the tidal races around Vancouver Island. I'll try to update my location through my SPOT while I'm up there and hopefully will have some great pics, vids, and stories when I get back.
But first, this weekend was the
Feather River Festival, held on the North Fork of the Feather River. It's a great festival put on by American Whitewater and the Chico Paddleheads. It's the first time I've made it to the festival, and the first time I've paddled the river (I normally busy teaching this time of year). The paddling was fun - I only did the class IV-V Tobin section, but there's also a class IV and a class III section as well. And the party Saturday night was pretty good, too.
The real great thing about any festival, though, is the people. My normal paddling buddies couldn't make it (they had to work this year) so I headed up just assuming I'd find folks to paddle with. Thirty seconds after arriving at the put in I had my first invite to join a group. Ten minutes later a dozen of my friends were there. I got in a couple laps but also took some time to shoot a few pictures before setting safety for the race.
While I expected to see friends up there (it's practically the only river running in the state right now), I was surprised by how many random people showed up who I did not expect at all. Plenty of former students, some sea kayakers I know who are just getting into whitewater, people from SoCal who made the long drive, people who flew out from the east coast. It made the weekend a blur of whitewater and conversation. Hopefully it won't be another year before I get to see all those great folks again.
Not much time to edit photos, but here's a few from the Tobin section:
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