Verm at 80cfs

Hand Paddlin'

Today Brian and I went to the Verm. It's been about 60cfs which is pretty low. Looking for more ways to make it interesting down there I threw my paddle into the eddy on Donut and hand surfed. After a bit Brian joined me for several tandem hand surfs. Fun on a small wave! Then feeling a bit sassy I sugested to Brian that we go back to the trucks and lock up our paddles and do the Verm again. He was game. In the lot we ran into a friend of Brian's with cold beer in his vehicle. Had a beer and headed back down. Neither of us has attemted this before. All was well as we approached Triple Drop. I went over the edge and laid my kayak on serious edge to try to catch the eddy next to the wave. Sliding sideways with my arm hanging in the water trying to give me more momentum to hit the eddy, I hit a soft bump. The next thing I know there is a carp craddled in my arm. I let him go and speed bumped a few more as I slid into the eddy. I tried to get on Triple wave but just missed it. Now I'm headed to the next drop backwards. I get around and the rest of the drops are pretty easy. In fact the rest of the river was just easy fun. Stopped and surfed Donut again and headed out. I'm on my way to see if the river has come up any with the rain this morning and see what other trouble I can find.

St. Louis at 2800cfs

Congratulations Steve and Pam!!

Roses

The pink roses next to my deck are starting to bloom right now. They're William Baffin roses from the Canadien Explorer collection. These grow close to 12 feet tall and are completley hardy for this area. I also have Henry Kelsey and Henry Hudson from this collection of roses. Henry Kelsey is red and extremly georgeous! Hudsons are pure white. These roses are developed from Kordessii roses which gives them their "wild" vigor. I have between 25 and 30 roses in my yard. Another favorite is the antique rambler called Seagull. Not recomended for this area but I'm happy to say it has survived several winters.

St Louis First Wave

Canoe U Weekend 2006