Montana

Looks like the Swan river is flowing. I am hoping to head down to Missoula for the weekend. If I can't find anyone interested in the Lochsa, perhaps some people would be interested in the Swan? It is a continuous class 4 mid volume run that has the read and run style of a creek.

Pool Sessions

I talked to Clay the other night, and the pool sessions are starightened out. They are on Thursdays at approximately 8:00.

The new & improved Google Maps

Goolge Maps has outdone itself this time. It now has reasonably good sattelite maps up for north america. This is great if you are looking to check out rapids on a river, or see your house from space. Not all areas have equally high resolution. To use this, just look to the right where it says satellite maps. Lethbridge is pretty detailed. Other areas less so. To quickly find a location, just type in the name of a nearby city.


Here are some picts from the middle fork of the flathead. See if you can guess the rapid, or location. I will post the answers next week.





hint - this minor rapid is very close to the next image.

April Pool Sessions

Last night (April 7th) the pool ended up being double booked. Well actually, it looks as if kayaking wasn't scheduled for the month. Apologies to anyone who came and was unable to paddle. Actually the life guards were kind enough to open up a narrow section to allow the dozen or so who came the opportunity to practice rolls.

From the sounds of it, this could have been caused by the poor turn outs the last few weeks. The week before everything seemed to be fine. I should be getting a call this week to find out what will happen for the 14th, 21st and 28th.

Aquabatics Gear Swap

It looks like the aquabatics gear swap is on again this year. It will be from April 15th to 17th. This is a good place for people who need a boat and can't wade through lots of adds to find it. It is also good if you want a newer boat. Getting there early means best selection.

Aquabatics is behind Wendy's in front of COP in Calgary.

April Trips

I am thinking that a weekend down at Missoula on the Lochsa would be great. The weekend of the 23rd would work great. I believe it is a 6h drive to Missoula, and another 1.5h to the Lochsa. The hot springs would make a nice stop.

The Lochsa is a larger river, similar in size to the Middle Fork of the Flathead. Runs are class 3 and easy 4. There is also a beautiful surf wave next to the road when the water is high.

I would think leaving after work on Friday as soon as possible. Kayak all Sat, and Sunday morning and leave around 1:00 in the afternoon.

Water Walker Film Fest

The Water Walker film fest is up in Calgary this Friday. THe last time I went to it, the films were great. It will be at the U of C in the Kinesiology building this Friday (April 8th) at 7:00. Tickets at $12 at the door.

Hot Tubs

With Chucks River Rendezvous coming up next month, I figured I would check out the possibility of getting a hot tub for the event. Things look pretty good. Apparently rentals are $275 for a long weekend with a $1.25/km transportation fee (one way distance I believe). I am just checking with Chuck to find out if the power requirements are possible (15A at 120V, constant draw). If not a very good generator may do the trick. Lookiing good! It seats 10-12. I was figuring $2 an hour, or $10 a day. This would put the break even point at about 50 people (likely) or 250h (25 full tub hours). The hour thing would be hard to monitor. The daily pass would be much easier, but would lead to over crowding unless people were good about an hour time limit. Any ideas?

Snow Data

Looking at the snow pack from Alberta Environment shows that the Akamina snow pack is about 75% of average. Typically the snow pack starts to melt right about now. We will have to see if the current trend of late spring snow storms will change that. It is hard to predict what the upcoming season will be like. Perhaps it will even be sunny on the May Long weekend River-Rendezvous.

March Paddling

Pool sessions for this month are running at 7:45 to 9:30 at the U of L pool. So far turn out has been sporadic. With the warm weather it is a tough call how spring paddling will be.

Numerous canoers were out on the Missouri around Helena the other week. Things looked beautiful.

Site Update

I have been playing around with the settings. Part of this entailed a change to a different commenting system. This means old comments have been deleted. It also means comments are currently a little less user friendly. However, it means I will be much easier to track new comments. I may tweak the settings a bit, but this would make it unwieldy for Safari browsers.

Spring Pool Sessions

The pool sessions have been running all year, but as usual, they have picked up after Christmas. They are on Thursday evenings, usually around 8:00. Memberships can be purchased there. Boats can also be rented, or you can choose to bring your own (privided you rinse it out well). Until May there will be an exec there each night to take care of paper work, and help with some basic pointers.

This week (Feb 3rd) we had about a dozen paddlers out. It looks like things are going to stay busy from here on out.

Memberships
-individual $20
-family $30
-group $50

Pool sessions
-UofL entrance fee ($3.50)
-boat rental ($5 for non members, free for members)