Adventure Trippin Travel Featured on Alpine Rafting Website and Blog

Alpine Rafting in Golden, BC, Canada offer arguably the best one day river rafting experience in North America. With internationally exeperienced guides, the mighty Kicking Horse River and the best lunch you could hope for they are a tough outfit to beat.
So I was super stoked to hear that Jim and Val had listed Adventure Trippin Travel on their recommended companies for overseas adventure travel.
So drop by their website at www.alpinerafting.com for more information on both rafting the Kicking Horse River and for their write up of Adventure Trippin Travel on their blog and links pages.
Happy Adventures

Whistler Road Trip Sept 2006

After a busy summers work, Richard and I decided to take off and get some paddling and mountain biking done. It all started on the Septemeber long weekend, which we spent in the Golden area, ticking off Lower Findlay Creek, Toby Creek and a section on the Upper Blaeberry. From there we headed west and paddled the Gold River which feeds into Kinabasket Lake, quite a cool run with lots of fun rapids and features. From there we drove straight to Whistler with Blair from Golden. We were greeted with perfect weather no line ups at the ski hill for biking, enough water for boating and killer trails for cross country riding (plus a few intense games of Frisby Golf). thanks to Wiley for putting us up while we were there. I'll let the pics tell the rest of the story.

Photos: Simon Coward and Richard Powell

Aquabatics Junior Development Team

Well 2 years has flown by and these guys, who started out at the beginning of last season are starting to rip it up. They ticked off a bunch of cool runs this year, including the Elbow, Elk, White and the good ol' Kicking Horse. Here are a few pictures of the guys and girls on the rivers of Alberta and British Columbia
Enjoy......

Team Members: Scott Mckay, Vanessa Cunningham, Sam Coutu, Jessica Morrisson, Brennan Timm and Max Kilian
Instructors: Simon Coward and Richard Powell
Photos: Richard Powell and Simon Coward

Early August Update

Well, another summer is rapidly passing us by here in Alberta and BC. Lot's of teaching at Aquabatics hasn't left too much time for getting out boating, though we have certainly had our share. Since our last update we have been and run the Kicking Horse, attempted a section of the Blaeberry near Golden only to wind up portaging about 6kms of river (we'll be back though), lot's of runs off Elbow Falls with the Aquabatics Junior Development team and a bunch of other fun stuff. Though I've found since I am working more and paddling less I tend to be less interested in taking photos as I just want to maximise and enjoy my time on the water. hence the lack of pics this summer. I will get better I promise, maybe go and buy a new camera, that always encourages one to take more photos. Enjoy the pics here and I will have more soon. All the steep runs are starting to come into shape here and I know the coast mountains are still firing, 2 more weeks of work and we'll be out there.....

Photo: Simon Coward

Photo: Richard Powell

Photo: Simon Coward

Photo: Richard Powell

Photo: Richard Powell

Photo: Simon Coward

Aquabatics Junior Development Team - Red Deer

Just got back form a day on the Red Deer River with the Aquabtics Junior Development Team. Sunny skies, great play features and some good rapids run. The boys were nearly getting their loops dialled in, good improvements being made all round so far this summer. Keep your eyes peeled for these guys on the rivers of Alberta and BC.

Brennan, Double Ledge

Max, Double Ledge

Scott, Double Ledge

Sam Coutu, lining up a loop no doubt

Stern squirts in the sun

Aiming to get vertical

Max on a warm up play feature

Now in the thick of it, lining up the cartwheel

Scott enjoying the sun

Crowsnest River - Skookumchuck Creek

Just a quick update from the Canada Day weekend. As per my last post, hit up Cameron Creek with Richard and Chris, then headed over to Crowsnest pass with Nikki on Saturday, hit up a little run on the Crowsnest River just by Franks Slide, bit of golfing on Sunday then met up with Steve and Scott for a quick blast down the always enjoyable Skookumchuck Creek. A fun, sunny weekend. Here a re a few pics form the Crownsest run.

Cameron Creek - June 30th, 2006

Well, the day started out like any other for Calgary creek boaters.....EARLY. Richard and I bailed from the city at about 5:30am on oour way to Waterton lakes National Park to meet up with local boater Chris Goble. Our original plan was to go and run a second descent of Boundary creek but on arrival at about 8:30am Chris had another plan, a descent of the 300 metre per kilometre Siyeh river just across the border in the good ol' USA.
This was all good in theory, but........Richard and I didn't have our passports (being a Kiwi and an Australian we should have seen the following coming) but in good off the cuff fashion we gave it a crack anyway, so under perfect blue skies we made our way to the border crossing.
Upon arrival at USA customs we were stopped by the usual welcoming smiling faces of immigration, then promptly Richard and I were whisked away into the 'office' much nervous joking about glove clad searches was had on the walk.... I was OK with my Canadian drivers license but for some reason Richards NZ gun license wasn't sufficient ID to get him in to the states......so we returned to Canadian customs to check back into Canada.
Once again greeted by friendly customs officials Richard and I once again got to go inside and meet more nice people....Meanwhile Chris patiently waited in the car likely cursing the bloody immigrants who he was paddling with.
As I walked into the customs hall, it was only hten I relaized my current work visa expired on......June 30th....oh dam this could be problematic.......Though as it turns out after a few minutes answering the same question (so you don't have your passport....how many ways can you say no), and sweating it out, my new application had been receieved at the Canadian office so we were on our merry way.
So instead we wen't and ran the classic Cameron Creek, water was a little bit low but still super fun, and the sunny skies didn't hurt either, mind you the hike out is a doozy. You always have to worry whe you ask the local guy, isn't there an easier way out of this canyon, and he replies.....'this is the easy way you should see the other option'....enjoy the pics

Simon

'Something Nasty'

Bottom drop of Alldridge

Richard in Wild Things

Blue Skies on Something Nasty

Simon - Wild Things

In the Lower Canyon somewhere

Wild Things

The 20 footer in the Lower Canyon

Another slide in the Lower Canyon

A tight and tricky one near the takeout

The same drop with with a nice view

The somewhat arduous hike out of the Lower Canyon

Canada Summer so far - 2006

Hi everyone, its been awhile but finally I've gotten my act together with some pictures from May and June here in Canada. It's been a mixed bag so far, no floods like last year but some good medium water levels on some local runs and a few road trips. Updates will be much more regular now so keep checking in.

Photos by Richard, Simon and Josh

Josh, last drop Triple Falls, Sheep River, Alberta

Richard Powell Elbow Falls, Elbow River, Alberta
Richard Powell, Lundbreck Falls, Crowsnest River, Alberta
Canadian Rockies from the sky
Richard Powell, Triple Falls, Sheep River, Alberta
Josh, Etherington Creek, Alberta
Richard, Etherington Creek, Alberta
Josh amongst it, Etherington Creek, Alberta Richard, Etherington Creek, Alberta
Josh, Etherington Creek, Alberta
Richard, Zig Zag, Cataract Creek, Alberta

The Road Trip.........

Well, all didn't quite go as planned on our road trip....... We managed to get a few good days of playing in on the Brierlies, then a pretty low water (but fun) run on the Corral and Cline rivers....then...it started to snow. Not a little bit, but half a foot of snow on the car snow. So we packed it in, back in Calgary now, hanging out for more of the white stuff so we can get this ski season on the go soon.. We have a backcountry mission to the Bugaboos on the boil for late October so that'll be fun. Until then here are a few pictures of a run we did down the Sheep river (Turner Valley, Alberta, Canada) recently with Team Kayakwest boaters, Spencer, Dave and Sien. Pictures are all courtesy of Dave Faubert. Check out more diary entries, photos and video at www.adventuretrippin.com

Guy runs the sceond drop of triple falls

Guy and a close call on the lip. He pulled it together just in time
The author on the first half of Tiger Jaws