Solstice Magic – June 27/28

OK – not quite solstice, but Solstice week ... close enough.

Let’s start at the end of the day: I watched the sun set from the air on a sweet evening flight at Bridal Falls. It had almost turned katabatic, but a forward launch got me in some unexpected lift. I bobbed around for half an hour at 100 meter above launch (850 meters above the Fraser Valley), watching the sun and the moon and some spectators watching me until the sun was close to the horizon and it got cold.



Only a few hours earlier we had drifted in our kayaks through the clear green pools of the Similkameen River with its canyons rarely visited by humans. There was a deer and some raven to keep us company. And to keep things interesting there were some rapid to run and some holes to punch (but none seemed really big after the Grand Canyon).

What a great summer day! What a delight to visit such magic places!


Similkameen Canyon


Some whitewater


Lots of clear green water

Grand Canyon - June 3 to 18

So far it's a photo blog. Will write more when it starts raining seriously.




This is were all Grand Canyon trips start. Lees Ferry.















Mike done with rigging.


















Somewhere in the Roaring Twenties

















Kath on the oars


















Side canyon exploration









































Nankoweap
















Below Nankoweap






















Random Campsite
















Redwall Cavern









Sunset at another campsite






















Another camp - Cardenas, just above Unkar















Sacret Datura







































Below Marble Canyon


















Elves Chasm






















Sockdolager


















Camp in the Inner Granite Gorge















Ducky in action (The Terminator)

















Floating


















Crossing of Havasupai Creek















Cooling down in Havasupai Creek































Mixing of the waters (Havasupai/Colorado confluence)















Deer Creek Falls























Lava boulder

















Yup - it was hot

















Pete cooling down























Running Lava


































It actually rained for one day!

















Exploring one more slot canyon.

Afterwork Ski - May 28

We just had to do this: get the skis out one more time this year. May 28, +20oC, and of course in shorts. Did two runs on Mt Seymour and had a lot of fun, although conditions were not quite up to winter pow standards.

Snowmelt has definitely started


Even the black gunk came off the skis easily with Ben’s secret citronella solution.

May 23/24, Wild Water and Wild Air

This weekends program: flying at Bridal in rather bumpy air and a fast ride down the Coquihalla, at medium/high levels much of the bumps smoothened out on the river.

Bridal Falls May 09 from Claudia Schwab on Vimeo.