AguaDream

Cascade Kayak and Raft After a night in Boise we made our way up the road to visit our friends the Longs who run Cascade Raft and Kayak on the Payette River near Horseshoe Bend Idaho.  Tom and Debbie Long started Cascade about 20 yrs ago and run the premier whitewater rafting business on the river as well as a first class kayaking school.  One day we hope to visit their winter digs in Picon Chile. For the past several summers we've made our way here so that Ben could spend a week at Kayak Camp and I could enjoy myself camping along the banks of the Payette at the Long's private camp just north of Banks Idaho at a rapid called Otter Slide. This year because of our plans to do the Junior Olympics, we skipped kayak camp but instead chose to paddle a couple of runs on the Payette and explore some of the other sights in the area.  We had hoped to do the South Fork as well but high water kept us away. Three highlights of our trip Running the North Fork CA Barton Section...

June 29 Finally on the road.  After many many delays we finally hit the road today with a goal of getting to Idaho by July 1.  We chose to head north on I-5 and then east and north on Hwy 299 and up 395 to Oregon and on to Idaho rather than the faster route through Nevada. Here we are, all loaded up and ready to hit the road. Our ready to play inventory included: 1 slalom kayak 3 river running kayaks 2 bikes 1 dirt bike Aguadream was not perfect by any stretch yet, but definitely ready for the road-- safety wise.  Much of our delay was in getting the electrical done...just couldn't get the lights to work. Also just couldn't get the curbside front window situated so we patched it with a piece of wood hoping for little rain on our journey. An afternoon start out of Oakland meant hitting some rush hour traffic.  After Vacaville it was easy sailing, but our 50 mph speed limit meant that we'd only make it as far as Red Bluff on day 1.  We found a kind of s...

Okay so our departure date was supposed to be June 14....It is now June 18th...and we are looking at departing June 21 or 22. On the original schedule my son Ben and I would be whooping it up at the oldest whitewater festival in the US, FIBARK, which takes place in Salida Colorado on the Arkansas River. This morning is age group nationals for slalom. Next year! Instead, the first week of our summer vacation has been me furiously working on the trailer, and Ben experiencing his first unstructured school break. He's had to make plans with friends day by day. Not too bad...lots of skateboarding, a couple of movies, a day dirt biking. So here in Margueritaville, I've had several wonderful friends and some skilled craftsman helping me get her done. Caps off to Terry, Anne, Laurie, and Micci for helping scrape and polish windows and trim pieces. Corey and Dane for helping with framing, electrical and flipping the axle. And a special shout to Chris Mast at Mastco Sheet meta...