Eastern Envoy journal entry

*Tuesday, May 30 - 7:30am flight from Greenville/Spartanburg airport to Seattle. Pick up, new to me, Thule van and start driving east. Live in Ontario, Oregon for the night. Wingers Diner dinner, solid value!
*Wednesday, May 31 - drive to Salt Lake City, Utah and hook up with my brother for lunch and dinner. Fighting through a pretty rough sinus ailment, so early night.
*Thursday, June 1 - solid night of rest and no humidity seems to be treating the nostrils pretty well. Play golf w/brother at Mountain Dell course right off I-80 on the way to Park City. Two courses, Lake and Canyon. We play the Canyon course. Absoulutely beautiful! I shoot an 84 and my brother, who by watching swing, you would swear you could beat with 3 clubs, shoots a 74!
*Friday, June 2 - Leave SLC at 7am, headin' towards Vail, CO. for the Teva Mountain Games. Arrive at games around 2pm, hook up with Eric (western Thule Envoy). Watch the semifinals of both mens and womens freestyle kayaking event. Pretty cool to see what modern kayaks, with serious athletes, can do in a pretty small river feature.
*Saturday, June 3 - pretty much a Mountain Games spectator for the day. Finals in the freestyle kayaking were pretty cool. All Jackson Kayak final. EJ, Stephen, and Jay all put on an impressive display of athletic prowess with EJ having to come up huge on his last ride. Simply put, he stomps every move, both ways to beat Stephen. Emily Jackson keeps the family tradition by beating all other femme contenders quite handily, by looping bigger and more often as well as coming oh so close to sticking a McNasty!
*Sunday, June 4 - wake up and listen to all of the interesting things that went on at the Mountain Ball last night. had every intention of going, but ended up falling asleep waiting for the 10pm start time. arrests, jail time, lost purses with phones and passports, etc. keep me entertained. 2pm start the big drive east again. make it to Hays, KS for the nights rest.
*Monday, June 5 - oh, something new, more drrrriiiiivvvviiinng! go to St. Louis, MO.
*Tuesday, June 6 - hook up with midwest Thule sales rep, Eric Pirtle and clinic 9 people in the REI located on Brentwood Ave. Great store. Outta there at 1pm and guess what?? Drive. Stop from fatigue in somewhereville, TN and crash in van for a few hours.
*Wednesday, June 7 - finish up the drive to Tryon, NC.
*Thursday, June 8 - wake up to hear Tuxedo hydrostation will be running one unit at 100% capacity from 1pm till 4pm, operational schedules are determined.....well, if you are a southeastern kayaker, you know the rest. Kayak on the world famous, for good reason, Green River Narrows. I have been to a lot of great places but I gotta tell you that coming home to dependable, warm, class V is tough to beat!

* stay tuned for more updates from earlier this year. travels to Utah for kick ass powder shots, Tuckermans Ravine on Mt Washington in May and ongoing trip reports from the working Thule Road Trip.

Eastern Envoy vacation

*January 26 - 31, 2006
making the transition to live in the southeast, after growing up skiing and kayaking in the upstate of NY has it's plusses and minuses. the only real downside is there is not much skiing happening here in Tryon, NC. not to fear, that is what vacations are for! my brother still lives in Salt Lake City, UT. he and I moved out there together in 1992, he never left. take 3 good friends fly out and hit the snow as good as could be for 4 days (Brighton, Snowbird, Snowbasin and Alta) in late January. makes me a little envious of the folks that live in this epic place. if there was any decent kayaking in SLC, I would have never left. after all, where else can you ski "the greatest snow on earth" and have all the awesome amentities of a pretty cool city within an hour of each other. if the weather cooperates you could even get a round of golf in the same day! If you like sushi, hit up the Happy Sumo in the Gateway Open Air Mall in downtown. Port O Call for refreshing beverages is alway a quality choice as well.

I have got to give some advise here; If you have never been to Alta (sorry knuckledraggers), on a powder day, you need to MAKE it happen. The energy and aura exuding from everyone waiting for that first chair will make you forget anything other than that moment. beware, it is contagious! this first pic is sticking the landing from the top of Eddy's High Nowhere. I thought I was really cool right before this pic was taken, right up until a fellow freeheeler climbed up, clicked in and threw a 60 foot telecopter just left of where I dropped in. no thinking, no hesitation, step in and huck it, land and outta sight in 4 turns, awesome to see. wish I got it on film.
More to come.

CR