Life
has just been one big messy blessing lately. Currently, I'm writing you from
the northbound train from San Diego after spending a couple days in Baja,
watching the sun set over the ocean. No complaints here; just a few good
stories.
Earlier
in the month, my family officially welcomed Sean to the family after 12 years
of these two knuckleheads realizing what's good for them. The wedding was
perfect; great weather, I didn't botch my speech, and our family escaped some
potentially hazardous blowouts. Great success.
After
the wedding, I bolted up to Groveland to spend the rest of the summer on the
Tuolumne River. I think I'm officially done living in the city. Mountain living
is pretty simple. It's nice to be completely disconnected with no cell service
or internet unless seeking it out.
Scott
and Vanessa came up for a pretty exciting weekend. Scott is a long time friend
of both Andrew and I - also the reason we met. They wanted to raft, so we made
it happen. Cooper took us out on a private trip down Cherry Creek, which
is said to be the hardest river in the United States, boasting over 12 class V
rapids. With only three hours of sleep, Scott and Vanessa were fired up and we
only had one swim, when Scott decided to jump OUT of the boat on a high side
down the class V rapid, "Blind Faith."
The
next day was the annual Cherry Creek Race, which starts at the confluence of
Cherry Creek and the Tuolumne and ends 6.5 miles down at Lewis's Leap. Andrew
set the new record for the short boat race and then was pushed back to 2nd
place when Sam, the Tuolumne photo kayaker, passed with a 20 second lead. After
the race, we all went to Lumsden Bridge Campground and noticed a fire on the
other side of the hill. No one thought much of it, until Ranger Bob Stanley
came to tell us midway through the awards ceremony that we needed to evacuate.
"It's not gonna burn," came from the pouting mouths of many. Little
did we all know.
By the
next afternoon, the fire spread impressively up the north side of the canyon.
Once or twice a day, we'd drive up and watch in awe from a safe lookout on the
other side. By day three, it crossed to our side of the canyon and we were
evacuating the guide house in Groveland, packing up all rafts, vans, trucks,
gear, and household items. The number of acreage was up to 10,000 and we
thought it was incredible to have grown that big. Everyone left town that
morning so the crew was slim. The 10 of us got in the company van once it got
dark, drove to our lookout that was once safe, but burning by the time we got
to it. Everyone but a few people left town with fingers crossed. It's now up to
165,000 acres and only 1.5 miles from the guide house. Pretty amazing to
watch nature take its course. No more second-guessing the ranger.
I’ll
be in San Diego for a weekend of Britney's bachelorette shenanigans, then back
to paradise in the beloved Mexico. The rest of the summer will be spent in
Baja with a hopeful swell coming in next week. Andrew leaves for Africa on
September 9th and I'm not sure my plan yet but that seems to be the way I like
it these days. Nos vemos.
Here
are some more photos from the weekend compliments of Scott Leduc:
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| Celebrating Andrew breaking a record |
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| Award ceremony |
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| Rim Fire in its infancy stage |
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| This road eventually burnt down |
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| Vanessa, Andrew, me, Cooper, Scott |
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