Canada Day

"The Ashlu is running this weekend".

That's all the text from Brad said, but that's really all I needed to hear.

I met up with a bunch of engineers a little North of Seattle and we all piled into Mike Nash's beast of a van.

The drive never seems that far when you're sitting at your desk or packing up the truck to leave, but once you get on I5 and start heading North its a whole different thing.


We got to the border pretty quickly but getting through Vancouver was a little bit hairy... but that's another story for another day.



 

After a late night and a rough morning we started to assess our surroundings. We were not planning on meeting anyone until Sunday and there was enough water coming into the reservoir that the Mine was in.


While I had a few Ashlu Box laps under my belt, I had never paddled the Mine so I had to jump on that opportunity. We met a sicko paddler name Palo and Alicia drove up for the day as well. So we all piled into the van and started up the sketch-ball road that leads to the Mine put-in.

  

Palo's girlfriend is a saint and agreed to drive up with us to run our shuttle so all that was left was the short drive to the top and the potential case of tetanus from all the scrap metal you get to hike around.

A short hike through the woods deposits you at the very top of this thing:

When I asked Brad what level looked like he kind of shrugged and grinned. So who knows. I thought it was incredible! The Mine is a blast.

Some Devil's Club anyone?

All in all, a great weekend spent with some awesome people. Thanks to Brad and Palo for showing us noobs down the Mine.





Here are some of the highlights from the paddling sessions that weekend including the Mine, Mini Mine and the Box:






Canada Day on the Ashlu River from daniel patrinellis on Vimeo.

Last Weekend - The Folks, Pygmy's and Boofs

My mother was able to make the long trek up to the NW and we went on a little roadtrip up to Port Angeles and visited Pygmy Kayaks.

These gorgeous kayaks are all hand made either by the Pygmy staff or they are put together by the consumer. They offer a class to show you how to piece together your brand new wooden sea kayak.

My mom Julia and her friend Jeff.

Got to catch a show my brother was playing in Bremerton.

Then we all went on a Zen retreat into the gorgeous gardens in Gorst. Some of the trees in this garden are estimated to be centuries old.

When it was all said and done. Mom and Jeff were safely on an airplane back to California, I headed back up to BC to get another weekend on the Box Canyon of the Ashlu.

Riley Best lines up for another go on 50/50.

Riley's buddy had some sick lighting for his line.

Video - Box Canyon of the Ashlu River (BC)

Got two solid days in on the Box!



Level was around 0.7 at the putin and around 25cm's online.