The Dark

Heading into winter, I've once again found myself busy but a bit bummed. This summer was pretty epic. Between buying a new house, photoggin', kayaking and rafting, it's been a blast. As the case for most people, it pretty much slows to a crawl once cold weather hits. I've got a bunch of cool weather paddling gear, but not quite cold weather/4 season gear, so from here on to around February it'll be limited to the occasional warm day here or there. The one good thing is that it lets me kind of reevaluate my gear needs for the next year and prepare for whatever adventures that are on the horizon. The other good thing is it gives me more time for some much needed mountain biking!

The next paddling season will be pretty interesting. I got Jess a boat at the very end of this season, so she hasn't had a chance to paddle it yet. That being said, the first part of the season will be spent getting her all lined out to paddle moving water and maybe even some Class II/III whitewater. She seems pretty receptive to the idea, so as long as I can keep from getting her in something over her head, I think she'll take to it pretty well. I keep assuring her it will be fine and that once she gets acclimated to moving water, the jitters will go away.

I'm hitting up the Immersion Research crew pretty soon for a new drytop in preparation for early spring Elkhorn and Big South Fork runs. I'll also be picking up a drysuit from them as well later on in the year in anticipation of getting into year round paddling and eventually (hopefully) a trip down the Grand Canyon in the near future.

For now, it's hunting season and my weekends are pretty much booked up until the end of the year. Once January hits though, it looks like I'll be hitting up the local mountain biking hotspots for some winter fun. The Kona is all tuned up and ready to go, time to hit the trails!