The Un-Likely Paddle Festival
My sister, Angela borrows my car every tues., thurs., and fri. to go to school in Abbotsford. At 12:45 on fri. she returned Mary-Jane (car) to me and I loaded all my gear into the trunk and took off to the Fraser Rafting base where Simon was waiting with his, and the rest of my gear. We ate a bit of lunch and strapped the kayaks on the roof, filled the trunk and 2/3 of the back seat and drove to Lytton.
Lisa got off the river around 4:30, about an hour and a half after we arrived. We loaded all the rafting gear up drove to the Hyak base for a few beers. Finally at 6:30 we were on the road again.
The trip to 100 Mile was unaventful, we stopped at Stupidstore for some food and gave the staff at Educo a surprise by showing up at 10 in the evening without warning. We spent a good night talking about the best wake up skits in Educo history.
I awoke bright and early to sunshine and steam coming off the lake. about 4 hours later the Kiwis, (Simon and Lisa), rolled out of bed and we continued driving. We arrived in Likely around 12:30. We quickly found out what was going on, grabbed a quick bite and geared up for the Quesnel River. We got out above 'Best Drop' to film someone catching a surf on a monster wave. I was next up. I got back in my boat, heart thumping, I guess where the line was that we scouted out from shore and turned into the current. I crashed through the wave, out the other side, still upright. WHEEEEEEOOOOOO! Eddyed out and caught a few very short, but fast and really fun surfs. We stuck around for a while before continuing on down stream through some more rapids.
I paddled the Quesnel again that evening, it was very cold. I got back and the Kiwis, who had stayed behind on the second run, were in there sleeping bags looking really warm. We cooked some fast noodles and attempted to warm up by running up and down the field. Then holding my hands up by the stove. We entered the Likely Hilton and the flood of conversation of the days paddle. Eventually people started to leave for the party up the road in the town hall.
I walked in and emediately started dancing moving to the middle of the dance floor. I move around for a bit untill I found a group of people who were friendly enough to let me join them. I found out later that the Kiwis left right away. I didn't notice. I was really into it.
The occasion was national Earth day. There were dances being held all across the country that night to celebrate. I was having an amazing time. I had a stupid grin plastered on my face the whole time. I love dancing! There was a little, middle-aged lady there who would dance around the floor carrying a plate of fruit in her hand. Some how she would weave in and out of people without bumping anyone, serving the fruit. She was the cutist little thing. I was standing to the side of the hall for a while resting, she came up to me with some lemon water and gave it to me and told me to drink. So I did. Lemon water never tasted so good.
The DJs were amazing. I went behind the table where Chris was spinning and I watched him for a while. Chris would watch the crowd and just by watching he could figure out what to play or how to manipulate the music for the crowd to enjoy. At one point there weren't too many people dancing and I asked him what he would play if he wanted everyone to get up and dance. He told me he had something planned. Within five minutes the floor was packed with moving, twisting bodies. It was amazing. I patted him on the back and went out to dance.
The next morning was a slow start for most. When we finally did get organized we headed to the Upper Cariboo river. A few paddlers ran the falls, the rest of us put in below and had a really good run. Within half hour 6 out of the 30 paddlers swam in account of this one sticky hole. It was fun to watch people get shit kicked. Then we would paddle out and tow their gear to shore. I almost got dragged in it myself, I managed to escape without too much hassel.
We finished the run and drove back to Yale. It was quite a sketchy mission, all of us were beat tired, driving in shifts. Five and a half hours later we were in our beds fast asleep. Wicked trip, looking forward to next year.
www.educo.ca
www.fraserraft.com
Lisa got off the river around 4:30, about an hour and a half after we arrived. We loaded all the rafting gear up drove to the Hyak base for a few beers. Finally at 6:30 we were on the road again.
The trip to 100 Mile was unaventful, we stopped at Stupidstore for some food and gave the staff at Educo a surprise by showing up at 10 in the evening without warning. We spent a good night talking about the best wake up skits in Educo history.
I awoke bright and early to sunshine and steam coming off the lake. about 4 hours later the Kiwis, (Simon and Lisa), rolled out of bed and we continued driving. We arrived in Likely around 12:30. We quickly found out what was going on, grabbed a quick bite and geared up for the Quesnel River. We got out above 'Best Drop' to film someone catching a surf on a monster wave. I was next up. I got back in my boat, heart thumping, I guess where the line was that we scouted out from shore and turned into the current. I crashed through the wave, out the other side, still upright. WHEEEEEEOOOOOO! Eddyed out and caught a few very short, but fast and really fun surfs. We stuck around for a while before continuing on down stream through some more rapids.
I paddled the Quesnel again that evening, it was very cold. I got back and the Kiwis, who had stayed behind on the second run, were in there sleeping bags looking really warm. We cooked some fast noodles and attempted to warm up by running up and down the field. Then holding my hands up by the stove. We entered the Likely Hilton and the flood of conversation of the days paddle. Eventually people started to leave for the party up the road in the town hall.
I walked in and emediately started dancing moving to the middle of the dance floor. I move around for a bit untill I found a group of people who were friendly enough to let me join them. I found out later that the Kiwis left right away. I didn't notice. I was really into it.
The occasion was national Earth day. There were dances being held all across the country that night to celebrate. I was having an amazing time. I had a stupid grin plastered on my face the whole time. I love dancing! There was a little, middle-aged lady there who would dance around the floor carrying a plate of fruit in her hand. Some how she would weave in and out of people without bumping anyone, serving the fruit. She was the cutist little thing. I was standing to the side of the hall for a while resting, she came up to me with some lemon water and gave it to me and told me to drink. So I did. Lemon water never tasted so good.
The DJs were amazing. I went behind the table where Chris was spinning and I watched him for a while. Chris would watch the crowd and just by watching he could figure out what to play or how to manipulate the music for the crowd to enjoy. At one point there weren't too many people dancing and I asked him what he would play if he wanted everyone to get up and dance. He told me he had something planned. Within five minutes the floor was packed with moving, twisting bodies. It was amazing. I patted him on the back and went out to dance.
The next morning was a slow start for most. When we finally did get organized we headed to the Upper Cariboo river. A few paddlers ran the falls, the rest of us put in below and had a really good run. Within half hour 6 out of the 30 paddlers swam in account of this one sticky hole. It was fun to watch people get shit kicked. Then we would paddle out and tow their gear to shore. I almost got dragged in it myself, I managed to escape without too much hassel.
We finished the run and drove back to Yale. It was quite a sketchy mission, all of us were beat tired, driving in shifts. Five and a half hours later we were in our beds fast asleep. Wicked trip, looking forward to next year.
www.educo.ca
www.fraserraft.com
posted by Paul | 11:18 PM
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