Canoe West

2010 Holiday Newsletter!

It's holiday time again! All of our canoes are back in the racks where each one will wait their turn to be taken down and made ready for the 2011 Canoe Season. Meanwhile, the drift boat will take their place on the river while we are fishing for steelhead. In the evening the Canoe West Staff will spend time remembering the fun we had with those who came to paddle with us on the Klamath River during 2010.

January - Neil and Jo journeyed down to Danville to visit with John Reynolds and Troop 302 and talk to them about the Klamath River trip that they have planned for in July. We showed our DVD and slides so that scouts and parents could know what to expect on the trip.

February - Tom was on the river as a guide for a river research team from Oregon. This is Tom’s field and they wanted his knowledge of the river and also to guide the drift boat as they did not have an expert to handle that part of their on-water research.

March - Neil and Jo traveled south again to visit Boy Scout Troops. The first presentation was in Pleasant Hill for Troop 405, then on to Danville to see Troop 805 and Troop 225. From there they visited Troop 447 in Fremont and Troop 874 in San Ramon.

April - Neil and Jo were off again, but this time to Sacramento to visit with Troop 136, the “Zoo Troop.” This was a really fun presentation since they actually meet within the Zoo! What a fun place to meet “after hours.”

May was quiet, but June started off with Neil and Tom having the opportunity to paddle with Keith Gale, Course Director for the Mt. Diablo Silverado Council, during his annual Scout Leaders Paddling Clinic at Folsom Lake and the American River. This is always a highlight for us as we get to meet new Scout Leaders who are interested in canoeing and, of course, we want them to learn what the Klamath River has to offer. For more info about Keith’s program, contact him at keithgale@hotmail.com. Thanks, Keith for letting us be part of your program again. Hopefully, we will get to come back in 2011. Keith’s program has been met with so much enthusiasm that he wanted to bring everybody up to the Klamath in 2010. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen problems, he couldn’t make it. But, hopefully in 2011 things will work out. It would be fun for all.

June this year also brought a new women’s group! We were really thrilled to paddle with some local Yreka gals for the first time. Their leader, Shelly, had so much fun that she came back in July with her husband. Hopefully we will see this group again as they were a lot of fun to paddle with.

Neil and Renee saw a lot of new faces on the river this year and the last week of June brought Bill Clark’s Scout Troop 405 from Martinez to try the Klamath for the first time. Bill had participated in Keith’s Clinic in June of 2009, and after our presentation to the Troop in March, he was able to put a group together to make the trip.

July - Rand Mahoney brought his Scout Troop 805 up and his Troop was followed by John Reynolds and his Scout Troop 302 when they joined us for a canoeing adventure on the Klamath. These two leaders had also attended Keith’s Clinic and ventured to the Klamath for the first time. A little later in the month we paddled with Scout Troop 645 from Eldorado Hills. This was a special treat as the group was organized by Herman Haushildt who had paddled with us thirty years ago when he and his son joined Scout Troop 999 on the Klamath. Those were the early days of our Scouting Program and Herman had such fond memories of their adventures on the Klamath that he wanted to share the experience with his grandsons. That is about as rewarding as it gets for those of us at Canoe West. Neil and Renee finished off the month with a delightful solo canoer who was originally from Wales. Stories around the campfire were special as he shared some of his years in Wales (we also had a good time paddling on the river).

August - The month started off with Jeff Webb’s “Zoo Troop” 136 and David Glenn’s Scout Troop 225 who were also new to the beauty of the Klamath River. They were followed by another surprise when Don Hall and Kenton Whitaker and Scout Troop 447 from Fremont returned to the Klamath River after ten year’s absence. It was great to reestablish contact with 447, a troop with which we had shared great adventures in the past. We finished off the month of August with adult clinics, as it was time for scouts to start thinking about the new school year. Paddling adventures will have to wait until 2011.

September - Before the canoes were all put away, however, Neil and Jo were invited to participate in the annual Boy Scout Powder Horn which was held at the Cutter Scout Reservation in Boulder Creek in the Big Basin area. The Powder Horn conference is designed to allow venders to present their activities for the consideration of the assembled High Adventure Scout Leaders. We were very excited to be part of this event and pleased that Bobby Toda, the Program Director, invited Canoe West to make a Scout Whitewater Canoe Presentation.

We had three sessions for the High Adventure Scout Leaders which consisted of a classroom presentation followed by an on-water demonstration. For a bow partner, Neil wanted a scout who had been in the Canoe West program. He selected Brian, a scout from Troop 302. Although Neil and Brian had never paddled together before, they made a good team and sucessfully demonstrated the strokes and maneuvers that are part of whitewater paddling. Neil was extremely pleased with the level of skill that Brian showed during the demonstration. Thank you, Brian!

Neil and Jo met over 45 Scout Leaders with whom the staff of Canoe West had never paddled with before which is remarkable since they have been canoeing with Scouts for 33 years now. We had a wonderful time and the Powder Horn Conference gave us a beautiful plaque as a thank you gift for participating. It will be a proud remembrance displayed in the Canoe West office. They also awarded Brian a patch for participating in the conference--he deserved it!

Speaking of patches, Canoe West is now giving a Klamath River patch for those scouts and leaders who complete a 5-day clinic. We hope they are enjoyed by all those who have earned them as much as we enjoy giving them. We are very excited about our new patch program, and will add a symbol to the patch for each year that a scout/leader completes another 5-day program. As we near the end of this newsletter for 2010 I am sure that the reader is well aware that scouts are still a big part of our summer. We are very proud of the Scouting Program that we have developed over the years, and equally proud of those scouts who have participated. We are always pleased to make new scouting friends and love welcoming scouts that return to paddle with us again and again.

Each year Canoe West likes to give special kudos to some particular paddler or tandem team that stood out during the season. This year we’d like to give special mention to two father and son teams . Bill and Loren of Troop 405 and to Brett and Gentry of Troop 302. To make a good tandem paddling team you need to honor each other’s strokes, learn to correct mistakes instead of hollering at each other, making sure the river trip is fun for everybody. Bill and Loren and Brett and Gentry did all of the above! This was their first year to paddle with us, but we hope that they will come back so that we can enjoy watching them become even better paddlers. Naturally, we have to give a special nod to Brian from Troop 302. Of course, there were many others who were outstanding paddlers, but we needed to pick somebody and these received the most votes this year.

Speaking of 2011 - We look forward to seeing some of you during presentations before the 2011 paddling season starts. We already know that we will be paddling with Troop 206, from Menlo Park, in June and Troop 444, from Walnut Creek in July but what about your Troop? Those who secure their dates prior to November 1st, 2010 will receive the 2010 rates. So, get out those calendars, select your dates, and get them to Jo as soon as you can!

Ask us to come to your regular Troop meeting and give a presentation to let everyone know what a paddling adventure on the Klamath River is like. It will help get everyone excited about coming. As a young scout asked at our last presentation “So, when do we get to go on this trip?”

Well we hope you enjoyed our 2010 newsletter and we hope you make a note right now to join us for another great summer of paddling on the Klamath River in 2011.

Thanks for paddling with us, guys!

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