10 August, 2015

Change of Pace

Like Evan, I am currently on the hunt for a new job. I just relocated to Greensboro, from Charlotte, again. It is a new chapter in my life: returning to University. I am really excited to get back into the classroom after almost two years out of it. Unfortunately, this will probably slow me down a bit. The real challenge is going to be making sure it is just a temporary break from the water.

There are not amazing places around to kayak, but there are a few. I have found a few places I am going to go scout out when the rain starts coming down hard. I don’t think it’s anything too strenuous or long, but it will be an interesting experience either way. I do wish I had a playboat right now, just because I think the majority of the whitewater in the area is just park and play. Once I find a job though, I am probably going to look to sell my Dagger Mamba and buy a Nomad.

The Nomad was the boat that I had really wanted, but I was at the upper end of the weight limit, so I picked up a Mamba. Since the start of the year though, I have lost around 35lbs. Today when I stood on the scale I was at 195lbs. One of the things I do plan to do is get back into the gym and work on my physical conditioning. My target weight for the end of the year was 200lbs. Seeing that I have blown that goal out of the water, I’m currently looking at 190. Possibly 185.

There are a few places nearby I plan to visit this year to do some hiking, Hanging Rock and Pilot Mountain. If the opportunity arises I am going to try to get some climbing in at Pilot Mountain as well. In the meantime, I am going to try to hit up the Indoor Climbing wall at my school. I am entering my fourth year here, and I haven’t yet visited it.

05 August, 2015

Trying to Break the Lull

Now that that summer is over and we're getting back to the so-called "real world" I need to make an effort to stay active and get outdoors as much as possible.  This is kind of tough since I'm in a bit of a slump right now due to job hunting, but I think I have a good plan of what to focus on next!

The Haw River is about 45 minutes or so away from where I live in the Raleigh area and it looks like the lower section has some pretty decent class II-III rapids.  The problem is, and the reason I love the Green, it is not dam controlled so it comes down to biding my time until it rains enough for the waters to rise.  It seems like a decent running level for the lower Haw is around 2500-4000 cfs so I'm going to keep an eye on the weather and the charts over at American Whitewater and hopefully be able to do some scouting sometime soon!

I was also able to reconnect with an old friend from university who is now living in the Asheville area and super good at kayaking.  He impressed the crap out of me when we were talking about how he runs the Green Narrows frequently, so I'm looking forward to being about to get advice and help once we get to that level.  In the meantime though, I'm happy to take his advice on boat buying and keep trawling through Craigslist hoping for a Nomad to pop up.

Tomorrow is going to be another climbing day for me, nothing fancy though just some indoor climbing with friends in the area.  Here's to hoping I won't embarrass myself too much!  Before the summer my goal was to work up to climbing 5.12's cleanly and as I said before I can definitely feel the drag of the climbing-less summer now that I'm back at it.  If my whole "lack of income" thing gets solved soon I'll be looking at outdoor trips for Derek and me, along with a whole cavalcade of climbing friends from the gym.  But for now, in the words of my favorite Shit Kayakers Say video, "Dude, I'm so broke."