Expedition update

It looks like we have some challenges to overcome before we leave for New Guinea. We just got an email from a guy that led a previous expedition to New Britain:

2 things:
1 If you are going to kayak in the caves, the odds of dying very high. The
caves on the Nakanai are extremely difficult. If you are going someplace
like Mine or Nare you are looking at miles of technical rope work after you
reach the entrance. Every river cave I know about there ends in a sump. You
will have to drag your self and your boat back the way you came. I
intentionally waited until I had years of river and alpine cave experience
before I went there. My two assistants also have more big river cave
experience than anyone else in the world the story would have been
impossible without their expertise.

2 There was a tribal war brewing near the Nare when I was there. It
centered around tribes being jealous of the money -about a dollar a day-
that we were paying our porters in Ora. The tribes around Nare were
demanding something like $10,000 us for access to the cave and threatening
to kill us by cutting our ropes if we went there without paying. If your
plans are to go to somewhere known like Mine or Nare or Ora, be prepared to
spend a long time negotiating and make sure you are negotiating with the
right people.

good luck,
Stephen

Sounds sketch to me! I guess we have some more logistical work to do before things are good to go...

It's all good in the Hood

Life in Hood River so far is awesome. I live in a raft guide shack with 4 other dirtbags who are always down to go paddling and party. We are just a few minutes from downtown Hood River and a great class V kayak run, so there is constantly a crowd of other paddlers sleeping on the floor and camping outside. It basically feels like we are living at class V kayak summer camp.

Some images of our daily rediculousness:


Me at "Big Brother."


Shot of me at Big Bro from upstream.


Lane freewheeling Big Bro (a first?)


Me at Double Drop.


Me at BZ Falls.


Lane headed down the drain.


Parting shot:

Just another day at the office...



These images are not public property. No stealing!

Naturally.

It only seems fitting that the first real content should be kayaking. First a quick recap though:
In mid June I graduated from the U of Oregon with a BA in advertising.
Days after, I set off on a rediculous kayak journey in central Cali with some friends. We started at Bishop, CA and hiked our 80 lb kayaks 14 miles up and over the 12,000 ft Bishop pass and then paddled 5 days of pushy, technical class 5 whitewater in the absolute middle of nowhere.



The brutal hike.







Classic Cali whitewater.









Tehipite camp.





After the most exhausting 6 days of my life I cruised north to Oregon, moved out of my place in Eugene and headed to Hood River for the summer. At the moment, I'm living in my sleeping bag at a raft company in White Salmon kayaking every day. Not a bad way to be!

Images by Tyler Bradt.

Please excuse the wierd layout while I learn how to use this interface...

Day 1!

Ok, so here we go. This will be a place for the world to learn about all of the crazy things that go on in my life - from kayaking to ad strategy work to video production to world travel. This should be interesting, so I hope you're ready!