Life in Missoula

As we live our days in Missoula, we are always trying to find ways to grow and progress in our own lives.
I have been working more and more on the river, teaching kayaking almost five days a week and enjoying every minute. The Women's Paddling Club that I created has taken off beyond my expectation and I am so excited to have so much support for the program. The group of women that attend the weekly lessons are just the type I was hoping for. Each is determined to learn how to kayak and plow through the many challenges that are inherent to the sport.
Everyone is so supportive of each other and openly thankful to me for my presence on the river. This is as much success as I could hope for. I am realizing more and more that I truly enjoy teaching in general, and am continuing to think about attending an Adventure Education graduate program- something I have researched and thought about since I finished my undergrad last year.
I am also taking a grant-writing class online and am looking forward to exploring the world of nonprofit work and service. I would like to travel again, but this time with a service-oriented goal in mind. Grant writing will be allow me to fund service projects that I come up with myself, for example helping our new friends in Cambodia, or to join up with international organizations already in place and doing some good. Who knows where this will bring me, but I find it an inspiring field.
Our house is still lovely and our 'flower-pot garden', in our backyard, is growing into healthy plants of tomatoes, basil, peppers and strawberries.
Charlie is working hard in his new shop making new wall pieces, many of which were dreamed up in Asia, and doing metal work on the side to earn some extra money. He is moving forward with the startup up of his business and we are slowly working out the kinks of building a website. When it gets up and running, we will certainly fill you all in on the details. Since this is new territory for both of us, it is taking a little longer than we had hoped to work out the logistics of starting a business and getting over those first hurdles. Thankfully, Charlie has many friends who are Craftsmen and many own their own small businesses, so he is receiving a lot of advice and encouragement.
Nonetheless I am glad to say he is plugging away at both making art and creating a business through which to sell it. I am very proud of him for sticking to his dream despite challenges that can sometimes be discouraging.
Thankfully Montana has provided us with a situation where we can live simply and plug away at our goals and dreams.
We are living, and happily so.
Much Love.

Elements Tour

Since we have been back in Montana the white-water scene has been in full throttle. Our friend Seth Warren and his nature propelled fire engine, "Baby" have been touring around helping headline many events in Missoula and elsewhere in Montana during this time. Oriana and I amongst a few others hopped in "Baby" and joined the Elements Tour for a long weekend. We headed north through the Flathead Valley and continued the slow journey around the magnificent Flathead Lake until we reached Big Fork, MT for the annual White-Water Festival (pretty big deal in these parts). Big Fork is a place we often drive through or past on alternate routes, but this was our first time making it a destination. Each year the dam is released and the "Wild Mile" flows rapidly along the Swan Rio, furthermore giving all us redneck, river rats another excuse to camp out and run the rio. When we weren't held up at "Baby" relaxing, we were embarking in many other adventures such as hiking up stream to get photos or just watch the carnage. It was just a few days, but like many events of this stature we were able to see many old friends and make new ones as well. Along with many other things happening on the Elements Tour, Seth and Kavu brought in a couple of Japanese artists from Tokyo to do some live murals at a few recent events. We got a chance to hang out with these guys and take them for a booze cruise float down the Clark Fork in Zootown. Later Oriana, Ashley and I invited all Seth and his friends from the Tour over for dinner and drinks. Here are some pics!

Back in Missoula

We are back in the lovely town of Missoula, MT after our many adventures. This last month has been full fledged Missoula style settling in. I have been on the river almost everyday training for work, having fun and running new rivers and creeks every week. Charlie has been setting up his shop, expanding his network in Missoula and getting jobs set up around town. This Friday he has a wall piece in a downtown art show for First Friday in Missoula, which is an event every month that promotes and shows the work of local artists.
Our new house is in the northern part of town and has access within two blocks to a creek, a wildland park and a trail system that can take us the mile upstream to the Rattlesnake Wilderness that sprawls just north of town. We have been fortunate to have beautiful weather, and have been enjoying the wilderness by running, hiking and biking. One of our goals this summer is to explore the Rattlesnake Wilderness as much as possible.
We live with our friend Ashley that we met on Tonsai Beach in Thailand, she is originally from San Francisco, and two river-guide friends of ours that are mostly on the river but their addition to the household makes our bills incredibly affordable. In Missoula we have many family-style friendships and often get together with our friends to cook meals, drink local beer and play sand volleyball by the river in Kiwanis Park.
At the beginning of May we were able to go on a seven day trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River just southwest of Missoula. It is a world class section of river through one of the largest wilderness areas in the United States, the Frank Church Wilderness. We went with a group of 15 close friends, both rafters and kayakers. It was completely self-supported, and because we had so many professional river guides on the trip, we had a full kitchen and gourmet food every meal. We paddled a few hours a day through some of the most rugged country I have ever seen. This part of Idaho is an alpine forest, with many pine trees clinging to rocky mountains. We had one day, about half way through the trip, where we didn't pack up camp, but stayed another night and explored the meadows, mountains and hot springs that surrounded our Loon Creek campsite.
On this day we made friends with Tyrel, an authentic mountain man who worked one of the few remote ranches that were grandfathered in when the area was made a wilderness. Tyrel ended up offering to take us all on a trail ride back into the mountains, an offer that we immediately took him up on. So we saddled up the draft horses and took of for a three hour ride through the amazing sights of Northern Idaho.
We can't help but feel blessed to live surrounded by beautiful country and amazing friends. We are so happy to be back in Montana, and look forward to a healthy, productive summer.