Missoula, MT was a great town! The Team Trials where held on Brennan's Wave in Caras Park. The park was really nice they had a huge playground and a merry go round which I'm bummed I didn't go on. Every Wednesday they have lunch in the park where vendors show up and a band plays music and every Thursday night they have the same thing with a full on bar! It was so sweet to have all that going on plus Team Trials. Unfortunately I blew it in competition and didn't make it. Things don't go always as planned but I did get to judge the rest of the event which helped me get my mind off it. Jeff my husband competed in c1 and OC1 and he didn't DFL so he was pretty happy. He also announced the whole event with this other guy (can't remember his name) and they were great! Missoula put on a great event and was one of the coolest towns I've visited! Check out the results here for who made the team: http://usafreestylekayak.com/

The US Nationals point series also ended in Missoula. This year Nationals was based on how many events you went to and you would get point for your ranking in each event. The women's class was Haley Mills, Emily Jackson, and Elaine Campbell. The men's class was Bryan Kirk, Stephen Wright, and Jason Craig.

We left on Friday afternoon for our looooong ride home. Jeff had to visit a client on Tuesday so we had to motor-home (haha). It took us like 40 hours to get home. We can't drive fast in the RV so going 65 is unheard of. On this 3 month long trip we seriously did a loop of the US starting from VT heading south then heading back home north through MT. It's pretty amazing when you think about it being able to do travel like that which many people can't do. We are lucky because Jeff' able to work from anywhere as long as he has cell service and the internet.

We made it home and we were all so happy to finally be home. I missed my bed, the kitchen, our deck, the shower, the couch (you get the point). The cat and dog ran around the house for like a day. Jeff immediately went to the Fife Brook of the Deerfield River to paddle his c1. I started to clean out the RV before our house filled up with people. We had a bunch of friends show up on the weekend and we paddled the Dryway section of the Deerfield River. I also packed again to head to our cottage in NY near the Black River.

I left VT last Sunday after paddling and drove the truck towing our 1967 Century Cheetah ski boat which got a flat tire and of course I had no spare! Two amazing guys stopped and took the tire off the trailer drove it down the road and put a new tire on it brought it back, put it back on the trailer and off I went. He gave me his card so if I had any other problems he would get someone close by to help me out. It just shows you that there really are good people still out there.

Now I'm in NY at our cottage on Lake Ontario in Henderson Harbor and have been paddling on the Black River. Jeff put the motor boat in the water and is working on getting the sail boat in the water. I can't wait to ski and wakeboard this year! I'm still new to skiing and my goal is to get up on one ski (we'll see if it happens).

Anyway that's what's going on with me. We are headed to the Black for the Black River Fest which will be a ridiculous party tonight.

Here's some photos:

Brook and Laya enjoying Yellowstone.

Grand Tetons

Till next time,

Elaine Campbell

I'm a little late on this one but we've been traveling from place to place so it's been a little tough to get an update in. The Teva Games this year was pretty insane. This was my 3^rd year at the games and the weather is usually cold and rainy. This year the weather was hot and the water level came up pretty high on Gore Creek.

I made it to semi-finals and was fired up about paddling again in the comp. Semi's didn't go as well as I hoped. In Vail you flush once and it puts a beat down on you. The elevation is close to 9,000 so you start breathing hard and the freezing cold water doesn't help the situation. I couldn't get myself together to finish my ride. Finals was pretty insane it was class V freestyle. The river was flooded and ridiculous amounts of wood floated downstream. The competitors in finals put on a good show especially Dustin Urban. He threw down an amazing ride in the feature that was crazy surgy. Emily Jackson who had one chance to get out of 4^th place was able to put down a ride to take 1^st followed by Tanya Faux, and Haley Mills. It was really fun to watch.

The party Saturday night after the event was so much fun! This year was called the Black out party (luckily we didn't black out). The next morning we did laundry and headed out to Nederland to visit with Jeff's step-brother and then drove to Lyons.

The Lyons Outdoor Games was last weekend. It was really hot when we got there and then it started to rain and didn't stop for like three days. The level was high on the St. Vrain and hasn't been that high in a long time. The feature the comp is usually on was washed out and we heard about this feature in the park where the campground is that was really good. The event organizers decided to move the comp there and also moved the slalom course up the river and the boater cross. The organizers also decided to move the South St. Vrain creek Race up stream and on race day they only did one run because the level was rising and became pretty dangerous.

I made it into finals in 2^nd place, Emily Jackson was in 1^st and Haley Mills was in 3^rd. I really wanted to take 1^st so I stuck to my plan of go big or go home. It doesn't all ways work but soon it will start to come together. Emily came in 1^st, Haley 2^nd, and me 3^rd. In the men's class Nick Troutman was 1^st, Stephen Wright 2^nd, and Eric Jackson 3^rd. In the junior class Taylor Cote came in third with a great ride! Jeff my husband competed in c1 and oc1 and came in 4^th with 3 swims. It was awesome!

We are in Salida now getting ready for FiBark.

Here's a video form the Lyons Games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_r4YqY45UI

Till next time,

Elaine

I finally got to experience some Cali rivers and creeks. It was everything I thought it was and more. Amazing scenery, great drops, and was so much fun! The best part of it all was I finally did my first self support overnighter on Deer Creek which is a class IV with maybe three V's.

I was a little nervous about it at first being fully committed to a creek was a tad bit overwhelming for me at first. I'm so used to being close to a road so if something goes wrong or your not feeling it you can just walk out. I'm very confident in my abilities to paddle class V but I think too much about the consequences that come with it. Anyway, I manned up and packed up my Diesel 70 with 3 dry bags filled with food, a sleeping bag and pad, and some extra paddling clothes. I also had in the Diesel 70 a first aid kit and a break down paddle.

The put in to Deer Creek was an insane class IV highway with lots of mud and massive puddles (perfect road for dirt biking). It took about 2-3 hours to get to the put in and we took a wrong turn somewhere. We finally got there by 2pm and got on the water by 3pm. Mike ran it about two weeks prior so he lead followed by Lance, Matt, Sage, Anna, and I ran sweep.

Deer Creek starts with continuous class IV creeking pretty much right away. It was a little tough at first trying to paddle a boat for the first time stuffed with gear. It took me about a half hour to figure out how to paddle it. Once I got it sorted out it was easy to paddle. The Diesel 70 handled so well I was really impressed with the boat after the trip. I was toying with the idea to paddle my Habitat but I made the right choice with the Diesel 70 it worked great!

The run itself was 24 miles long. We paddled about 8 miles on day one with one portage that had some wood in it at the entrance. We camped upstream of Ishi Falls on a rocky beach. We tried to sleep in a field above the beach but we were swarmed by mosquito's so went back down to the beach were the bugs weren't as bad. We ate some food, drank some whisk, had a fire, talked, and went to bed under the stars. The next morning we got up and got back on the river around 9am. We had a long day ahead of us trying to bang out about 16 miles.

The scenery was nothing I had ever seen before. The rock was all lave rock which was pretty insane and you'd be paddling in these canyons that were so amazing with the coolest rock formations I had ever seen. We were surrounded by huge mountains, grassy fields, canyons and birds. The only other wildlife I saw was a turtle, a snake eating a fish, mosquito's, and mountain lion prints.

This was probably one of the funnest creeks I have ever done with really fun drops. It should go on your list if you are ever in CA to go boating. The plan for next year an overnighter on Mill Creek.

Here are some photos form the trip.

Photos by: Lance Petrack-Zunich

I'm in Grand Junction, CO going to pick up fellow Team Wave Sport member Taylor Cote and we are off to Buena Vista, CO for Paddle Fest next weekend.

Till next time,

Elaine Campbell

We left home for 2 ½ months last week and our first stop on the tour was the NOC Shootout in North Carolina. We arrived on Friday late afternoon after 16 hours of driving. When we got there we had to say hello to our peeps and do some catching up. I finally got in the water and was surprised how cold the water was. Being from the northeast I assumed the water would be warmer than home but I was wrong. Anyway, I found the feature to be really fun but tricky. I had a hard time looping I would either hit the bottom or do some wacky sort of loop and flush. The good news was I wasn't the only person who found the spot tricky.

Saturday was the comp and I had no plan but just to go out there and have fun. My expectations were low because of my practice on Friday. I made it into finals on Sunday with some moves (not sure what but I did). I decided since I didn't have much to do or much time to figure out the feature I decided to just go for Mcnasties every time after every flush and I did. I flushed on all of them (oh well) but had a great time and got 4^th. Haley Mills came in 1^st, Adriene Levknecht took 2^nd, and Maria Noakes took 3^rd. Bryan Kirk came in first for the men.

I also competed in the attainment race. It was a mass start on foot and you had to jump in your boat and start paddling upstream. It was a ton of fun even though I was taken out by a raft!

After the comp we left and went to Georgia to visit Jeff's uncle and aunt and got some southern hospitality which was so sweet. I may have gained 5 pounds while we were there. We left GA and then drove 30 hours (with a nights sleep in-between) to AZ to visit my uncle and aunt it was great seeing them. Now Jeff's working at his companies office in Mesa, AZ and we'll leave late afternoon and slowly trek over to Reno.

Here's the damage report so far on the RV: right side trailer light caught on fire due to faulty rewiring, one cracked drivers side mirror due to Jeff hitting some tall reflector on a jersey barrier and a ding from me taking out one of those plastic barrels during construction. Hopefully that's it for the damage report.

That's it for now and Brook and Laya are enjoying life on the road again.

Photos by: Jeff Campbell

Take Care,

Elaine Campbell