Back in Zambia

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cold Mosi after a great day on the River

Cheers fellow friends and family. Life is great, I am back in Zambia and will be working here for the next few months as a raft guide and safety kayaker. It is good to be back and enjoy such a beautiful river on a daily basis. I left California a couple weeks back for a long 2 days of travel and finally arrived to Livingstone tired and greeted with some cold Mosi's by Sean and Sven. It was good to get back on the Zambezi and start the charge fest once again. The river is on the drop and at a super fun level to enjoy some classic lines of the Zambezi. The boof at number 5 is in full affect sending us flying off with different results for all. Number 9 is on the lower side and the bubble line on the right is going good, with some pretty good lines. This past week or so has been busy with an overnight trip and plenty of days safety kayaking and also raft guiding. We had a day off yesterday and went for a surf session at number 2 and then went and checked out below the Falls. The minus rapids are looking a bit scary and it was nice to not have the stress of running them, just a chill day under the Falls. Well Life is great and Africa is still amazing.

Going big at number 4

The Boof at #5

Dropping the bottom hole at #9



Fresh caught Tiger for dinner?

Boogie session at 2, shred fest with river board champ Malvin

Where is my surfboard?

Summer Time coming to an end

Vanessa, myself, Becca, Cooper and Camera man Scott

The best thing about summer time is hanging with your friends in beautiful places. The worst thing about summer time, the end of summer. I have chosen to be a raft guide as my profession and have been able to support my lifestyle by working on the river. One of the harder parts about this job and lifestyle is that it is seasonal and before you know it, the season has come and gone and you say goodbye to a bunch of friends that you might not see until the next summer. Hopefully you did not spend to much money at and your savings looks good for the so called off-season, so you can travel and have another sort of adventure.

The Start of the Rim Fire

With this past summer being a low-water year in California, due to not much snow last winter I chose to work on the Tuolumne river again because we were guaranteed raft able flows throughout the entire summer. But like any seasonal job and more importantly a job that relies on nature to perform, it does not always turn out as planned. The Kern River for example had a very short window of rafting this summer due to low water on the lake and many of those raft guides were out of work or had to move to another river. The Tuolumne this year shut down a few weeks early due to the Rim Fire that ended up being one of California’s largest wildfires to this date.

The start of the fire came at the end of a great weekend of rafting and kayaking. With the Cherry Creek race approaching and some good friends coming to visit I planed to take off a few days of work to go and play in my own backyard. Some good friends of mine, Scott and Vanessa, came up from San Diego and I got my buddy Cooper to take them rafting down Cherry Creek while I trained up on some race lines for the Cherry Creek race. Following that day of rafting, kayakers from around Cali started showing up for Saturdays race day. About 30 kayakers showed up to do the 6 mile sprint down Cherry Creek, which is a continuous class 4-5 river. I paddled my way into second place behind a good friend Sam, the both of us broke the record for the short boat category.

Finish Line Lewis Leap

Right before the ceremony was to take place by our riverside campground we noticed a bit of smoke coming from over the ridge. Just as toasts where being made and paddlers where being congratulated the Forest Service came and told us there was a mandatory evacuation due to a wild fire nearby. Well it turned out that this little fire went on to burn 394 square miles of forest and taking some homes and structures in the process. With access to the river being closed for the rest of the season and my next travel plans not being until September 9^th, the next best option was to head south for some sun, cervezas and chorbel time in Baja.

 

Longboard days at the beachbreak

With the end of every season something new always comes seems to come along. This summer with our season ending a few weeks early it allowed me to spend some more time with my family and some friends that I don’t get to see very often and not to forgot relax at the beach at the casa in Baja. The surf did not pan out to be anything incredible but there was always something to long board and the weather could not have been any better. In less then 24 hours I will be on a plane heading to Africa to continue my summer living on another continent. I will miss my friends and family, but am happy to see my friends and family of Zambia. Until next season I will miss my river brothers and sisters and I will continue to drop in proud. Love you allJ

All Photos by Scott Leduc/LiveAgape.com

 

 

Some different views of Lumsden Falls

 

Chris Madden charging with Pruett watching closely

 

 

 

Baja Goodness

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now off to Africa in my new boat thanks to Fluid Kayaks

 

 

 

 

Video highlights from this spring and early summer

Video from earlier trips down the South Branch Feather, Middle Feather, Cherry Proper and South Silver.

Video of the Kaweah Madness and Dinkeyyyyyyy

Spring Time Goodness

The beauty of California seems to surprise me year after year. Sometimes in life to find adventure and fun, the easiest way is to utilize what is close by. For me I have been fortunate to come from such a great place and have made a good community around the rivers of California. This Spring I started out early in March in search of whitewater in what most people call a “Bad or low water year”. No matter how bad or low snow pack is, it is always good to see friends and there is always some gem around you just need to search it out.

From the return of the Tour de Sueños in Mexico, I spent about 2 weeks with the family in San Diego with visits to La Casa en Baja . I got to spend some time with the Bigness and get some work done at the house and enjoy the surf as well. Eager to get back in the kayak I headed North to meet up with Chris Madden. On the drive north I made a stop at the Kaweah and my buddy Johnny came down from Kernville to boat and give me some new gear I purchased. This season I invested in some new gear that cost me a bit, but well worth the investments. Stoked on the new Kokatat dry suit, paddle and the Shiva-the yellow beast.

It was good to meet up with Chris who was quite fired up and had been doing some good winter boating. He gave me a chance for a bit of a warm-up since I was feeling a bit rusty from no kayaking since December. We hung around for a few days at the Madden compound enjoying some quality time with Patso and Tim, Chris’s parents. The first run before we went for our first little mission was laps on 49 to Bridgeport on the South Yuba and a Gorge run on the local South Fork American. It was good to get on the water again and be paddle with friends.

The first mission from the Madden compound was Spring break for Chris’s brother, Drew on the Tuolumne. We headed out in the afternoon without Drew and met up with Thomas Moore in Groveland and rallied up to the put-in of Cherry Creek proper to drop a car and head up the road to hike into Middle Cherry which starts a few miles upstream from the put-in to Cherry Creek. The run had some quality drops on it and went through some beautiful country. The following days consisted of Cherry Creek laps and then finished up with meeting up with Drew and doing a super chorbel 3 day self support kayak trip on the main Tuolumne.

No sooner than a few hours after getting off the water was Chris pacing the parking lot with cell phone in hand and making plans for the next river drainage. The next stop was to meet up with some All Outdoors folks who where taking some rafts up to the Middle feather for a 3 day river trip with some really good people. This section known as “Devils Canyon”, will be a place that I hopefully return to many more years. The river is loaded with tons of class IV rapids and multiple class V rapids as well. Chris and myself ran out in front of the rafts reading and running many class IV rapids and getting out to scout some of the bigger ones as well.

When we got to take out we went for a short walk to check out the South Branch, which is a tributary coming in just below take-out. On our last night on the Middle Feather it had rained throughout the night so the river came up about 800cfs and also caused the tributaries in the area to come up as well. At take-out, South Branch looked liked a good flow, so we made out next stop the put-in to South Branch. We spent 2 days running the steep creek with good flows on our first day and a bit lower on the second. Both the Middle Feather and South Branch were PFD’s (personal first descents) for myself and held some ultra classics drops and rapids.

The Sueños continued the trip to the North Coast to do some boating on the Trinity and the Cal Salmon area. We drove up to the Cal Salmon after getting a lap in on Burnt Ranch and the night brought a good constant downpour of rain. A friend of ours, Evan, claimed that he had a buddy who had a house near take out and we would not have to camp outside in the rain. Well like a many good plans on road trips, things just tend to change. So there we where at 10:30pm at Jimmy’s house with no Jimmy around and still plenty of rain coming down. We left to head up to the put-in of the Nordhiemer section on the Cal Salmon to camp. When we arrived we where stoked to see a camp of rafters with tarps and easy-up shelters set up with a raging fire and hooting wildly.

　

Some of the best things about the river are the people you meet along the way. We met an amazing group of people and hung at there camp for the next few days. They had all the good set-up for a multi-day raft trip; tarps, kitchen, tables, chairs and beers for all. It was a great 3 day weekend hanging with these guys and getting laps on the Cal Salmon at some juicy flows.

The return of the North Coast trip brought us back to Lotus for a few days before I parted ways with Chris to go to the Kern for a wedding and some chorbel time with friends. I met up with Becca and enjoyed a good celebration for Tom and Amanda’s wedding then ended up sticking around and teaching guide school for 4 days on the Kern with KRO. It was good to be back in the homeland and see some of my favorite people and enjoy a beautiful river even though it was a bit on the low side.

　

After a good time on the Kern, Becca and myself headed up to Groveland and packed some gear to head into upper cherry creek for a few days of camping in the backcountry. The hike was amazing and was really good to camp out at Flinstone camp for a couple days of sunshine and chilling. Its amazing that for how many people live in California there are still places where you can go and be all alone.

From hiking Becca continued on her own little suenos trip up North and I was back to kayaking. I met up with Chris again and we made the drive south to the Kaweahs with Kiwi Gordy and met up with a crew of paddles down south. We spent a few days at Three Rivers, boating something everyday and getting our boof on. I really do love the Kaweah drainage and it is probably some of my favorite boating around. From the Kaweahs we headed North to Dinkey Creek which is a super steep tributary to the Kings and consist of multiple huge slides and waterfalls, epic overnighter. To start off May and celebrate my birthday we did a 2 day trip on the South Merced and I finished up back here in Groveland. Now I am hanging around and getting into the working scene with All Outdoors up here on the Tuolumne, and have got my first few trips. Spring Season has been great and my love for California continues to grow. Life is Good.

Curt on the perfect 20ft @ Dinkey Creek



Chill out time below Nikki Kelleys @ Dinkey Creek



Chris @ South Silver

Thomas @ South Silver

Gordy @ East Fork Kaweah

 

Me @ Dinkey Creek photo: Curt Lamberth

Hiking toward Flinstone camp @ Upper Cherry Creek

 

 

 

Another kayak video edit I put together from Mexico goods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=238csyXE0oY

Last days in Mexico.

The end only seems to be a part of a beginning. Finishing up a trip lets me look back and realize how good life really is. Mexico was amazing and will always be amazing. The last few months we have been living on the beach, staying with good friends, taking trains into large canyons away from the coast and hanging with family. At the beach we were posted up with Kiwi Dave and his family, trying to get my shred on with little Pols and keep in training with Dave. It was refreshing to have a good spot to chill out at and always good to enjoy home cooked meals and cold beers with some good folks on a daily basis. With the surf lacking a bit some days did feel a bit Groundhogish but there were a few sessions that pushed out some gems.

For the last few weeks in Mexico my parents joined for some of the Mexy adventures and made the drive North with Becca and I. After living out of a tent or the van for a few months it was nice to have my parents along and actually stay in some beds in hotels for a change. We cruised around Puerto Vallarta area for a few days staying in Sayulita and Chacala relaxing and getting a little waves here and there. From there we made a visit to Jose and family in Aticama.

We arrived to Jose’s house with tears in our eyes as we embraced Jose and his family, remembering his wife and mother to all, Petra. Petra passed away a few months back and this was part of the reason my parents wanted to join us, so they could visit Jose as well. When we arrived Saturday afternoon and after a few hugs and tears, we were again brought to sadness to hear that Jose’s father had just passed away the day before. The family would be attending a funeral in a few hours for Jose’s dad at there local church then they would take the casket over to the small cemetery by the beach to bury Grandfather Perez.

With the end of his life and the remembrance of a great man the following day we attended a wedding for one of his sons who was about to start his new life with his bride to be. It went from one tragic day to a day of celebration and joy for the new couple. I think Jose and his family were blessed to spend a few days with my parents and us before we continued North.

Our last adventure of the trip was a visit into the land of the legendary Tarahumara people in the copper canyons. We stayed a night in the town of El Fuerte and left the van for a few days to take the train up into the copper canyons. The next few days were spent doing some day hikes around the canyon and waking up to stunning views from our hotel that overlooked the Urique canyon. The copper canyons were amazing and it gave me a desire to want to come back and do a bit more exploring, maybe in times of “lluvia” and with a kayak.

The drive back to Arizona took us 2 leisurely days to get into Phoenix were we spent the night with my aunt Vicky before heading back to San Diego. It is always a weird feeling to return from a long trip and be back in the States but I am also excited for this upcoming spring and summer to be able to play in the great outdoors of the West. Once again Mexico has provided us with so much beauty and I cant wait for a return…

Well that return only lasted about 2 days, we went back to the Casa in Baja for another surf and to work on the house. Now the truck is packed with the new Kayak and camping gear and Tour de Suenos will start in Cali real soon. Hope you enjoyed the travels and the collection of photos. Nunca dejas de vivir tu sueno!



A few fun waves



Always good in the Barrel.
 

 

Family photo with Jose.

The train heading into the copper canyon region.

 

Tarahumara selling some crafts along the train route

 

Video of first kayaking stuff

I am back stateside now and uploaded a short video of some fun from the first few rivers. Enjoy