just doin' my job on the river patrol...

(Andy keeps saying that, so it seemed like a good title)

After our visit to Big Pocono State Park (the 14th PA State Park that we've visited together), we continued on up to set up camp for the night to get out on river patrol the following morning. The last time we attempted to go out on patrol, the river was high, so we went on a powerboat ride-along with one of the park rangers. This was our first time staying at the campsite, which we had to ourselves!

all these truck, kayak, and campsite pictures look the same, don't they?

This is our first year on the river patrol, so we're newbies. Our schedules (and the weather) allowed us to head up this past weekend, which coincided with a skills drill--combat swimming and throw bags. We belly-flopped into the water (sadly, i have no pictures), swam hard perpendicular to the current, slid in behind a rock, waited, swam back towards shore where other National Park Service seasonal staff and river patrol volunteers were waiting with throw bags (if you're wondering what I'm talking about, this is not us, but check out this page here). I had two PERFECT throw bag tosses and was able to catch the person on the first try each time (which I was later complimented on, yay!).

Once we had the practice time, it was about time we headed out on the river with an experienced member of the river patrol. With a little shuttling around, we were finally on the water just after 11:30am. We had about a 7 mile stretch with a couple of Class II rapids. We told people to make sure life jackets were on the kids and warned them of the rapids coming up. The only rescue of the day was a paddle and a life jacket (thank goodness!).

beautiful views!

waterfall into the Delaware

It was overall a beautiful day. By the time we packed up, got on the road, stopped and ate dinner, and got back home it was 8:30pm, and we had to clean off our gear, unpack the truck, shower, etc. It was a late night, and I'm still very tired (oh yeah, and summer hours started at work, which means that I'm at work at 7am now!).

me in my boat!

 Looking forward to another exciting weekend! Do you have any plans?

family, kayaking, more kayaking...

so, in my last post, i hinted in what i might be up to in the next few weeks. [family, kayaks, tents, pa state parks, friends, more family, and hopefully lots of use of my camera (since it's been hiding for a while...)]

so family: my parents were BOTH up from texas this past weekend, and i got to see my sister, A., and bro-in-law, C. A was playing in a exhibition/surprise softball game that was to commemorate 30 years of coaching by our high school softball coach (he's still going strong!). they had players from across the years, including several that my sister played with, and that i played with (i only played softball in HS for two years, and never made varsity). [my sister's senior year they were the state champs, A. was the pitcher and hit in the winning run.]

C. likes my DSLR. Well, likes is an understatement. Nearly 150 photos later, we got some shots of the game. Here are some photos that I took (C still has some things to learn about using a DSLR...):

surprise!

A. playing 1st base

After the game, A & C were off on some other adventure, so Andy and I had dinner with my parents at Charlie Brown's (a delicious regional steakhouse chain).

on sunday, andy and i attended a meetup. if you haven't heard of meetup, check it out. you find a group of people in your area that do things you like to do, and you do those things. like hiking, or kayaking, or photography, or moms that love to run with their babies in strollers, etc. you get the point. so we attended a kayaking meetup event. the river was high (which didn't make me happy), and there were some really difficult incidents (everyone is okay), and i can definitely say that my rescue instincts kicked in. Andy was able to paddle upstream (in a high flowing river) and reach people that needed help, i was just able to maintain my position while paddling upstream. Aside from being exhausting and draining, we did get to paddle 19 miles on the delaware.

andy in his kayak [i think i was tilting when i took this-also, the river is not this ugly brown normally]

me, in my kayak. [photo credit r. pace]

work monday, then onto the gym for some pilates and bodypump (maybe not a good idea after the day on the river, but oh well). then work on tuesday, which this was my office for the day:

surveying the canal by kayak

anyway, that's the update so far! hope you have a great 4th of july weekend! :)

hey life, can you wait a minute?

things have been super super busy for me over the past few weeks.

i'm finally over my sinus infection (it took over 3 weeks). we had some rain, which means i had some field work for work, which was fun, just exhausting. nice that i didn't have to drive all the way to the office, not nice that i had to collect samples in the rain, but i at least got to wear my knee boots. my field locations for this project are only about a half hour from my house, rather than the hour that my office is. things are picking up for the season work-wise, other field work (in-kayak surveys of the canal), events, etc. work is just crazy. 


in life, we headed up to the river for a weekend of swiftwater rescue a couple of weeks ago. the river was high, but we went out on patrol with a park ranger in a power boat (which i got to drive, which was CRAAAAZY). luckily, we didn't have to rescue anyone, even though it looked a little hairy at times. we stayed at a super sketchy cabin (which was free, i guess why it was sketchy). i consider myself a girl that can rough it. if it hadn't been pouring, i would have rather pitched a tent than stay in the cabin. made me miss the counselor cabins from my summer camp days...


andy just sent me an article that someone drowned this past weekend in our river that we've joined the patrol for (in a section that we would patrol). He wasn't wearing a life jacket. pretty scary to think about it. 95% of the people that have drowned in that section of the river in the past 31 years were not wearing a life jacket. The others? not wearing their life jackets correctly.


anyway, i volunteered for andy at work yesterday, and we've been out fishing a couple times. other than that i feel like i've been in a blogging slump... my life doesn't seem nearly interesting enough to even write about, especially since i feel like my days off are taken over by laundry and cleaning the house. 


hopefully i'll have something interesting for you, and some pictures! soon!

how i spent my weekend.

so, i'm still not over my sickness (which may have turned into allergies?!--this cannot happen, or my life will be over), but that didn't stop me from spending the weekend in the great outdoors. 

andy and i were attending a swiftwater rescue training for a volunteer group we plan to be involved with this summer. i'm talking, we're in kayaks, saving people that fell out of their boats and other situations (that could be anything your amazing imaginations can think of). there's a lot more to it than that, land-based rescue, in-water (swimming) rescue, etc. i'm new at this, but andy knows a lot (he's had prior training). 


i'm learning, and i'm thinking about all the times i spent on the river and knew none of this. i didn't know there was a right and wrong way to get a boat off a rock if it's on it a certain way. i'm somewhat hesitant to consider myself a rescuer because i'm so new at this.


anyway, it's still pretty chilly hear (although it was nice out), the water was about 48 degrees. the nights were cold (we were in a tent), so i'm glad  that i have a 0 degree sleeping bag (i don't think it would keep me warm in 0 degrees unless i had some different layers on within the bag). 


it was nice to spend time outdoors, even though i didn't get into my kayak at all. soon enough, soon enough. and then you'll have pictures! :)