Breakdown of being a guide i guess.
HEllo. Everyone.
Its been awhile. After I returned to my motherland after guatemala (the Yukon) I went straight to work. I have been chasing the dollar bills since then. Since June I can count on both hands how many days off work I have had. However I dont really mind. I paddle before work, during work and usually work. And if im not paddling I usually have a beer in my hand. This is about my fourth year guiding. I teach and guide anything you can paddle. A raft, a canoe, a packraft or even a paddle board. My summer mostly consisted of rafting day trips. (enjoy the pictures below).
As I think you can tell. I get up to lots of funny business. I have become the ring leader of this rag-tag bunch of raft guides this year. I often lead my coworkers down the mighty tatshenshini river as the guide manager I guess (lead guide sounds cooler btw). I worked with many new folks, which was hard at first but change is inevitable. So are nick names so ill give you a run down of ours. Maybe you can start putting names into the photos on this blog.
Ill start with the Jefes. My bosses.
Kevin Daffe aka the otter. He is always rocking a red life jacket gold or blue helmet and a wicked smile.
The other half is will Obrien originally from the ottawa valley. Nicknames. River Daddy, River jesus, white jesus. or just simply daddy.
Next are the employs. Ill start with the most senoir of the bunch
Hunter long. Aka Swim shady. he is the definition of white bread. but god dam can he guide a bathtube. As long as he can stay in it. My best prank on hunter was stealing all of his outfitting while he was teaching a packrafting course ultimately leading him to swim part of the major rapids on the daytrip. You will always see him rocking a orange company wetsuit, blue hemlet and a yellow company paddle.
Swim had the biggest rip of the season, we had to start a rip board, we've barely even hit the double digits.
Up next is Keelan Robbins, the most junior of the bunch but the most experienced. He will save any boat, guide, paddle or client. with one swift paddle stroke, his eyes closed and a smile. He is reither rocking all old gear or all new. he went through some serious upgrades this season (white or black helmet). The nick names dont end either
The man, H.O.G. (hand of god), K-dog, Romeo, and more
Up next is veronica porter. I swear to god we dont even work at the same company. We never see each other at work. But she does the best welcome back rap to our clients. Always rocking a personal red drysuit. Unlike the rest of us in our smelly and wet wetsuits.
Next is Lisa Free man. Aka Juliet, or Princess peach. Watch out if she's your guide if youre not listening you will get smacked by a paddle. Wearing all the same gear as me, but pink helmet.
Next is the bookworm. Glade roberts. Rocking a sweat kokatat yellow pfd from the 1990 and a red helmet. All his nicknames must start with a G.
Gladoraide, G-force or the guide favorite; G-spot.
Best prank was on this laddy. I poured left over lemonaide down his wetsuit, resulting in the nickname sweet cheeks. 
Next up is Bobby Dazzler. Raft guide, sweat heart and a show.
and lastly we have Big C! Always rocking the neon yellow helmet.
The day trips that stick out are always the toughest days. A big day we had to deal with heart problems, a Ukrainian dancing troupe from my moms hometown and of course g spot flipping his boats in the major rapids.
I had my only flip of the season with a boat full of clients that didnt know how to swim. Whoops!
I only wrapped a couple times this season. It was also the first season I've wrapped a boat. Good thing theres not photos.
I also got the amazing tat alsek. I guided this trip With Jake Wykes, one of the old old old guides. Jk. And the Man him self, K-Dog.
I took me a couple years to realize/discouver the tat alsek is a world class raft trip. And its crazy that it is in my backyard-ish. This trip takes you through rapids, glaciers and mountains n shit. The crazy thing is the remote wilderness. The only signs of human is one outfitters cabin. And a fishing communtiy at the end of the trip (300k down) where you fly out. 
Keelan Jake and I were blessed with a awesome group of clients. They always had a great attitude and were appreciative which really makes a difference as a guide. I was caffeine feuled throughout the trip and some highlights were definetly seeing one of the glaciers calf and playing extreme croquet in some tough conditions. One of my favourite and most important parts of being a multiday guide is preparing and cooking the food. I love using these rectangle dutch ovens my company uses.
Enjoy the photos below. They will speak better then I can write.
Enjoy the photos below. They will speak better then I can write.
dOPE ass charcuterie board.
K dog on the gear raft
A beer and sleep deprived induced dip in some cold cold water. 
Pyroglyphs at the confluence of two rivers on a island. Also mind bogglingly remote. Its crazy to think that people used to live in that enviroment.
Notice the diper of red tape i was wearing cause i exploded my drypants
money shot on alsek lake
i can only handstad for .5 seconds, good thing its a photo
misty day after the delta when the alsek hits the tat.
The crew minus k dog and danielle
On my spare time from work. I would usually paddle, or if i was lucky go for a mountain bike ride. Below is a photo before chaos. be carful while drinking white claw surges. One of my two swims was that fatfull day drinking whiteclaw surges on a class 0
.5
I do love drinking beer however I think I enjoy kayaking more. I prefer to kayak during highwater becuase the daytrips take less time so i have more time and im less tired. And more kayak runs around our camp are runable. Sometimes we kayak the day trip run blanchard > Tatshenshini but its kinda long. Here are some photos
.5
Below is also one of my days not working. I went for a hike with my brotha and his girlfriend. Twas a sick day.
The blogs flow has been completely disturbed but i dont know where to put this photo and my photos are not in cronilogical order but i started playing quite a bit of croquet this summer.
ok ok ok. I think im back in the flow of this blog. Back paddle, Back paddle, Back paddle. Back to guiding aka pretty much my whole summer. The apres life as a guide is very important part of the guide life. At my company you live far away from any signs of human life. You are forced to socialize with your co workers. I chose to either paddle after work, work after work or drink beeer.
The beer pond on a very fruit full day.
Mucking before a night run
More muckage before night run
before a night run on the tat.
yup. good times.
Some other fun ones are the Takahnni. Theres like a couple class 4 ish sections but other then that its a chill run with bueatiful canyon walls and clear water.
photos from a run on the takahne.
Another great run is the upper blanchard.
It is a roler coaster of a run and is basically always a class 3. I did this one quite a few times. each time i hauled my big ol kayak up. Hoolay it is tiring but dam that run is fun.
I have one more river to show off, the parton river. It is a bit of a slog. You do more hiking then paddling on this one but it was a great time exploring and a good excuse to own one of em packraft things. We got to paddle witht the legendary terresa Landman. Tatshenshini legend and crazy paddle. She has done some crazy stuff with a hunk of plastic and a paddle. The boys were a bit ratty, They dont own a packraft so they bagged the first canoe descent of the parton cause its the only inflated boat we had at camp. Big congrates go out to the crock that procted our shoulders while cary this shitty dry bag and hunters rigging skills to carry that inflatable canoe. Epic sick night run. Finished at like 1 am too. 
Another after work adventure was me and hunter paddling on the occean. We had one day off between two 10 day stints in camp so we decided to spend the day in haines alaska. We had some epic ish ocean packrafting. Not the funist thing in the world tbh. But the disc golfing was fucking sick there. 
on the ocean.below are just some still life shots of camp.
Ok that is the conclusion of this summer as a whitewater raft guide. I just need to make it though this coming weekend and ill be done my work. Ive had a couple days off and ive been able to prepare for the rest of my life. Me and my brother and some others are preping to tackle some sweet rivers. Or should i say mostly my mom. She has been dehyrdrating food like a maniac for us. BEST mom ever. 
FOod for packraft trip down the donjek river. Lots of hiking = lots of dry food :(
Some food for the stikine. we dont need that much dry food
getting some gear ready for both trips. spot the whiskey ;)
Well i think thats all folks. Stay tuned for an update on the coming trips. Im pretty sure ill survive. But itll be a whirwind. No breaks between trips. not even 24 hours and ill have to come to school 5 days late, Oh well.
