Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Departure

We've been super busy in the past few weeks: making paddles and wannigans, begging gear companies for boats and gear, shipping boats, patching boats, wiring solar panels, buying cameras and gear, working as much as possible in order to afford and rationalize taking a month off, and finally mobilizing the Colorado Crew in order to rendezvous in Vermont for food planning, shakedown trips, and packing out. Unfortunately, Julian Campbell broke his collar bone in a motorcycle crash, so the crew is down to five swarthy gentlemen. Scott Ellis, Mike Wight, Casey Bradley, Nate Ballinger, and myself are meeting in Middlebury tomorrow to complete final trip prep and then drive to Cree land. Apparently the plans for moving workers up onto the land have been pushed back to 2009, which gives us plenty of time to shoot, cut, and distribute the film before the diversion project has a big impact on the river. Who knows, maybe we can still leave the power in the river! Check out the latest issue of Canoe and Kayak, where my feature article has been published discussing the situation on the Rupert and describing my trip with Keewaydin last summer. I'd like to thank the players who have gotten the project to the put-in; Keewaydin and Songadeewin and the many amazing folks there, the family and loved ones of myself and my tripmates, the reps from Smith Optics, Mountain Hardwear, Old Town Canoe, and Pyrannha Kayaks, my coworkers and boss Tony Boniface at Independent Power Systems in Boulder, Bryan Powell of Eyeline Media, Pete Mortimer and Nick Rosen of Sender Films for advice and hand-holding, Chris Bell of Bellfoto for giving us a sick deal on the DVX100, Brunton for making an awesome amorphous thin film solar panel, and especially Alex Waterman for bringing me dinner and beer all last week when it was midnight and I was still foolishly trying to get work done. I might post again before we head north but if not, expect some footage and exciting news soon. Wish us luck!