Two Month Update
End of July - early August 2004

Hello friends, I've been on my road trip for two months now, and so far it's taken me through 18 states and two providences in Canada. I've met new friends as have caught up with old friends and family during my travels. The Toyota truck is running strong, and I'm carrying four different boats on the roof right now.

After my trip to Maine, drove through my home area of the Hudson Valley in NY to see friends and make my way back to the Youghigany river in Maryland and Pennsylvania. There are four sections to the Yough. One of my goals this year was to paddle the class V Upper Yough in my strider. A strider is an inflatable kayak that is paddled while standing up. While striding, your feet are wedged into the boat for stability and control, and you use a long paddle to navigate through the rapids.

On Friday, July 30th, I met up with my friend, Jeff Snyder, the originator of strider style paddling, who is a skilled paddler on this river. This was also the weekend of the Upper Yough downriver kayak race so there were many people in town for the festivities.

The upper Yough is a beautiful 10-mile section of river; the rapids are technical and exciting. I had an amazing experience striding that day: I rolled the boat in one of the rapids and had an adventurous wipeout/swim through a different section. But that is all part of a day on the river. I was smiling at the take out, and felt good knowing that I set a challenging goal for myself and worked hard to achieve that goal.

I returned back to NY on August 7th to catch a flight out of Albany, NY to Denver, and then on to Salt Lake City, Utah. I'm looking forward to returning back to the Rockies and to see a new area of the country. Stay in touch for the next update when I return to the East Coast.