Another look at Bay Minette Basin

My mom and I decided to go kayaking this morning. I wanted to launch at the Causeway and explore the Whiskey Ditch but it was VERY foggy this am. I didn't want to get runned over by a boat so we decided to launch at Buzby's instead. I have launched here twice. The first time Jason and I went up stream and the river was ok but pretty wide and the second time I went with Michele and Karen and we went downstreatm to the Basin and circled around the south half. Again open water and developed shores. So I went into this paddle with expectations of a pleasant paddle but nothing special. We launced downstream and went around the top half of the Basin just to go somewhere new. OMG, it was the best paddle. Very shallow(read no motor boats), grassy mazes, blooming spider lillies, protected waters, 3 alligators, constant birdsong, it was awesome. I wish I had taken a camera. The weather was perfect, it was warm with a cool breez, minimum current, splashing fish...

Tower certification

The climbing gym Michele and I have been going to has an outside climbing tower. So today we did our tower certification to be able to climb it. We had to learn how to lead rope climb and we had to lead climb to the top. We didn't realize how tough the climb was going to be. At the top and bottom it was tilted out at an angle so the climbing was hard anyway and then to have to let go with one hand long enough to place a quickdraw, pull up slack in the rope and clip it to the carabiner, um it was hard. The we had to practice taking a fall which the guy could see I was about to fall so he had Michele pay out some line so that I would take a big fall. Michele did better than me so she had to pay out her own line then fall on purpose from the top. Anyway we did it so we can climb the tower now:-)

crack climbing

Michele and I have been going to the climbing gym twice a week to get ready for our trip. Today was Easter day so it was pretty slow and actually we were the only ones there for 2 hours so we were able to get some tips from the guy working there, Shane. He showed us how to do a sit start and to use the crack.
Photo credit: Shane

Shark Dive

What was the most dangerous thing Jason and I did in Honduras? Apparently the shark dive. And the sharks weren't the dangerous part. This is a news story about the dive operator we used for our shark dive.http://www.cdnn.info/news/industry/i090225.html

Helmet Cam

Jason gave me a helmet cam for Christmas and I haven't had a chance to use it. Our only vertical trip this year was Rumbling Falls and it got changed to a hike when Aimee got sick. So anyway I finally got the thing set up and took it to the climbing wall just for a chance to play with it. Here are the videos I took. Hopefully I will be posting videos from Moab in 24 days!

Canoe Trip

In March we canoed down the Big Escambia Creek. Brandon and Melissa(with their 2 newfoundlands) camped out with us at the Magnolia Branch Reserve(the Indian's campground). They also have a Casita. We took Chewie for his first real camping trip. We cooked out and relaxed Friday night.

Saturday Jason and Brandon dropped a car in Flomaton and Melissa and I walked the dogs then we hit the river. Chewie rode with us and the Newfs stayed in the camper. We packed a picnic lunch and stopped on one of the many sand bars to eat and chewie had a great time playing fetch and swimming. We saw some good sized bass but it was bright and the water was clear and long story short no one caught anything. I took my fishing pole that I use to fish for kitties(it has a lure tied to it but no hook). I didn't really want to catch anything or buy a fishing license and then when I didn't catch anything at least I had an excuse. And not having a hook obviously didn't hurt my chances since no one else caught anything either. We paddled for over four hours. I thought that since we were going down stream that the paddling would be easy but the wind was kickin and blowing against us the whole way so we actually got a pretty good workout.

January caving trip

A few years ago we started a tradition of going on a caving trip every January with Joey and Aimee. This year we camped a Fall Creek Falls state park. On Saturday we went to Camp's Gulf. "Camps Gulf Cave, located in Van Buren County, Tennessee, is renowned for its large chambers. This four-plus-mile cave contains no less than three humongous rooms, one of which (measuring over 400 by 700 feet in size) is one of the most volumous cave chambers east of the Mississippi River. The cave is so vast, and the chambers so difficult to navigate, explorers routinly never make it out of the first room." For a horizontal trip with almsot no crawling Camp's Gulf was pretty rough. It was 5 hours of climbing over break down. We pushed back to the fourth room which is the smallest but where the best formations are. We were supposed to do Rumbling Falls the next day but Aimee was too sick. I was mad that Joey was going to make her go when she was sick. Of course I made Jason go the year that he was sick and he ended up getting bronchitis because of me.Ha.

Anyway there was plenty to do at the park where we were camped. We packed a lunch a did a little day hike to the falls.

Running Season

Jason has finished his spring running season. This year he decided he needed to run a marathon. He did one 10 years ago and it took him that long to forget how hard it was. He completed the First Light marathon in Mobile in 3:32. Since he had already done the work to get in shape he decided to do the Pensacola marathon in February and completed that one in 3:36. Of course he ran the Azalea Trail Run. This is his 20th consecutive time to run it and he completed it in 43:23. Now it is time to start cross trainnig for Mt Rainier.