September 22, 2007

By Joel Kowalski

I am training for a creek mission. There are many things important to pulling off a good creek trip, especially when you are on a tight schedual (I'm in college). You cannot afford to be slowed down for anything. You need to have all your logistics planned, you need to have all the right equipment packed and you need to have a crew you trust. But most of all, you yourself need to be ready, physically and mentally. A steep creek outing can put a lot of stress your body and mind.

The Idea of training for an expedition is to make the training harder than the expedition. This way, the challenges on the trip will seem like a breeze! So to prepare I have been strapping my Rocker to my back and going for runs. I live in a fairly flat part of the world, so to make up for the lack of hills I have been filling the stern of my boat up with scrap metal. With the added weight, my Rocker weighs about 100lbs. The plan is to simulate the added weight of gear and long uphill hikes.

EJ, Dane Jackson, Nick Troutman, Ben Stookesberry and myself (with some other members still deciding) we will be going to a coastal mountain range of Canada. A pure granite landscape should offer some great steep creeking. I have researched some previous kayaking exploits in our focus area, but for the most part it should all be unrun rivers.

The trip will all be documented in the video "Here & Now" as will the Niagara Gorge mission from two weeks ago. I'm loading up my rocker again right now to go for another training session.

Joel