Horses and more kayaking.

Greetings,

I've started to do some equine photography lately, and this weekend I photographed Valley, Tracy Tschakert Langerud's five-year-old dressage horse. Tracy and Valley were in town for lessons from Canadian Olympic rider John MacPherson and we were able to get some nice shots of Valley before, during and after the lesson. This is one that I liked quite a bit:


Also, as the title of this post implies, I shot some more creeking up on the North Shore last week - this time the guys paddled the Baptism River. Many thanks to Peter, Jason, Tommy, Joerg, Joe and Andy for letting me tag along and photograph the day. Here's a shot I liked of Andy running Ilgen Falls on the Baptism:


I've also been having a great time riding on the mountain bike trails over at Theodore Wirth Park. I've been trying to get over there as much as possible, and since it's riding distance from home, I get a nice workout to and from the trails, and an even nicer (and more fun) ride once I'm there. These trails exist thanks to the great work of MOCA and MORC - what a great treat to have singletrack available right smack dab in a major metro area! I even saw three deer on my way to the trail today.

Have a great day,
John.

Kiteboarding Magazine

I forgot to mention in my last post that this month's Kiteboarding
Magazine features an article on kiting in Minnesota. The article was
written by Tighe Beldon (with a little help from myself) and is
accompanied by several photos by Tighe and myself. Check it out if you
get the chance - you can find it at most larger bookstores and of course
Shinder's has them as well.

Thanks,
John.

Spring Creeking

Greetings from Minnesota in the Spring!

The weather has been amazing around here lately, and as is the case here in Minnesota, April showers (and melting snow!) bring...well, they bring mid-April increases in river levels all up and down the North Shore. Because of this phenomenon, there exists a dedicated group of whitewater kayakers who live for 'creeking'. Also called steep creeking or spring creeking, these paddlers enjoy the rush of paddling rivers and creeks that flow enough to navigate for only a few weeks each spring.

The waterfalls and rapids these guys run are nothing short of mind-blowing. Every time I get out with them, I'm amazed at the level of paddlers that Minnesota produces. The courage, skill and desire they exibit are incredible.

On Saturday I had the chance to head up to Duluth with Peter Noren, Tommy Norton and Chris Anderson from Midwest Mountaineering. The day was one of those perfect spring afternoons - crisp blue skies, perfect temperature for a long-sleeved t-shirt and the rivers were flowing nicely. Some of the Duluth boys were logging laps on the Lester River - if I recall correctly, Ryan Zimney had the high number of the day - 10 runs!

Peter and Tommy were the first (and only, I think) to run 'Almost Always' that day. Almost Always is a waterfall on the Lester River who's moniker is based on the fact that paddlers almost always have to portage it. With a pretty big crowd of both paddlers and regular citizens on hand, Tommy ran it first, followed shortly by Peter - both received a big cheer from everyone on hand, and a couple of congragulatory beers at the take-out.

Here's a sequence shot I took of Peter at Almost Always:


On another note, I'm getting set for another great summer of photography - filled with both weddings and sports - especially mountain bikin! Woo Hoo!

On still another note, (this, a serious one) on Tuesday evening my friend Joe and I were downtown after a failed attempt to get tickets to the Twins home opener when we witnessed a serious bike accident. If you've followed this blog in the past, you'll recall that I'm a little crazy about peddling so this one hit close to home. The rider was cruising down Sixth street downtown when he hit a man-hole cover that had sunken down into the street a fair distance. He was unable to recover and crashed just as he entered the intersection of 2nd avenue. I ran over to see if he was OK, and when I got down to his level, I could tell it was bad. He was conscious but unresponsive, and was bleeding from a wound on the back of his head. I called 911 and several other passers-by and a police office hurried over as well. It was several minutes until another police unit arrived, followed shortly by an ambulance and fire truck. During this time, we stayed with the man and I tried to talk to him just to give him something to focus on. It was a terrible few minutes, as it was obvious that this was no scraped-knee kind of crash, this could be really bad. He was bleeding heavily from the back of his head - there was literally a puddle in the street. I felt powerless, firstly, because there was little that could be done with out moving him, and moreso because I'm a biker and I felt as though I should somehow protect him, as a fellow cyclist.

Before long, the medics took over and one of the officers took my statement, after which Joe and I hung around to make sure the police took care of his bike properly.

So here's the thing. I'll try not to be too preachy, but it's important to me to make this point. He wasn't wearing a helmet. I'm no doctor, but I did see him crash and I've done nearly the same thing in the past - I'm certain that had he had a helmet, he would have been fine. Scaped up knees and elbows, yes, but overall fine. I ride in town a lot, and I wear a helmet about 90% of the time. It used to be that if I was running a quick errand in the neighborhood I might not grab my helmet, but I can tell you now that I will not do that again. It's simply not worth the risk, not even close.

I'm not sure who that rider was, and I don't know how he's doing now, but I sure hope he'll recover well, and I hope even more that the next time you hop on your bike for a ride you'll wear you're helmet and keep a sharp lookout for hazards in the road.

Thanks for stopping by, and sorry if I bummed you out!

John.