United States of AMERICA!

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A solid 12hour AirNZ flight saw Toni George, Shilo Gibson and myself landing safely into San Francisco, America! We were so stoked to arrive into the warmth and find Martina Wegman from the Netherlands (That country that everyone thinks is Denmark) along with Christy and Chris from NZ. Martina and I caught the train and bus out to Auburn (20min from Coloma) well the others went in Chris’s car. Basically the others were meant to pick us up from Auburn but due to some miss communication they did not... Anyway after waiting an hour or so we wondered down the street, found a nice family who leant us there phone, gave us some wine and put us to rest in their Gazebo- epic! They then drove us out to Coloma to meet the others and join the party! Big Big thanks to this awesome family!

We set up camp with Shilo at her primo campsite and did a run down a pretty cruizy section of the South Fork of the American river called Kyberz. It was pretty sweet. Kyberz had a few really fun rapids and some good moves, about a 2hour run with no portages. The next day we met up with Nick and Harmony Wimsett, Lu and Tyler, Josh and Chris and Christy again and did a run down the South Silver. It was at a pretty high flow but all good to go! I was pretty scared actually, some of the drops and rapids were rather big and looked full on and like nothing I had ever paddled. They were all pretty clean though and a lot of fun! Stoked on our crew, such a mint day!

I am loving it here in California, the weather is hot, Wal Mart has $8 bikinis and $10 dozens of beers,Ice cold beers at the take out as the rivers are fueled by snow melt, If you need internet just stand next to a bus or a train or hit up Maccas, 50cent refills on coffee- definately makes you buzz, Americans are super nice! Camping life is all good (providing you don’t step on poison oak), Gas is cheap as. Thanks so much to Nick and Harmony for an amazing BBQ! Nicole for letting us use her car! Douglas for looking after my gears! Kate for driving me and Martina home when we got left behind,  And everyone else who has been super nice!

This morning I will be writing some assignments for uni, then Martina, Toni and I are looking at doing a three day or heading to the Yuba, we might meet up with Lu & Tyler and or Chris. All is sweet.
Photo Credit: Shilo Gibson