What Can You Do for EARTH toDAY?

We'll it's officially Earth Day and we are pretty fired up about it here in Colorado! I saw Pearl Izumi's staff outside picking up an adjacent lot and got emails from my friends at Clif Bar asking me how was I spending Earth Day which happens to coincide with my Wednesday off day otherwise known as Multisport Wednesdays. So after a triple decker high batch of pancakes, I was off to make my Earth Day a hit.

1. Picked up my Adopt a Highway section of Left Hand Canyon. Done!

2. Paddled at Confluence Whitewater Park in Denver AND filled 1 bag of trash from shoreline. Done!

3. Sold my SUV/FJ Cruiser and bought an Audi wagon! Not really but did last month in anticipation of Earth DAy!

4. I called my sports medicine suppliers and insisted they ship product to my clinic with USED CARDBOARD BOXES. Who cares if the outer box looks ghetto? Immersion Research put me onto this after I received a product order from them that the box had clearly been around! Save your shipping boxes in your business and pass it on! Sometimes I feel like I do more damage to the environment running boxes around town to recycler than if I just passed them forward when I ship something. I found a friend that owns an ebay business and he was all smiles to become the new recipient of my boxes weekly.

5. Sent emails to my friends reminding them to attend the 2009 Platte River Cleanup this weekend... www.southplattecleanup.com/ sponsored by KEEN.

That's all for now Earth fans. Pass it forward.

Spring USA Wildwater Camp, Glenwood Springs, CO

Colorado wildwater legends Mike Freeburn (below) , Andy Corra (seen on left), and Nelson Oldham came out of the wood work for the 2009 USA Wildwater Spring Camp held in Glenwood Canyon on the Shoshone stretch of Colorado River. Unfortunately, 3 foot of snow came out of the clouds the same day shutting down I70 for 24 hours.

USA Wildwater is making a development priority in 2010 to emphasize domestic camps with hopes of an annual camp on east coast, Rockies, and west coast with current and previous senior and junior team members serving as instructors as part of their committment to USA Wildwater for funding their racing abroad.

Day 1 was a flatwater stroke while Day 2 was dedicated to swiftwater content. The camp was wrapped up with several trial runs on the national junior trials course to be held next weekend April 25-26. Special thanks to Clif Bar for providing lunch time snacks to fuel the day!

Team KEEN 2nd Overall in Jackson Hole Pole Pedal Paddle

Just back from Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the 35th annual Pole Pedal Paddle (http://www.polepedalpaddle.com/) where 150 relay and solo teams of alpine skiers do a giant slalom course from top of the tram to a 1 hour nordic course to 1 hour bike to 1 hour paddle to the finish. My team consisted of Jackson locals George Putnam who won the fastest alpine leg leg, Boulderite Adam St. Pierre (seen here with me at paddle finish line) who finished a very very close 2nd place overall on the nordic leg, Jacksonite Brian Schilling on the bike, and myself finishing 3 seconds off the fastest paddle leg behind Jackson Hole extreme kayaker Aaron Pruzan (1st) of Rendevous River Sports. Note to self...don't chase your race bib floating down the river when every second counts. These teams were out to keep the out of towners off the podium at any cost! His local team showed us how the locals do it just edging us from the overall title with their local insight and blazing speed. We'll be back next year as this was a great mountain event, great organization, and lots of local talent to race with. Next year we should make time to pre run the nordic and paddle course at least once and the locals will see Boulderites rally!

The fun class defined the legendary spirit of this race as sumo wrestlers, bannanas, and several Elvis impersonators wreaked havoc particularly on the downhill section of the nordic course where they were clearly in control of this race for about 10 seconds.

Fellow Boulderites and our road tripping pals Gary Lacy won the masters division and son Spencer won the youth division. We also won the "How Many Skis, Bikes, and Kayaks Can you Load Onto Your Vehicle" division seen below leaving my house in Boulder County. Note the ninja-like prowess of this crack squad balancing on sheer millimeters of sheet metal!

Play time is closing for me...time to focus on wildwater team trials coming up in June!