Wolf Alice - White Horses - I've decided this is my theme for 2026

Fun Stuff 2026

January 1st Birmingham Canoe Club Feast on the Beach.  No water to paddle, but we had a great turn-out and some members went on a polar plunge.  It was in the 60'sF but the water was cold.  I did NOT do this.

January 4th - Limrock Blowing Cave.  With John S. and Arlene Z., Donna and Danny, Dave H. our trip leader, other members of the B'ham Grotto.  Water levels were low; air temps were chilly but not too bad. I got perhaps up mid-thigh deep in water on the walk out. I love this cave.

January 11th Mulberry Fork.  With many members of the BCC and HCC.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0m.  Level a bit below 2 ft on both online and bridge gauges, but it felt like more.  I had a dry hair day (I have tried not to do this but it was cold).  lol 

January 14th - 20th GCA Florida paddle 2026.  
 01-14 I drove down to Wakulla Springs State park lodge to spend the night. It was approximately halfway on my journey to Homosassa Florida, and it was delightful.  The lodge was built in the 1930's and has been kept specific to that period. The elevator is under renovation so I didn't get to see it.  It was an interesting journey because Verizon had a multi-state outage just as I got below Montgomery Al, and I had no cell service or map guidance after that.  I did have the GPS working on my phone, through my truck dash, and was able to figure out the way without a paper map.  But still.

The lodge had water turned off because of repairs, and though they were supposed to be finished with this before my arrival, it wasn't finished until after midnight.  They had filled the bathtub with water and provided a bucket for flushing toilets, and plenty of bottled water for drinking/brushing teeth.  This was not a big deal, but I had to chuckle at timing my visit right when Verizon was out and the water was off.

01-15 The next morning I took the Wakulla Springs boat tour for $7.00. I highly recommend this tour, and will do it every time I visit.  Alligators, water birds, a resident otter, and several manatees.  The ranger told me the manatees are from the Homasassa herd and have only been visiting since about 25 years ago.
After breakfast at the lodge, which I also recommend (the breakfast was a voucher I purchased when I reserved my room) I headed by Devil's Den dive site on the way to Homasassa.  This is a very cool spot, smaller than I imagined, but gorgeous inside.  I didn't have any buddies with me so I didn't dive or snorkel, just checked it out.  
I arrived at the Chassahowitzka Hotel which is next to the campground parking area where we base the trips out of each day.  There were 21 of us in the Hotel.
Joan S. and Patty C. joined us this year.  We went to dinner at a place called The Freezer that had a simple menu - steamed shrimp, mussels in garlic and butter, smoked fish, clam chowder, cold beers, potato chips in a bag, a small cup of slaw or mac n cheese.  I tried the mussels for the first time ever and they were delicious.  The amount of food we got was amazing and it was affordable and fresh. 

01-16 to be continued...

--- it's January 27th and I haven't been able to paddle local water again. There was water last weekend but it's cold af---

Tablesaw on the Ocoee in the Spud again

Fun Stuff 2025 Part 2

 Blogger is not letting me update my blog so I'm starting a part 2.  

I'd like to find a better hosting platform but a minimal search this morning didn't come up with much.

Anyway: 

April 12 Upper/Lower Mulberry. In the Jackson Antix 2.0.  With Peggy, Jie, Kevin S., and Westin.  Level around 2.1.  Kind of too low for the Upper but we were happy to get on it at least once this season. 

April 18 First dive of the year at Blue Water Park.  With Bethany G.  My first dive with my new 5mm wetsuit which is a Henderson Aqualock.  It is very warm!  

April 26 Diving at Blue Water Park.  With Helen, Andy, and Reed.  Nice couple of dives.

Me mind-melding with a young bass. Photo by Helen H. 

May - we did the Mulberry and Locust. We had fun.  rinse and repeat.

May 24-26 BCC Hello to the Hiwassee.  We stayed at AU.  I did the Hiwassee Saturday and Sunday, and then the Cartecay on Monday.  Fun in the rainstorms. The water was colder than usual on the H so I wore my drysuit both days.

May 30 - June 1 TVCC Paddle School.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0 m.  Hiwassee both days.  I helped Paris with his class as a support boater.  Sunday I was going to go on Ocoee but the group wanted to leave too early for me to break camp, so I went back to the Hiwassee with Pat Carver's class as a tag-a-long.

June 7 - 8 Stress and Rescue class.  

June 21 Bear Creek Float.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0 m.  With Peggy, Juliet and Michael, and several canoeists.  I love this float!

June 22 CeCe SSI Try Mermaid and CeCe/Gus SSI Snorkel Diver.   Great time!  At Blue Water Park.  Taught by Bethany at https://www.instagram.com/mermaiding.and.more/

CeCe is 7 and is part fish!

June 27 - July 3 Week of Rivers 2025 WOR CCC.  In the Jackson Mixmaster 7.5 and the Antix 2.0 m.  Great time and reasonably dry weather too. 
Saturday - Tuckaseegee in the Mixmaster
Sunday - Nantahala short trip Ferebee to Surfers with Mona
Monday - Nantahala Ferebee thru the falls. I walked the falls with my swimmer's ear still going on
Tuesday - Tuckaseegee, memorial trip honoring Richard Hopley aka OC1- Kanubi
Wednesday - Nantahala Ferebee thru the falls.  I had a great line at the falls.

July 13 - 100th Dive.  At Blue Water Park.  With Bethany.  She made a sign on her dive slate and took some pics. So stoked to have gotten my 100th dive!  

July 19 Hiwassee.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0m.  With Helen, Andy, and Peggy.  It was raining buckets on the drive up and Helen called and asked if we could just day drink instead. (she was kidding).  The day turned out really nice, not rainy just cloudy so the air temps were nice not super hot.  

July 20 Ocoee. Rails to Go-Forth. In the Jackson Antix 2.0m.  With Mary M, Helen, Andy, Trey aka Roscoe P. Wavetrain.  After a long hiatus I returned to the Ocoee to find it exactly how I remembered - the familiar lines, the great water temps, the fun rapids.  I had two combat rolls, one below Double Trouble and one in the runout of Flipper.  Mary and I took out at Go-Forth and had lunch.  I hadn't seen Mary in ages and she's one of my best friends so it was great to catch up with her. 

Helen took a photo of my boof at Double Suck:

...and my smile after landing the boof:
 

July 26 Diving at Blue Water Park.  With Helen, Andy, and Bethany.  We saw an interesting person at the airplane.

Aug 3 Diving at Blue Water Park.  With Bethany.  Then BCC Pool Party at Jason and Kathleen's with members of the Birmingham Canoe Club.

I love my Amazon 3mm cheapie wetsuit

I had to stay local this past weekend for a family dinner.

Aug 9 Diving at Blue Water Park.  With Reed.  Then wonderful family dinner at Wooden City.

Aug 10 Coosa at 8000cfs. In the Jackson Antix 2.0m With Ryan and Ming, Rusty, Emily L, and others.  Had a combat roll at Maytag after a windowshade/head bonk.  Great surfs in Baby Gap and Moccasin Gap.

Me with my brother Frank at Wooden City. 

Rick, myself, Frank, and Sam

Diving - mid- august, I forget when. Blue Water Park.

Labor Day Weekend - 3 days, 3 rivers.  With various friends.  Saturday, Hiwassee in the Jackson Mixmaster 7.5.  Sunday, Nantahala Ferebee in the Jackson Mixmaster 7.5.  Monday, Ocoee Rails to GoForth in the Aire SPUD.   There was a luau prom at the Busbar Saturday night, so fun!

SPUD on Double Trouble, Ocoee

Sept 6th Coosa 8000.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0.  Had some nice surfs here and there, but swam Moccasin Gap after one two many attempts to get back on the wave... caught a pipeline surf on the fly so that made me feel a bit better.
Sept 7th Dive at Blue Water Park.  With Ross, Reed, and Bethany.
Sept 13th Hiwassee.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0.  I debated taking a playboat, but the Antix was in the truck already so...  and it really is the best surfing hull of all of my boats.  With members of the BCC, HCC, TVCC, and various friends of mine including Peggy, Donald W., Halie and Jes, Lorraine, Pat C., Deborah W., and many more.  I sealed the drainplug on the Antix with aquaseal, and covered it with pink duck tape so that nobody tries to unscrew it anyway, and so far the boat is much drier.  This after replacing the original drainplug with a warranty new one from Jackson. 
Camped at AU and had take-out pizza from the Gondolier.  Nice fire and camraderie.  We didn't wander over to the BusBar.  But the music was good.  The night had some crisp fall notes and was perfect to tent camp in. We debated what to do the next day.  I checked the schedule page for Apalachia and the Hiwassee was scheduled to run again.  This is not guaranteed to happen on Sundays after Labor Day.  One of my 'win the dream lottery' ideas is to lobby for it to be guaranteed on Sundays until the end of October, like it used to be years ago.
Interesting note - it's not releases we want, but power generation - if 2 generators are running then the river is good to go.  The waters of the Hiwassee are trapped in 2 giant tunnels going from the dam through a mountain and then down to the powerhouse, which is right above where we put-in.  Also - it's not a typo - Apalachia is the name of the reservoir.
Sept 14th Hiwassee.  In the Aire Spud.   Sunday we had options.  I had brought the SPUD thinking maybe I could get another run on the Ocoee in it.  The consensus was to do the Hiwassee again since it was running, and I said hmmm I'll take the SPUD.  I didn't expect the SPUD to be so freaking fun on the Hiwassee, but it was!  360's, surfing, eddy hopping, Threading the Needle, fast ferry at 3 Chutes.  Everyone needs SPUDs and/or the bigger version TATERs, they just haven't found out yet.

Peggy has joined the Aire TATER NATION

Sept 21st  Dive Blue Water park.  With Ross and some of his friends from NC.  Airplane, Dragon, it's all wonderful.

Sept 26-28th  Visit Friends in NC.  Spud/Tater Nanty takeover.  Ocoee.  In the Aire Spud.
Trip report here: https://dangerjudy.blogspot.com/2025/09/weekend-of-fun-including-spudtater.html

Oct 4-5th BCC Fall Colors trip 2025.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0 on the Hiwassee and the Aire Spud on the Ocoee.  Great trip with camping at Gee Creek.  Hiwassee we had a big group including Luisa and Matt. Ocoee I put in below slice n dice with Russell where we waited for Helen, Andy, and Greer to come down from the top. Russell had a swim early and decided not to continue.(I have been in his shoes - he'll return!) and I had one swim at the bottom of Tablesaw. I thumbed a ride with a man in a raft taking his little girl down; we ran Diamond Splitter and I regrouped with my crew  Great weekend!

Hiwassee crew for BCC Fall Colors

Me SPUDing Double Trouble on Ocoee. Photo by https://ocoeephotos.morephotos.net/

Oct 11 Dive Blue Water. With Reed, Helen and Andy, and Bethany. Nice dives, still in the 3mm.


  

At Blue Water Park.  Photo by Reed Hilton.

Oct 12 Coosa 8000. In the Jackson Antix 2.0m.  With Joan, Danny and Donna in Tater and Spud, others.   Joan had a dynamic surf at Moccasin Gap.  I had a surfs at Baby Gap and one surf at Moccasin Gap, follwed by a sweet surf at Pipeline and no swims.

Oct 18 Ladies Take The Ocoee.  In the Aire Spud. Great event, no swims, fun party after. I didn't have my camera on the river, but we had on tutu's and sparkly makeup. 

Ladies Take The Ocoee! Photo by Chris Pecou

Oct 24-26 GAF 2025.  In the Aire Spud.  I camped with Roscoe at Smoky Mtn Meadows. Saturday I went to the festival and looked at items for sale, then we hung out by the gates on the Nanty with the ERA crew - my river family - Mary, Andrea, Keith, Lola, Kirk, Juliet. Brad R. stopped by and he, Roscoe, and myself all went to Arbys after a consensus that we all like Arby's (and a confirmed 1 hour wait for a table at River's End).  Then back to camp for a nice fire, guitar, discussion of the world we live in.  Saturday after the river (Roscoe went fishing) we all went to Iron Wok for dinner, then Roscoe and I played guitars by Jes and Halie's big campfire.  With Peggy, the Brayleys, others.

GAF 2025 paddling trip report:

GAF stands for "Guest Appreciation Festival" and is a giant yard sale at the end of the season's Nantahala releases.  People set up booths at the Nantahala Outdoor Center parking lot to sell their used gear.  

I did the Nantahala on Saturday with  Mary Leatherbury Mills Andrea Price Keith Grieser and Claire Ostean.  I took the SPUD and wore my drysuit.  We put in at Ferebee.  The SPUD on the Nanty is a pretty mellow ride, but it was nice to just chill and relax and take some good photos of my friends playboating and having fun.

Nantahala falls was smooth and easy; I decided not to eddy out at Truckstop but used the trailing end of the eddy to line up and catch the curling edge of top hole.  

People have asked me if I use a longer paddle with the SPUD; I do not.  I use my Select Paddles straight shaft fiberglass WILD 197cm for all of my kayaks including the SPUD.  I bought it from Endless River Adventures. I haven't tried it in the larger TATER (which I just got from Adam at Downhill Kayaking) but might need a longer paddle for that; we shall see. 

Sunday I went to the Ocoee with a large group of folks that split off into hardshell kayaks and inflatable kayaks.  It was kind of brisk with grey skies; but the water was not too cold.  I was glad for my drysuit. I was in the SPUD and Trey Coleman was in my new TATER for its very first run; he was demoing it.  We were with Christine Taters and Tim Taters, so there were four of us in inflatables.  The hardboaters included Mary, Keith and Andrea, and Stacy Leagh Wildes.   The SPUD/TATER group put on at the rails, while the rest put on at the top.   Our group of four IKs went ahead of the others, who were playboating at all the spots.

Started out groovy, until we got to Broken Nose.  Christine wanted to take the far left sneak, which I was curious about as I haven't been over there in at least 15 years.  The upper was running so we had extra flow. Trey was following me, and we didn't get left soon enough to follow Christine through her line.  Instead, Trey and I went down the middle of the river-wide ledges in the center of the river; the same ledges make Broken Nose rapid near the right bank.  I can tell you now, there's not a line there (maybe you know of one close by, but not where we went lol).  Neither of us flipped, but I probably would have had carnage in my Antix.   I don't recommend it. Just do the main line by the right bank, or the sneak just left of the main line.

We all had fine lines after that. We got to Go Forth where Christine had parked her truck.  Christine and Tim were thinking about taking out there; nobody was around; and Trey said, "Let's keep going paddle buddy!" I kind of indicated I wanted more than just me and him to run Tablesaw.  That's when I found out why the others were thinking of taking out - Tim was not using thigh straps.  Tim said something like, "What the hell, let's keep going; this is stupid and I'm going to swim Tablesaw but just get me out at the bottom of it". 

We got to Tablesaw and I had a fairly spicy, and scary, ride.  I think my line was perfectly timed and placed to put me into the worst spots and hard hits from every wave, and I kept spinning around.  I had cut around the hole at the top as usual and turned back and lined up just a tad too late.  Anyway, I chanted out loud 'keep paddling', and I indeed kept paddling, which resulted in no flips.  

Tim meanwhile styled Tablesaw without thigh straps and had no problem staying in his TATER.  Tim is my hero!

Trey and Christine also had clean lines.  We bombed down Diamond Splitter and the rest; none of us punched Hell Hole. 

We got to the takeout and I decided to wait for the other crew so they could give rolling the SPUD a try.  I saw so many friends there while hanging out at the Ocoee take-out - it was like a family reunion.

A great weekend saying goodbye to both rivers.  The Ocoee is off for the season unless the flume breaks again.  There's a rumor of a day it might run in December, but hopefully I'll have local water by then.  The Nantahala is off for 8 weeks while they work on the power plant.  

I love these rivers and my friends, and am so grateful for another season on the water!

Life does not get better than this!

Nov 1 Dive Blue Water. In the 5mm.  With Ross.  Helen, Andy, and Bethany were there, but I only dove with Ross, because Bethany was teaching a mermaid class and Helen had some equipment issues so Ross and I went ahead and dove.  Nice relaxing dive and I love Blue Water so much. I wore my fancy 5mm and was glad for it.  It's new so I have to wear 12 lbs with it *ugh* but in the water it doesn't matter.  

Nov 1 Birmingham Grotto Halloween party.  At Toby's house; so great to see everyone.

Please donate if you can, share if you can

I've been following this and donating a bit for awhile. A young lady, raft guide out West, got meningitis, woke up from a coma and was deaf and blind.

If you can donate please do.   https://gofund.me/a8a5314eb Latest update: JENNY AND KATE NEED YOUR HELP!!!! THE FUND IS DRY. I AM BEGGING YOU FOR HELP! Hopefully you saw the postings from Jenny at camp. It was a wonderful opportunity and experience for her. It was also a badly needed hope and morale booster. But still she waits: for social security to approve her application and start paying her a monthly benefit; for medicaid to approve her and to start paying her medical bills; for Texas to sign an agreement so Jenny can attend the deaf/blind center in Oklahoma known as Jeri's House. It is a struggle for Jenny and for Kate and her son, Joey, who continue to provide for all of Jenny's needs. Your incredible generosity has helped them meet the needs for nearky two years, but Jenny's fund is now under $500. Social Security had promised action by September 18th, and that date has come and gone. Now the government is shut down. Please help Jenny and Kate stay afloat. With gratitude on behalf of all concerned, Nancy

My cats hear all my trip reports

 

AIRE SPUD - WHY IS IT SO FUN?

 

SPUD NATION at the Nanty takeover

So... why is an Aire SPUD so fun?

I have paddled other inflatable kayaks, aka "duckies", and all of them have been mellow rides.  (I have not paddled a Thrillseeker - yet.)

The SPUD was designed as a ducky for kids to paddle.   Bigger kids aka adults decided to try it, too.   What was discovered is that with grown-up sized people the SPUD paddles like a playboat - which is a small whitewater kayak designed to spin fast and do tricks -  the SPUD feels like a combination of a playboat and a pool toy mixed together and it's just plain fun. 

And inexpensive.

I have spent many seasons over the years in playboats like my Wave Sport EZG-50, and the Spud feels similiar to them.  I was surprised too.

What are the gotchas?  I can't roll it, and I'm not sure I should try to learn.  My shoulders are patched together already.   

I am not sure I can ever learn to climb back in it wearing my PFD if I can't touch the bottom.

Sideways in a hole is a good way to get flipped.  Fast.  Aka 'windowshaded'.

Once you venture into class III it's a spicy ride - on the Ocoee I have to do my hardboat lines and plan ahead.   

I'm not sure what the max weight would be in a SPUD before it becomes a drag.  People over 185 who want to do class III I would send to TATER-ville.  The TATER is the bigger model of the SPUD.
I wrote this review originally on FB, and some responders said they weigh more like 200 lbs and love the SPUD.  I guess it all depends on your skill and spice levels.

There is a bigger version called the TATER. A friend asked: What does the TATER feel like?  I replied, "I haven't really paddled one except at Thread the Needle on the Hiwassee. I would say not as scary. A SPUD can feel scary like a tilt-a-whirl ride lol."
Another friend who is much bigger than me and loves the TATER said, "The TATER feels like a small raft. It’s very stable but also very fun. It’s rowdy, but not so rowdy that you’re constantly out of the boat."

Some items to consider:  you will need an inflator and a top-off pump. My top-off pump is a K-100. https://k-pump.com/products/k-100?variant=41820277702698
You must also consider where to store your SPUD or TATER.  It must be stored where mice cannot get to it.  Mice and rats love to chew raft material.  It's best to store them inflated, if you have the space.  But I don't have the space, so I don't, simple as that.
Finally, if you are venturing past class II, thigh straps are mandatory.  A lot of my friends like the NRS thigh straps.  I have the Aire deluxe thigh straps and they serve me, but I think they are rather long, and I'm not, so next time I am trying a pair of Party Wave thigh straps I bought at NOC.
You will still need to wear a PFD, and have a good paddle, and a helmet, if you plan on paddling whitewater, no matter what craft.