Off Season!

I know, it's a bit weird having a ski shot of me on a kayak school blog but, hey, the high snow capped peaks will beckon. Mid September @ OB and all is quiet. Tons of salmon in the river - 60 or so at Bloomer falls today! Riding the bike, working on the place, reading,diving you get the drift. Thanks to you all out there for this fine life. Kristy, Rush and Allison just back from Switzerland and we are preparing for a wedding this weekend. Our own Tesilya (Creek's daughter) is getting married here to Brad Sandford. We are expecting 150 or so. We will have dates for the schools and other trips up on the web site shortly - for those who have asked. That said all dates will be the same with the exception of the change in the calender. Grand canyon trip is Sept 5 to 19 2010. It is lovely and cooler now with temps in the low 80's and bits of rain and it all seems worth it. Thanks to you all who made the effort to get here this year. We didn't have a ton of business but some really cool folks showed us to help us through this rough year. I will update this blog periodically during the off season so stay tuned!

Aug 30 - Sept 5

Well it may have been a very small week but it was extremely enjoyable just the same. A highlight for me was seeing Marilyn's very happy face at dinner last night. Looked like she had had a screaming blast on the river. We truly live for people having the time of their lives here at otter Bar and this week was no exception. There was no shortage of class 5 banter at the dinner table with the irreverent Brit (Dave) holding steady on all fronts. Cheryl Hunt was in fine form and I believe she has been here 20 or more times. Talk about repeat business. Tommy and Brian were in top form, as usual, on the culinary front. We missed Kristy who is still over in Switzerland watching Rush compete, although, I am sorry to say he came in #33 out of 150 on the first round so he didn't make the cut (30). Last week of the season here! Thanks to everyone for being such a killer staff! p

Aug 23 - 29

As you can see Mayzie took the class (she prefers Jackson boats) and with her ferry angles it is no surprise that she was voted most improved. Now if we could just get her to quit barking at night. Some great folks here this week and it is always a blast to see Bill and Carrie as well as Bill Sullivan who routinely annoys me by skiing even more days last year than I did. A very compatible group I must say and I couldn't even get them to come up for air and watch one of Rush's movies. Great week with a wonderful trip to Bloomer Falls on Wednesday. Plenty of salmon deep in the hole. And a great week of kayaking for everyone except the boss who has to stay home while Kristy and Allison jet off to Switzerland to watch Rush compete in the Worlds in Thun. That's OK I'll just move a few thousand rocks and suffer in this god forsaken sweatshop. No really, it's OK honey I'll just be stuck in traffic in this hell hole while you sing "the hills are alive". Spectacular weather this week which was lucky because we have a guest (Julie Perry) that is sporting a garden on the hood of her car (honest)! Thanks for coming and please leave some comments or someone else who is foolish enough to read these posts will think you don't like us.

Aug 16 - 22

More clear blue skies and warm weather were the norm this week.Great seeing Michael Kerwin and we had a wonderful visit from Phil and Mary Deriemer mid week. The diving with the group was a blast on Wed as the statewide ban on dredging has improved the water quality greatly! Really enjoyed the group with a stellar father son combo (Drew and Chet) and Willa and Konrad were great fun to get to know, as well. Peter from Chicago was truly a rock and pushed himself hard on the kayaking front. Great water this week with lots of rolling and steep learning curves and the food was off the charts, as usual! Thank you all for coming and leave a comment!

Aug 2 - 8

An amazing week! In addition to a stellar group we had some off the charts weather. Massive thunderstorms and lightening moved in on Wed afternoon and by Wednesday evening it was pounding down rain. We had somewhere near an inch overnight and after a prolonged dry spell we have no more dust and the smells are from heaven. Chinese fogs have draped the landscape and this, after a pretty intense heat wave, has put us all in the best of humor. The Zeiter family (all five of them) have pegged "the most athletic family" meter to date and certainly a wonderful booking for Otter Bar in this rather slow year. They are off to Presido to Sandy Bar run as I write and Margarita night tonight promises to be the rocking blast it always is. Loved having Awna Z for a week and the Tommy/Bryan team blasted out another week of 4 star meals. THANKS for coming and leave some comments!

July 26 -Aug 1

Double week, this, with seven adults and eight kids. The kid's courses are run completely separately. Pictured above are several parents who have been able to check in on their charges during the course of the week. Very hot earlier this week but cooler now. We swam a lot late in the day and into the evenings on some days. Everyone in this group got their roll and they are off to the final day on the Klamath as I write. Great group with no shortage of hilarity at the evening meals. We didn't always serve lunch, though, as Paul was trying to help OB keep costs down. Beautiful weather here now with the low this AM @ 60 degrees. Huge party tonight and I will be transporting kids over on my backhoe to join us for music and margaritas ( some are only 10 but they have to grow up sometime, don't they?). Cheers to all and we fixed the "comment" problem so now you should be able to do this!

July 19 - 25

Beautiful hot weather this week. It is only Tuesday as of this writing but I am off to the Outdoor retailer with Rush this morning and wanted to post this photo. Wonderful dinners out and I have really enjoyed this group. Hate to leave you guys. Have a blast and see you Saturday.