Joy drove her Westphalia out to play in the tournament from Tahoe. We all stayed out at Lynn's house in Grass Valley. There were about 25 people camping in Lynn's yard. We had a keg, projection TV onto the side of the house with movies, disc golf video from Johnny B. and some DiscTV courtesy of the Winnicrew.

Climo won the tournament. Geoff was 2nd, Rico 3rd... I think. There was a players choice award for the car show. I voted for a 67' Mustang coupe GT with a 390, and two-fours supplying the fuel. I didn't catch which car won but I figure most of the players went for something flashier. Joy had to head back to Tahoe and go back to work, but Kate and her friend Jamie drove out to Grass Valley on Sunday to join us on a rafting trip we were taking in Humbolt, California as the guests of Mike Belchik. Mike used to tour in his pickup truck during the 99' season and we got to be good friends. We all (I mean everyone. Winnicrew, Flying Eye Crew, Dolphin Crew, Carlo and Dan, Jeremy Cunan, Kate and Jamie) stayed outside Mike's cabin that was situated right next to an incredible river that we would later raft down. We swam, jumped off cliffs, and generally unwound for the next couple days. Cam and Worm busted out the turntables and provided music during the evenings. On our last day in Humbolt we all went on a rafting trip. Now this wasn't one of the lazy little rivers we were used to in Missouri. This one had some real rapids. Mike would warn us which side to stay on during the rapids sections, but it was mostly gentle and we just floated through most areas without much effort. Mostly.

Mike lagged behind to pick up a straggler just before the only set of rapids that posed any real danger. Dave, Avery, and I were out of our boats and floating down the river with out life jackets wrapped around our waist and butts sort of like a diaper. We could just bob along in the current without having to swim much. It's really the most enjoyable way to go down the river. Avery got up ahead of me and I saw him shoot over some rapids in his life jacket... I heard some excited yelling from him so I swam for a shallow spot just before the heavy rapids and dug my feet into some rocks so I could look over the edge and see what was going on. I stood up and peered over the edge. I saw Avery bobbing along down the river having a fun time past all the danger. The raft with the girls in it was just getting ready to go over the edge of the rapids. Dave, seeing that the girls were going to need help, somehow just managed to crawl into the boat as it crested the top of the drop in point for the rapids. It was too late for me to jump into the boat so I just stood on my rocks fighting the current and watched. It wasn't pretty.

The river T-boned against a cliff face. If you didn't paddle yourself to the left side then the raft would hit the cliff face and the water would just keep pounding the raft into the rock wall until it dumped everyone and everything out. Then everything that fell out would just spin and churn and continuously get knocked into the wall for awhile before eventually filtering down the river. This happened to Dave and the girls. The girls bailed out fast and washed down the river. Dave ended up standing on the edge of the raft for about 30 seconds as the current turned it up so that the entire bottom was flat against the cliff face. Dave stood on the edge until the raft eventually sank... with Dave along with it. The boat capsized. All the stuff fell out. This was the story for three of our four rafts. I watched helplessly as raft after raft smashed into the rocks. Everything and everyone got dumped out. There were a few nasty scrapes. Billy Crump got caught up in the swirling currents and took a lung full of water. One of Belchik's local pals, Alex, swam back into the white water area, braced his back against some rocks and pushed Billy out of trouble with his legs. Alex had some deep nasty gashes in his back afterward. Billy says that Alex saved his life.

Belchik's boat was the only one to survive the 'T-Bone'. It took about an hour for the whole group to gather up our equipment and get all the water out of the boats. Belchik put Alex on his boat and took off for the finish point so he could get some medical attention. Billy rode along. Billy was still in a bit of shock from his near death experience and was freakin' out a little bit until they spotted a wild bear hanging out by the river. It must've been impressive. The bear seemed to lend Billy some of its strength as he returned to normal.

The rest of us regrouped and finished out the last hour of the float. We pulled our equipment to shore and waited around for Belchik to get back with the vehicle. In the meantime some Indians showed up to harass us pale faces for a bit. We were on reservation property so we took their drunken, good natured ribbing with a grain of salt. They told us about the giant snake that lived in the river. We later toasted the snake for letting us and our friends survive his river.

Kate and Jamie left for home the next day and we all left for the Fort Steilacoom Open in Tacoma, Washington. Along the way we stopped off in Portland to run a clinic and doubles that was set up by Theo Pozzy. We made it into Portland only about 40 minutes late but still managed to put on a good event. Thanks to everyone who came out... you've got a fun course there! We spent the night at Theo's house then continued on to Tacoma.

The Steilacoom course is really nice, with meadows and shady groves. A bit of elevation but nothing crazy. I had lived in the Tacoma area for about 18 months when I was in the Army and didn't remember much other than lots of rain. It didn't rain at all on Friday or Saturday but the rain came on Sunday. We stayed with some various friends of Cameron Rauenhorst's and with Scott Papa on Saturday night. Papa hosted the "Put Up Or Shut Up" tournament at his private course on his property. It's great little course named "Dahli-wood" after one of the Llama's that he keeps on the property. The idea of "Put Up Or Shut Up" is that each player pays $20 and the winner takes all. Brian Schweberger won the $1000 first prize and promptly purchased seven cases of beer for the celebration party. Papa was a great host and fixed a Mexican burrito/taco bar for everyone.

Like I said it rained on Sunday. Avery and I had trouble with it while Dave reveled. He shot an 8-under par against many people's par or a stroke or two better. Unfortunately there was a lot of ground to make up for him to shoot much higher that 8th. Avery was close behind and I was behind Avery. That means that I collected up the lucky Shule Monkey to carry for this weekend's Great Lakes Open. I put the Monkey to work early as Cameron and I chipped in $5 each on some 'pull tabs' at the bar and won $375. Yahoo! I finally got some much-needed new shoes today.

-Todd and crew

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