How To Care For & Maintain Your Kayak
One of the questions we are often asked after a customer has made an investment in a shiny new kayak is, “Is there anything special I need to do to protect my new baby?” Depending on the material your kayak is made from, the answers are pretty simple: Keep it clean. Keep it out of the sun. Keep it properly supported. That’s about it. But in more detail, keep these things in mind: Salt water and sun is the enemy of everything.Saltwater can be very damaging to kayaks and will eat deck cord, bungee rigging, seat material, handles, lifejackets, wetsuits you name it. Therefore rinse everything off with fresh water after every use. We can’t stress this enough. If you do nothing else, at least do this step. Once you’ve rinsed everything off, use a mild detergent for stubborn grime and...
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Paddling The Petaluma River
Paddling the Petaluma River By: Jeff Kellogg – Here at Clavey we’re open every day except on Tuesdays & Wednesdays. Those are our days to paddle! It’s pretty cool to be able to hit our favorite paddling spots and not have to worry about crowds, because everyone else is working! Most mid-week breaks finds us paddling at different areas, usually within 30 minutes of driving time from our store in Petaluma. Over this last Fall and Winter we’ve been able to paddle on Tomales Bay, Walker Creek, Drakes Estero, and the Estero Americano. These outings also provide us the opportunity to paddle the boats that we sell and offer in our demo program such as Necky, Eddyline and Delta. With such great paddling within a close distance, it’s easy to forget that the Petaluma River is right here in our...
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Tuolumne river days and nights, Part III: a night in the Log Jam
Some memorable times on the Tuolumne river–see the previous post to catch up on this story: My early days on the “T”, part II Part 3 A night in the jam The Rusty Sucker was back. But it barely made it through the logjam to hook up our train of rafts. The Sucker got about half way through the log jam before halting. From my perspective near the middle of the raft train, all I could see was Jethro and Ricky Bobby arguing, the iron rod alternating between clearing logs, pounding on the motor and being used in a threatening manner between the two “engineers”. It was getting late, and the dark clouds had made themselves at home right above our heads, with no breaks in the rain. Finally, the Sucker was restarted, but now it was clear it...
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My early days on the “T”, Part II
1983 was a great year to begin working the Tuolumne River. It was a high water year and we ran trips all the way into September. We got to see the river at different levels, learning different routes, and different dangers, thrills and beauty. But the trips all ended the same, with the mighty “T” dumping us unceremoniously into the murky, houseboat infested beast known as Lake Don Pedro. Several miles of rowing lead you to the log jam. The “log jam” is a phenomenon that occurs on reservoirs when dead trees that were drowned in the filling of the reservoir are blown by winds into the various fingers. The Tuolumne dumps into one of these fingers and brings with it various debris as well. And in a high water year, the “T” scours the riverbanks and can carry...
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Dumpster Diving – the highlight of my Grand Canyon trip
We’re in a van headed to Flagstaff. We hired Ceiba, a company out of Flag, to pick us up at Diamond Creek and they’ve got a driver so of course we’re having a good time telling stories, hooting and hollering. Maybe sneaking beers here and there. Maybe. Over the past 19 days there has not been one moment that couldn’t make a great story. We’ve made great friends with each other. Most of us were acquaintances before the trip but now it’s just full on bromances and, hell, even a few romances. Both my brothers are in the van. Matt is a student at UCSB, Skip at University of Oregon – we don’t get on the water together as often as we used to. My girlfriend Dana is sitting next to me. We’ve done quite a few multi-day trips...
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My early days on the “T” Part I
I fired up the wayback machine this week and came up with a few reminiscences of my river guiding career. Back in 1983, several years before there were self-bailing Avon rafts, the Tuolumne was considered one of the more difficult commercially run rivers in the West. In fact, our company’s name is taken from one of the original “Big Drops” – Clavey Falls. Back then we ran 16’ gear boats piled high bow and stern with duffle bags loaded on plywood decks. There were no drybags. Everybody put their personal gear in nylon duffle bags and then we wrapped everything up with big blue tarps (for maximum water resistance). When you were done rigging, the pile was so high often it required the guide to turn the boat sideways or stand up on the slant board frame just to...
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