Oh my gosh! What can I say? If your reading this then you have some connection to New Wave Rafting Co., be it simply curiosity in what we do, maybe you’ve taken a whitewater river trip with us or maybe your in some of my river photos, or maybe you ………….well you get the point. What I’m trying to say is THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Your participation in New Mexico’s greatest whitewater experience, the Rio Grande, and choosing New Wave Rafting as your outfitter allows me to work on one of the most beautiful rivers in the southwest and eke-out a living at absolutely the greatest job in the world.

Here are a few shots on the final day of the 2009 season.

Ready for their river trip.

Pink Quartzite Rock.

The entrance to Herring Bone Rapid.

Cool water and warm sun.

Floating, knowing I have the greatest job in the world!

View from The Slot and Baby Huey Boulder.

Our resident Great Blue Heron.

Check out more photographs of the Rio Grande Race Course and Taos Box on my Flickr account “www.flickr.com/photos/jorunny/”. Hope to see you next season.

Today was all about Kelly, her merry band of young adults and funyaks on the Rio Grande Race Course. The low water levels of August bring out the funyaks and loads of thrills and a few spills. Just be sure and let us know ahead of time if you would like to test your navagational funyak skills and we’ll bring one for you or several for your entire group, as was the case here. Thank you Kelly.

The what to do and what not to do, talk.

Alberts Falls was uneventful, except lots-o-fun.

The Boulder Field Challange.

Time to regroup and catch your breath.

Oops, we seem to be missing a Funyaker!

The Final Drop of Mile Long Rapid.

The wrong way to execute The Slot move.

The correct Slot move, with style.

The view before our last rapid, Souse Hole.

It’s the perfect outdoor activity for children anytime, but especially just before returning to school and the books. Today was clear with big’o puffy, fluffy clouds, a cool downstream breeze and lots of opportunity for sighting some our local Rio Grande Race Course Residents. First came the game of who could spot the most fish swimming around the raft. Then we quickly had to go into whitewater mode and navigate the rapids with Debbie and the crew, which consisted of 4 youngsters, Jade the oldest at 11 and Micheal at 7. These guys were the greatest! Then came our resident Great Blue Heron, followed closely by Teddy the Turtle. Now I take pride in always being ready with my camera but on todays AM Race Course trip I only captured our time spent with Teddy. Check’um out.

Teddy on one of his favorite rocks.

Teddy meets the gang.

"Can I take him home?"

Green on top, orange on bottom.

Oh, by the way, today’s my birthday.      HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME………..etc (thanks s&k)

With rafting on the Rio Grande coming to a close, we find ourselves continually eking out just a little more fun on the Race Course. Perfecting the move at Big Rocks Rapid continues to be a daily challenge with the slide through The Slot. Then of course there’s the must surf at Souse Hole.

Jesse with a slick move at the Slot

Front row seating at Big Rocks.

The surf fills the boat.

Here at New Wave we relish the time we spend on and in the Rio Grande’s cooling, soothing, quenching, free flowing water, especially as we approach the After 5 swimming hole on the Race Course. The eddy behind the boulder will bring you right back upstream and then the outer edges of downstream water send you on your way. This is definitely one of the highlights for our families while on a white water trip. Plus it’s cheaper than the tub at Ojo Caliente Hot Springs.

Looking downstream at the After 5 Jacuzzi.

Claudia and Carolina finding just the right spot.

All that's missing is the kitchen sink.

So as Steve pointed out in his blog on the 15th, Patrick and I will be getting married on September 5th–a date that is rapidly approaching (did you catch the pun?)–and wedding plans are nearly complete. I had never realized how much planning would be going into the wedding, from contacting musicians to planning dinners and picking out flowers, dresses, and ties, and have been very grateful over the summer for the moments I have been able to steal away from work here in the office to conquer detail after detail.

Most people are shocked when I tell them I live in a tent, but you can hardly imagine their expressions when they find out that I am also acting as wedding planner from my nylon castle. Now, its true that when you’re in a tent lacking desks, chairs, and bug-less lighting ”Some Assembly Required” wedding invitations take on a whole new meaning. And try explaining to your hairstylist that daily shampooing and conditioning just isn’t an option because you regularly bathe in the river with organic soap, and the nearest showers cost $1.00 every three minutes. I don’t even think about shaving my hairy legs, which has been the chagrin of every bridal gown consultant I have yet had the joy of encountering. It has also been a trick convincing relatives that we really don’t need many gifts, because they just won’t fit in the tent.

But things aren’t all bad. We get Wi-Fi, so Internet research has been a breeze. Paying no rent means being able to skip off guilt-free to our favorite fancy restaurants for a good dinner when the planning gets just too stressful. And the mountains are always around, telling you to just take a deep breath. In fact, I would recommend tent wedding planning to any bride who is just trying to make it to the big day.

Today, with the rains gone and the New Mexico sun back out., the Rio Grande Race Course was all about getting wet. With our new friends from Alamorgordo New Mexico and Neil as their river guide, it was time to have some white water fun on the boulder so appropriately named, Broach Rock. It’s all about catching the eddy, positioning the raft sideways on the boulder, then being ready to highside (moving to the rock side or the downstream of the raft ) as water pours over the upstream side and into the boat.

Catching the eddy.

Broadside to the boulder, they wait.

Oops, looks like a little more than a simple broach!

Yep, looks like Neil is headed for the highside!

Yes, we do love the rain. And that’s because the river rises after a substantial rain! Today’s level is up, to 247 cfs. And today may mark our last big day of the season, as kids begin to go back to school, and our numbers dwindle. This day’s activity is: AM Racecourse – 24, PM Racecourse -16, Rio Grande Gorge – 9, Float – 12. Our last day of the season is the 30th of this month. Only two weeks to go!

Of course, many of the staff have exciting plans for the off-season, not the least of which is Patrick and Jenni’s wedding, on 9/5. The event will take place at the Stakeout Restaurant, in Taos. Patrick is a guide and Jenni is our Office Manager. I’d like to say that they met working at New Wave (as has been the case with other New Wave couples), but they didn’t. Rather, they met while both attending St. Johns College, in Santa Fe – our local very brainy institution. Watch this blog for wedding photos!

Kathy and I will begin our Fall vacation before the season ends. That’s because we were invited on a private trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, in Idaho, to start on the 21st. of this month, and couldn’t say no. We’ve done the Middle Fork only once before. It’s one of the premier wilderness river trips in the lower 48, running, in its entirety, through the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, which takes up most of central Idaho. The water in the river is gin clear, the rapids are fun and the fishing, for native cutthroat trout, is fabulous! Last time we caught trout all day long, fishing from the boat as we drifted along, and … using only hopper imitations. For a fly fisherman, that’s like dying and going to heaven. We’re flying in to a riverside airstrip, and then taking 6 days to run 75 miles. Aaah!

Here some photos: of the Pilar Cliffs, after yesterday’s rain storm ended

The Pilar Cliffs, along the Racecourse run, Rio Grande river, near taos, New Mexico

At the airport in Challis, ID

Circling in to the airstrip

Kathy's first cutthroat, just across from the put-in

Kathy fights a fish, as Will kayaks by

Tappen Falls

Spectacular scenery, in the final canyon

and some Middle Fork shots. Stay tuned for some shots from this year’s trip. We leave for Idaho on the 18th.

Up before daylight as usual, I find a comforting rain and realize the morning Race Course trip is going to be cool and cloudy. It rained for the morning “jerk” (that’s the term used for preparing for our day) and continued through out our trip, but this did not deter the Conner Gang. Swaddled in rain gear and all smiles, we launched into the foggy drizzle for our run down the Race Course.

Posing for the before photo.

Here we go! Heading off downstream into the rapids and the rain.

Our resident Great Blue Heron heads back up stream, perhaps looking for a dry spot.

The Quartzite boulders, fluted by years of flowing water, glisten with rain.

Looking back upstream, we view Heart Rock.

A quick look back at the Pilar Cliffs.

Smallmouth bass caught on the Racecourse section of the Rio Grande river, neat Taos, New Mexico

It rained all night, and, at noon, it’s still grey and gloomy. We got our wish! We love rain.

We had a short rain squall yesterday evening, and the fish really turned-on just after the rain quit. I was fishing on the Racecourse and I caught this hefty smallmouth bass on a black cone-head Woolly Bugger. I cast to the very top end of an eddy-line, right below a projecting rock spur, and the fish took the fly as it was sinking. River smallmouths are great sport, and are about twice as heavy as a trout of an equal length. They fight hard and jump, as well. Speaking of trout, I landed a 13′ rainbow that had two big gashes on its side. It looked like it had escaped an otter! I also hooked a brown, in fast water, but lost him. I could see his yellow sides, when he jumped. So that was yesterday’s “trifecta” – bass, rainbows and browns.