Breaking in the kayaks!

This afternoon we loaded up the kayaks for the first time and headed over to a nearby lake to try them out. The new Yakima Big Stack made it really easy to load both boats on the car and strap them down.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and although the lake was cold, it was not nearly as cold as expected!

The new boats are great! We circled the lake and had plenty of time to paddle around and get good and comfortable in our new LiquidLogic Remixes.

Happy paddling!

Whitewater Triple Crown

We spent the day at the Whitewater Triple Crown (as spectators). The event consists of three disciplines: Wild Water, Slalom, and Freestyle. It was tiring just watching.

Here's how the pro's do it:


Haley Mills

Emily Jackson


Dane Jackson

More photos here.

Grand Canyon - Day 15

Saturday 9th October 2010 by Dan –

Click here to see the movie on Vimeo.

No swims today! We left Upset Hotel at mile 150. It was a quiet day on the river, no big rapids, just small ones and riffles. Tim, Jim, and I did some seal launches off a rock. We stopped and got water from a waterfall coming from a small side canyon. Brad was paddling the duckie today. We stopped at Havasu Creek for a hike.


The trail went on for miles. We did an hour each way. It was very scenic and I would have liked to go further and seen the large falls, if only we had the time. We noticed a lot of debris alongside the creek that we speculated were from the recent storms we had experienced. Back on the river we practiced some rolls in the afternoon and at the end of the day I got a combat roll in Fern Glen rapid (mile 168) as we were looking for a campsite. I was attempting a last minute traverse move from river-right to river-left to skirt an upcoming hole, however I underestimated the speed and power of the current, as well as my strength. The river is very muddy today. Lava Falls is coming soon!

Grand Canyon - Day 14

Friday 8th October 2010 by Dan –

We left OC’s camp in the morning after some solar powered battery charging to keep the camera batteries topped off. We hit Doris rapid and I swam, not quite awake yet. We paddled Kanab rapid, which is one of the longest on the river, and fortunately is not that hard. The river has many bends in this part of the canyon with several sections of rapid on each bend. It makes for a fun ride. At lunchtime we stopped to explore Matkatamiba Canyon. After securing the boats below the canyon entrance we climbed up a steep rock face and followed a trail around to get into the canyon. In the side canyon we found clear water flowing over flat rocks and down naturally formed steps into pools. It was a great hike and somewhere we could have spent the whole day.


Moving on downriver, we were unable to find a camp above Upset rapid and so scouted Upset and then ran the river-right side. It was a fun run. I overtook Tim as he navigated a rock near the top. I then got closer to the hole than I planned and felt its pull trying to suck me in. I had to dig in to stay on course. After my run I shot video of the other rafts hitting the big hole. Everyone made it through without incident. Although it was late in the day, spirits were high and we made camp in a narrow part of the canyon at a site known as Upset Hotel. There was just enough room to pitch a row of tents on the sand between a towering rock wall on one side and a steep bank down to the fast flowing river on the other. As darkness fell we ate dinner and looked up to admire the small strip of starlit sky visible between the darkness of the towering canyon walls. No GPS signals here.

Fan Belt Replacement

Warning: this is a technical post that you don't have to read unless you want to know how to change a fan belt. :)

With the help of this post I was able to replace the fan belt (part 70000-73818) on the Kubota B7100. Normally replacing a fan belt would be a simple procedure, however in this case, the hydraulic pump for the Front End Loader (FEL) is driven by the front PTO shaft which has the belt looped around it.

In the hope that someone else might find this useful, here are the steps I used: 

1. Remove the two protective plates from the front of the tractor that are covering the FEL pump.
2. Loosen the adjusting nut on the tension pulley and turn the tension bolt to release the belt.
3. Remove the belt from the tension pulley so that it's loose between the top pulley and PTO shaft.
4. Loosen the radiator by removing the cotter pins and then loosening the bolts at the bottom of the tractor.
5. Carefully work the belt past the radiator fan rotating the fan and working the belt around one blade at a time near the bottom of the radiator.
6. Disconnect the front chain link that connects the PTO shaft to the FEL pump.
7. Remove the 4 bolts holding the hydraulic pump mount so it is possible to separate the shafts.
8. Work the fan belt through the between the top of the PTO shaft and bottom of the radiator until it becomes free.

Install the replacement by following these steps in reverse.

Many of these steps involve working in the confined space of the engine, and therefore it took me about 2 hours to remove the old belt and the same amount of time to put the new one on.