Big Day on the Chilibar

Another Big day on the American River as 60 incoming Freshman to St. Mary's decided to join us on a Chilibar run. The group arrived the night before to enjoy a scrumptious spaghetti dinner and camp out under the stars.



Waking up bright and early the next morning, they packed down a breakfast of our scrambled eggs, pancakes, fruit and sausage to make sure they had plenty of energy for their adventure!



The group also enjoyed riding out the the river on our Waste Vegetable Oil Eco Bus and then of course an exciting and amusing day on the river.

Climbing to New Heights

Another High school came out to join us at Motherlode for a day of challenges on the Ropes Course. The group spent the morning learning team building and problem solving and then challenged themselves in the afternoon on our high elements like the climbing wall shown below.

River Guides Imax Adventure

The Mother Lode staff took an afternoon off to go and view the new Grand Canyon Adventure: "River at Risk!" This is a documentary film about the Colorado River that has exciting rapids, astounding side hikes and interesting characters ranging from gnarly old Canyon river guides to such luminaries as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (founder of Waterkeepers) and his beautiful daughter Kim, a Stanford University student. Kim is actually very cool and obligingly rolls over in her kayak as rafts and Grand Canyon style dories bob, weave and crash through huge waves and avoid holes the size of small houses.

This film accurately portrays the many challenges facing the Colorado, which, like all our rivers, is under pressure from the ever increasing needs of our burgeoning human population. The Mother Lode Staff gave it a solid "paddle high 5" rating and recommend the film to anyone interested in rivers, adventure and feeling like you are swimming a rapid without actually getting wet. The 3D effects rocked and it took a while to get our land legs back!

River of Doubt

Recently we were visited by a women's book club who had been inspired to try river rafting by their most recent read: "River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey". This book has a gripping account of whitewater rapids encountered on Teddy's legendary trip on the Amazon River. What better way to enhance their enjoyment of this harrowing account than to test their own limits on an exciting day of whitewater rafting with Mother Lode! They chose the Chili Bar Run on the American River which features such exciting rapids as Meatgrinder, Triple Threat and Troublemaker.

Unlike Teddy Roosevelt though, these folks had a great time and went home healthy. Rumor has it Roosevelt was not so lucky. Nevertheless, this is a great idea: "read about it , experience it, live to tell the tale." We look forward to hosting other such groups seeking to enhance their reading adventures with real ones. Imagine the "Leap of Faith" on our Challenge Ropes Course as an apperatif to reading Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air".