A Day in the Life of a Guide

Guides got it easy.  That's the image we guides like our clients to have.  It's important to show some confidence out there "in the field" especially when you might actually be...well out there in a field.  Once on a Nehalem river trip, a very dark friend of mine said to me, as we walked through a farmer's pasture in Mist Oregon; "Walk between me and the house, I think the farmer is pointing a gun at us mon."  I wasn't even getting paid on that trip, but my friend was being so polite with his lilting Caribbean accent that I walked between him and the house.  We were someplace in Western Oregon, trying to find the highway bridge for the take out and I guess I seemed confident enough anyway.

To further illustrate my point, that a guide's existence is not all paddle-along-make-it-look-easy-then-drive-home, I documented a day in my life, guiding a group of folks on the Salmon River estuary in September 2005.  I know you're thinking, "Russ, this website is all about you!  You. You. You.  Don't you ever get tired of talking about yourself?"  Well yes, almost from the moment I chose this URL, but I don't have an expert's insight into the day in the life of the president of Current Designs, or the day in the life of a Canadian sheep farmer, or anyone else really interesting.   Besides, this is my website (even though my sister may never figure out just how a website works) so I'm generally sticking to that theme.  I could just put up a cute "under construction" sign, like the other Russ Woodward's website (that guy really needs to get a life by the way) or I can put up what I know.  But I digress...

So here it is.

Journal entry September 25th, 6:25 AM, (That's right 6:25 AM!) Highway 99 Southbound, somewhere outside of Portland.

Uh, oops, this is a flash photo of the inside of the van windshield.  It was 6:25 AM okay, and I wasn't exactly at my sharpest!!

The flash turned off you can see, yes, it's dark outside.  Although we guides might appear to have just awaken when we arrive at the put-in to greet our wonderful group for the day, that freshly-just-woke-up look is just a persona we use.  We really got up a long long time ago, probably hours before you did.  One of our greatest challenges is finding an open latte stand at 6:00 AM on a Saturday or Sunday...

7:05 AM:

Sorting gear with the boss.  The sun has arisen but it's a cold morning in the mid 40 degree Fahrenheit range.  This is why we are often dressed in the conflicting outfits of polar fleece sweaters and shorts.  Also we always over-prepare.  Last minute signups and broken equipment is the norm so we like to have extra gear to compensate.  Here you see kayak spray skirts and PFDs being sorted and resorted to be ready to deploy them quickly.

7:20 AM:

Another angle of the the boss.  I'm about 15 feet up on top of a shaky unattached kayak trailer tying down boats (see the ropes at the bottom of the picture) and Ken has packed up all the vests and skirts.  I'm gripping one of the boats with my legs to tie it down.  Kind of like riding a horse -except horses are not freezing cold slippery plastic 15 feet off the ground.

9:45 AM:

Oops, left out the hooking up the trailer and over an hour of driving.  Just picture that in your mind. Here you see Nancy doing registration (in the white blouse) while Ken (all the way to the left) waxes philosophical.  There are 4 of us working this group of 15 sign-ups.  Nancy gets the waivers signed while Ken and I dole out the equipment and give people a brief run down on how to adjust and hold onto the gear we are distributing.  Another "helper" will help us launch and be on the water in case of an unscheduled test of the life preserver.  The four of us have just untied and wrestled 17 kayaks to the ground and have been busy since a little after 9 AM resorting the gear, registering the people, locating parking, and getting gear into the hands of the paying customers.

10:15 AM:

All our clients have been schooled on the particular methods of entering their boat safely, launching, holding their paddle and setting up their boat.  Here you see they are enthusiastically getting ready to launch for the day.  Ken is assisting.  The man in the center of the picture is actually awake.

10:30 AM

Helping clients launch.  People are helping to carry the boats down.   Thanks!  Keep the paddle down low and don't make any sudden movements until you get used to it.  

10:45 AM

More than 4 hours after getting up and after more than 3 hours of constant work, we're on the water.  This is the relaxing part.   The guy to the right of the photo is not following the proscribed program.

11:15 AM

Nancy in among our pod of paddlers.  We headed inland up the Salmon river first. 

12:25 PM Lunch along the Salmon river.  

1:25 PM 

Nosing out into the Pacific Ocean to play in one of the tamer surf zones protected by a haystack.

2:05 PM

A paddler waiting for a wave.  I'm behind a rock so I can dig out my camera and snap this pic.  Periodically the rock to the right of this photo disappears behind an incoming wave.

2:08 PM:

He heads out.    

2:10 PM:

It's rough in spite of the relatively smooth appearance of the waves and our client is out there a ways.  We all take turns going out in groups of 2 or 3.

2:45 PM:

One last turn.  Ken heads back while the last couple of paddlers take a hand at paddling in the surf zone.  Below is a shot of our amazed audience.

3:25 PM:

Fun is over and we take a quick paddle back to the boat ramp.  Not pictured, cleaning, organizing, re-racking the boats, and packing up at the end of the day.  This is where I would like to graciously thank those that stick around to help!  Even if you help us lift one boat onto the trailer you are a tremendous help.  It's dirty and icky work at this point, so why spend a lot of time taking pictures?  You get the point.

4:45 PM: The truck is magically all packed!

Remember that latte I spoke of? Well, here we are stopped in the little town of Otis, Oregon where an awesome little cafe doesn't make lattes,  but they do make excellent cinnamon rolls and milkshakes and just about everything else.  I highly recommend the Otis Cafe, even if you're just on a drive to the coast.  There's a great little drive-up latte stand across the road and a crafts fair too.  Great tie died shirts at the crafts fair.  Guides know this kind of stuff.

5:38 PM:

Back at the shop and look we've totally destroyed the inside of this nice new Chevy van.  It will be another 40 minutes or more until we get this mess sorted out...

6:02 PM:

Backing in the trailer is the hardest part of the day.  The 3 boats on top, and all the boats on the van have to come off and be transferred.  At least they're not as cold as at 7:20 AM.  More sorting and untangling of gear occurs, we put away the paddles and hang the wet things up to dry.

7:25 PM:

Where did the day go? I'm heading home on Interstate 205 with dusk falling already.  This day's "work" went from sunup to sundown.   Just another day in the life of a guide...