New Paddling For Parkinson's Shirts and Food news

Hello all,

I am excited to announce that there are now shirts available that you can purchase to show your support for the Paddling For Parkinson's trip. Here is a picture of the shirts. The light colored shirts have a brief message and the sponsors on the back while the dark shirt is well, just dark on the back.

I arranged this deal through cafepress.com. You purchase the shirt through the cafepress.com secure server. Cafepress then sends you the shirt and deals with the shipping. On each of the shirts I have predesignated a portion of the proceeds that will go to the National Parkinson Foundation. That way, with each shirt you help support the NPF in the name of my Paddling For Parkinson's trip and I don't have to deal with the money transfers/shipping. Pretty cool eh?

Here is the link: http://www.cafepress.com/paddlingforpark

You can also purchase the shirts by going to the Sponsors section and clicking on the shirt picture, that link will take you to the same place.

In other news, I have begun organizing all of my food for the first 3-ish weeks of my trip and I am looking for variety. Having done a ton of back country travel in the past, I have my own list of "go to" foods but in light of the fact that I have a blog, I thought that I would ask you all what your favorite back country food recipes were. I am thinking that might help me spice up my own repertoire a bit.

10 DAYS UNTIL DEPARTURE. Wow.

So close

This past weekend signaled the second to last weekend before the river, as well as a visit from my mom. She flew out from Denver to help me start packing up all of my belongings and she also wanted to say goodbye before my long river adventure.

After finishing up orthopedic surgery trauma clinic on Friday, the packing frenzy started. I had to pack up my entire room in preparation for moving back to CO for the year and at the same time organize and sort all of the gear for the upcoming trip. Needless to say there was outdoor gear everywhere in our small apartment. My mom was quite the trooper and really expedited the whole process as well as kept me organized and sane. In the end all the gear got sorted, and all I have left to do before I leave in a week and a half is get my food organized. That is going to be my goal this coming week.

Early this afternoon, as the packing festival was coming to a close, I took my mom out to Rivanna reservoir for a little spin in the boat. She is much more of a biker than a paddler but I think she enjoyed seeing what the "Mary Agnes" could do out on the water. There was a slight drizzle but it was nice to get outside and I couldn't help but smile as my mom realized just how small of a water craft I was going to be living in for the next several months. THANKS A BUNCH MOM FOR ALL YOUR HELP!

The end of this week also marked the culmination of my fitness training for the trip. I am now tapering down my workouts in preparation for the start of the trip. This is both sad and a relief. Sad because I really have enjoyed seeing how strong I have gotten over the past 4 months. The workouts have been great and I feel very well prepared physically for this trip. I really truly believe that all of the physical preparation will help prevent tendon and muscle injuries later on down the river. That being said, working the hours I have been in the hospital as well as training for a 4,000 mile trip has been taxing. I have made some sacrifices with my sleep and am looking forward to resting a bit, waiting for the start of the longest trip.

Until next weekend.

Rivanna, America's First Scenic River

Sunday Morning, 5/10/2009. The alarm starts beeping at 6 which, for me, is actually sleeping in right now. I have been having some early mornings on my Orthopedic Trauma rotation. After brewing up some coffee and cooking some really sweet apple cinnamon pancakes, I started rousing the troops. I needed to convince my roommate Jim Heckman to drop me off at Darden Towe Park and my roommate Brett Beel to pick me up in Palmyra. My plan was to paddle the 24 miles from Cville to Palmyra while Beel was road biking.

When Jim dropped me off at Darden Towe Park, I quickly realized that the current was moving very quick. All the rain we had been receiving the past several days had really flooded the river. Awesome! That meant a faster descent, even if the river was a bit muddier. The air temps were around 74 degrees, and the skies were sunny. It was a beautiful paddle.

The geese and turles were out in full force, but the highlight was certainly a four foot black rat snake that crossed the river in front of me. It was pretty cool. I ended up paddling this historic stretch in 4:45min. I was happy with the time and am feeling really prepared for the trip. I can't believe that it is 2.5 weeks away. As I paddled down "Mr. Jefferson's River" I couldn't help but feel the pull of the wide open spaces out West, calling me toward adventure.

In other news, I am very happy to report that Hilleberg Tents has agreed to provide me a prodeal for the trip. I received my Nallo GT in the mail earlier this week. I am really looking forward to spending some time in that bad boy! I will have a review of the tent coming up as soon as I get a chance to camp a bit more once the trip starts.

For now, it is back to the OR, my last week of Orthopedic Trauma awaits!

A serious forehead burn

This past weekend was my first two days off and out of the hospital in 22 days so I knew I had to get out and paddle. That and the weather was predicted to be 92 degrees and sunny. Brett Beel, Adam Mueller and I decided to go on a little field trip down to Scottsville, VA and the James River. Brett and Adam would go for a bike ride and then come and pick me up a down river. Our planned meeting spot was the Highway 15(James Madison Hwy) Bridge.

We left Charlottesville around 9 and I hit the water around 10am. The paddle itself was beautiful. The trees are actually starting to carry some new foliage and the birds were out in full force. The turles had finally started coming up from their hibernation and were sunning themselves on logs the whole way down the river.

This section of the James is really pretty, the river becomes fairly broken up and for a bit of the section I would just weave in and out of large islands. One of the highlights of the morning was watching a deer swim between one island to another. I also had the chance to hang out watching a group of cows lounge in the shade for a bit. They had the right idea!

Anyway, as I was paddling down the river, I was becoming acutely aware that my sun protection was inadequate. The long hours in the OR had paled my skin and my melanocytes just were not tough enough to deal with the intense sun exposure. Even though I had put on SPF 30, I could feel the burn starting.

Around 12:10 I pulled up and under the Hwy 15 bridge and into some shade. After stashing my kayak, I hiked up from the boat launch to the Hwy, only to find that my cell phone did not receive any service. Oh well, Brett and Adam were supposed to come meet me when they were done with their ride. Not wanting to lose sight of my boat, I took up a position on the bridge and waited. And waited. And waited in the hot sun on a concrete bridge. Needless to say my sun burn became worse. The view was great though looking over the James.

Eventually Brett and Adam came and picked me up and we drove back to Cville. However, my forehead took the brunt of the sun exposure and I am bracing myself for a high level of ridicule tomorrow in the OR. Until next time.....

4/19/2009

I finished up rounds today at a reasonable time so I decided to get out and do some paddling. For the past several weeks I have only had enough time to head out to Rivanna Reservoir, and I had the itch for some bigger water. Lake Anna, a largeish lake north of Charlottesville, was just big enough to scratch that itch.

Orange Surgery, the laprascopic and bariatric service at UVa, has been the service I have been rotating on the past several weeks. I have been privledged enough to be a part of some really cool surgeries, and seen where the cutting edge of the surgical field is. What has been most rewarding though has been seeing patients whom have been really, really sick get better and eventually leave the hospital. I am reminded daily just how lucky I am to be healthy, and how strong some of these injured folks are.

Back to the kayaking. I left Charlottesville around 3pm and started driving up. The drive itself was beautiful, passing through rolling cow pastures and old silos. The weather forecast called for rain, but the sky was still moderately clear so I was excited. It is always fun exploring a new location, and Lake Anna sounded pretty cool.

Lake Anna was originally created in 1971 to serve as the cooling reservoir for Dominion Power's nuclear plant located on the south side of the reservoir. The lake is 13,000 sq acres and is located in the coastal plains of Virginia.

(Dominion Nuclear Power Plant)
I started paddling toward the nuclear plant from my take off at Lake Anna State Park. I paddled for an hour and eighteen minutes past the power plant to a series of three small islands on the north side of the lake. After casually passing by some nesting canadian geese(the raised quite a raucous) I started paddling back. The whole way out I battled a stiff headwind, and on the way back I reaped the bounty of my hard work. Up went my Pacific Action sail and off I went.

That baby really picks up speed when the wind is right! I cut my time by nearly 20 min on the way back which made me happy considering I was starting to get hungry. I hadn't eaten since breakfast in the hospital. Anyhow, I was happy with how "the Mary Agnes" handled on a body of bigger water, especially with stronger winds. Overall, it was a great break from the hospital, and I am excited to head back into the hospital early tomorrow morning.

Until next time.....

StandardHorizon HX471S VHF radio brief review

Hey all,

First I wanted to say thanks to my brother Jared for taking the time to work on the blogging. He is going to be taking over for me here in 8 short weeks so I am glad he is taking the time to learn the ropes!

I also wanted to do a quick review of the new StandardHorizon HX471S VHF radio that Vertex Standard was gracious enough to provide me for the trip. First off, a word of warning. I am not in any way a radio buff, so many of my comments might seem a bit general for anyone who is a connoisseur. So this past weekend the weather was great, and I had the chance to take the boat and the HX471S out on Sat. afternoon after helping teach the climbing section of UVa's Wilderness Medicine Elective. The HX471S had several features that made me really excited.

First, just taking it out of the box I quickly realized how easy the unit was to use. The NOAA, AM/FM, and VHF buttons were very easy to use and switch between quickly. The FM/AM toggle switch worked great, and allowed me to quickly switch between channels. I did have some problems getting the SCAN function to work at first though. It seemed like the HX471S would scan and then stop on a random station.

I was super excited with the HX471S's ability to repel water. I really soaked it for awhile and it worked great. The unit is super durable which will be a necessity for me on my upcoming trip. One change I will be making is figuring out a way to get the unit attached to the outside of my life jacket. The HX471S has a strap for tying around my hand but I need a way to clip it into my life jacket. I will keep you all updated on how that modification goes. Well, it is 10:30pm and I need to be up at 4am to start rounding, so I am going to sign off.

Until next time.....

Back To Virginia (trial run with Jared)

Hey all, this is Jared, Joe’s brother and future blogger for the upcoming trip. We thought we’d do a little trial run at this before he heads out in just eight weeks. Well the weather agreed with him this past Saturday and he got the winds he was waiting for to try out his 1.5 sq meter Pacific Action sail. It was sunny enough too for as he puts it, “suns out, guns out.” Joe also took advantage of testing out his VHF radio from Vertex Standard , which worked great and the review will be coming soon to http://www.paddlingforparkinsons.com/ so stay tuned. Also be sure to check out the new Paddling for Parkinson's Facebook group.

The hour and a half trip at Rivanna Reservoir, 10 minutes from the house, was a great way to get back at the paddling after a week back home in Colorado. While back home, Joe had the great opportunity to meet with John Hill and Bill Voloch of HealthOne, who pledged support in the upcoming journey. This is great news as the departure date is getting closer and closer.

As for now, Joe is back to the life of a med student this week with his Orange service surgery clerkship starting. Well, that’s all for the trial run, back to the sunshine in San Diego and I look forward to blogging again as the start day is fast approaching.

Washington D.C. and Step 2(z)

Well, what a whirlwind couple of days. I drove up to Washington D.C. on Friday afternoon to stay with my aunt Betty and Uncle Michael in preparation for my USMLE Step 2 CK exam on Monday. I decided that if I was driving all the way up to D.C. I should bring my boat along too, the Potomac is just right out their door after all. So, on Saturday morning I put in at the C&O canal lock near their house and paddled down to our Nation's capitol. It didn't take me long to pass Georgetown U. and their crew teams(just kidding, they were flying by me). I paddled around the Roosevelt Memorial and then took a few pics of the Lincoln Memorial. I then unfurled my Pacific Action 1.5 sq meter sail. I was really hoping that there would be enough wind to sail back up to my aunt's house, but alas, only a light drizzel greeted me. Nonetheless, I did get the sail out in a few gusts and was really pleased with its performance. I am planning on taking it out again this weekend in a bit stronger winds.

I am also pleased to announce that my Standard Horizon HX471S VHF radio came yesterday. I plugged it in to charge the battery but unfortunately I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet as I had to drive down to Atlanta, GA last night for another exam.

Other exciting news, I have been talking with members of Parkinson's support groups along my journey and will be meeting up with folks in Yanktown, SD and Kansas City which is pretty fun. More info on those meet-ups will be posted as it becomes available.

Well, I have to grab a bite to eat. USMLE Step 2 CS happens in the manana!

Paddle Rescue

What is a med student to do when all there is to do is study for USMLE step 2? Go dump themselves in cold, cold reservoir to practice self rescue techniques. Up to this point I haven't been able to get into a pool all winter to practice self rescue. This has been hanging over my head for awhile with my upcoming trip; with the air temps in the mid-70's, and the water temps in the 40's I felt inclined to get a bit wet. Adam Mueller, one of my M.D./PhD climbing friends joined me to video tape the debacle. I was pretty sure he was just interested in watching me freeze. My goal was to practice doing the paddle assisted re-entry. The basic steps are as follows: First, after rolling over, wet exit the boat. Second, flip the boat back over. Third, get out the paddle float, blow it up, and then attach it to my paddle. Fourth, thread the paddle blade through the rear deck bungees. Fifth, slither up onto the back end of my boat, sink my feet into the boat, and then twist into my proper position. Here is the link to the video footage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlZRyFQ-fp0 . Needless to say I froze, but I got some great practice. Now all I need to do is practice getting back into the boat in 30 mph winds and 6 foot swells.

In other news, I am awaiting my new Pacific Action 1.5 sq meter sail which should be coming this week. Tom at Tom's TopKayakShop helped orchestrate the purchase. I am also anxiously awaiting the Standard Horizon HX471S VHF radio which should be here this week as well.

DONE WITH 3RD YEAR!!!!!

Today marked the last day of my 3rd year of medical school! Pretty amazing how fast time flies. I have been privledged to have so many patients teach me so many things: about life, disease, dealing with the good, and finding a way to cope with the bad. I am really grateful for the opportunity I have had to had such a glimpse.

I finished my Pscyhiatry SHELF exam and decided to head out to the water. I was originally planning on heading down to the South Fork of the Shenandoah River this weekend, but the weather is scheduled to be rainy and snowy. So, deciding to take advantage of the 55 degree weather, I packed up the boat and headed out to Rivanna Reservoir.

My goal today was to head down the longest fork of the Rivanna. I wanted to spend some more time flatwater paddling. There was no wind and I made great time. Slowly snaking my way back down the res, I thought a bunch about the upcoming trip. I tried to think about the challenges I would face, and how I would deal with them. The time passed quickly and before I knew it I was at a riffle that I couldn't pass without getting out of the boat. Deciding the temps were favorable enough, I went "suns out guns out." In the process my glasses dropped down into the drink. Bummer. I spent the next several minutes fishing around for them, dropping down into the 33 degree water. In the picture below is that riffle. Luckily, I found 'em. Turning around I started paddling back.

Close to the car I passed by the UVa boathoase. The UVa crew team was hitting the water and I had a chance to see the Hoos paddling. GO HOOS. Anyhow, I finished up and got back to the car. I paddled 12.15 miles, not too bad for a fun little afternoon paddle.

Other news. I am in the process of looking for a sail for the boat. I want to maximize my efficiency on the large reservoirs, and a sail will increase my speed substantially. More on this as information comes in. Anyhow, off to the end of third year party, and the more USMLE Step 2 studying.

Until next time......