While Rattlesnake, Jr. High Destroyer and Dragons tooth, don't quite crack into the company of the elite rapids in the world, the Klamath River is where a crew of Adventure Whitewater guides trained for the Rafting World Championships in the late 90's and early 2000's. Guides from AWW won the U.S. Championships in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000!  Each of those years 2-5 AWW guides represented the USA in the World Rafting Championships which were held in in Zimbabwe, Costa Rica, South Africa and Zambia respectively. 

Well, the USA rafting championships are coming to the State of Jefferson May 2-4 of 2014!!!  Apparently, they will be held on the Salmon River, which comes into the Klamath River about 19 miles downriver from Paradise Point (we offer trips there in May and early June).  I feel like Christmas came early!!  The event will likely include a slalom race down class IV rapids with gates (picture kayaking in the olympics) and a downriver race through class IV and V with a mass start.  

With the blessings (and belly laughs) of our wives, four of the old crew are putting a team back together. We will attempt to collectively lose over 100lbs and the effects of 11 total children to be competative...we will need a Christmas miracle.  

If you have been around Adventure Whitewater, you've probably seen Kelly Clinton driving around in his beige painted, Ford Fiesta modified, smashed up, toad on the hood truck.  Kelly is our beloved caretaker and his stories, wisdom and friendship have graced us for the past 13 years at Paradise Point. 

If you have never seen the following documentary on Kelly, IT IS A MUST WATCH.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbLn_Kmyv3w

If you would like to send Kelly a Christmas Card this year he would love it (He may pretend not to, but he hangs them all up in his cabin)
Kelly Clinton
PO BOX 420
Happy Camp CA 96039

A little parting wisdom from Kelly: "You can clutter your life up with so much stuff that you can't move.  People don't need as much as they think they do. It's a human thing."

Judy's Klamath Story 

“The first river you paddle runs through the rest of your life. It bubbles up in pools and eddies to remind you who you are.”

This quote is attached to a photograph that hangs on the wall in my office, a photo of my husband and me floating down the Klamath River in our yellow Sotar , with our kids paddling in an IK behind us.

It’s a picture I treasure and stare at often.

I love the Klamath.  I love the way it sounds.  I love the way it smells.  I love the way it feels when I bathe in it at the end of a long hot day.  I love the memories it holds. I can not separate who I am today from that river.  It was the place that molded me, that opened my heart to truly know there is a God.

The Klamath River runs like blood through my veins.  It was the first river I ever rafted. I was 15 years old.  Our youth pastor convinced an old college buddy, who lived near the Klamath, to take our church youth group down the river for a five day trip. With my brother, and twenty something other high schoolers from LA, we made the 15 hour drive up to the Klamath River.  We piled into a bunch of rafts, some patched and barely holding air, with unseasoned raft guides and we experienced a river, and our lives were never ever the same.

Our youth group came up again the next summer.  That ragtag group of guides and some newer rafts officially became a company, Adventure Whitewater.  I asked the owner, Gene, after my second summer trip if I could come guide for him when I finished high school.  That would be several years away, seemed like forever.  But he said, “Sure!” I don’t think he realized how serious I was....after I graduated I went up to work for him and I spent the next couple summers living the dream.

What could be a better summer job? Living in the great outdoors for months, no need for clothing (a couple bathing suits, shorts, and a pair of tevas do the trick!), a sleeping bag and pad were my home and I got to do it all with my best friend and others who became dear friends.

Every week was an adventure.  Though the river became more familiar, the groups that came were new and our river “tales” fell on fresh ears.  We got good at the storytelling, so good that sometimes we even started believing them.

My dad always encouraged me to keep a journal, and I am glad I listened to him. Reading them now takes me right back. My favorite chapter in my river novel is the one where the Klamath gave me my soulmate, Joey.  Some say their knight in shining armor showed up on a white horse.  Mine showed up on a red achilles raft, with tan skin, blue eyes, and the warmest smile my heart has ever known.

The next two summers were spent working the river together, 24/7. Sometimes when we didn’t have a trip, we babysat our boss’s 3 boys, cutest darned kids you ever did see. What a perfect place to get to know someone. What you see is what you get... no makeup, no cute clothes, sometimes no deodorant.  We got to see the best and worst in each other, physically and emotionally.  I remember stealing away at night, after the campers were turning in, and we were done with our responsibilities.  We would lay our sleeping bags out next to each other’s, stare up at the stars and talk about all kinds of things we dreamed of, the song of the river accompanying those dreams. After two years of dating, my knight asked if I would marry him and the plans for our future unfolded.  We talked of having children and taking them rafting, raising them to love and appreciate rivers and nature and what God has to teach us through them.

I would imagine little tan blond haired kids playing on the river’s edge in the sand, riding the rapids in their life jackets, and tucking them into their bags under the stars at night.

Several years later, that dream came true.  We brought Michael (4) and Katie (2) to our “heaven on earth”, the Klamath River.  We made our base camp at Cottage Grove, which is now owned by Adventure Whitewater and called Paradise Point. The rafting below Cottage Grove was class II, so a good place to start the little ones.  Katie was our little “go getter”, willing to try anything.  She climbed immediately into the raft with her dad as she clutched to her dollie.  Michael, on the other hand, was quite hesitant and informed us he was not planning on getting in the raft.  We told him he needed to get in  or he would have to stay on the beach alone for the rest of the day while we rafted without him.  Of course, that would have been one of those promises that parents make every now and again that we knew we couldn’t keep.  But Michael didn’t know that.  He jumped into the raft and, after the first small rapid around the bend, he was taken by the Klamath.  Both kids were.... just as I had been as a teenager. 

For the rest of our summers raising the kids we brought them up to the Klamath, slowly introducing them to the bigger rapids, cliff jumping and the amazing hike to Ukonom Falls. Our dear friends with their two boys also joined us year after year. 

There is no vacation that can compare with a week on the river, especially these days when we are now so “connected” ALL THE TIME to technology. On the river it’s you and your family, and God, the water, the sun, the wildlife, the wind, and yes...sometimes the rain, but no other THING to distract us from appreciating the fullness of God’s creation. I wouldn’t trade one day we spent on the river with Katie and Michael for anything else, EVER!

And the beat goes on..... Michael and Katie now guide for Adventure Whitewater, the same company Joey and I guided for 27 years ago. And remember my boss’s kids, “the cutest darned kids you ever did see”? Well, they are our kids’ bosses now. And our kids are making their own memories, with their own special friends, on the very first river they paddled.  And yes, the Klamath River runs like blood through their veins too.


- Judy Tomkiewicz (AWW Guide in the 1980's)

It is officially the off-season at Adventure Whitewater, so why not start a blog.  Ok, I'm actually pretty excited about it as I daydream about the warm Klamath waters, Clear Creek, Ukonom, the Salmon, and other Jefferson locations year round.  My brother recently gave me a wall sized map of the State of Jefferson and I literally stared at it for 20 minutes last night (my wife just shook her head as she walked by). 
There are so many experiences and moments on the river every year...it should be fun to catalogue a few.  To help in the process, I'm certainly open to guest bloggers and many of the river guides have expressed interest.  (Really hoping for some wisdom from Kelly C. as well!) Forward Paddle!!!!