Two floats last weekend - one Friday and one Saturday. Ideal weather with both days in the mid-70s and plenty of sunshine. The UAC season is still in full swing and as such, I've been remiss in keeping the web site update as much as I should. So without too much verbiage, here are some photos from last weekend's adventures, including a trio of bald eagles spotted by Lisa Pool and her group!

Click on the photos above for more from these two floats.

Since our good friend and fellow paddler, Bear is moving to Alaska in less than a month, we threw him a going away float on Sunday. Let us not speak about this float though - let the photos tell the story...

Awesome weather for the Bear float... though I'm not sure Bear remembers all of it. Check out the photos!

On Saturday, 20 young pirates and their families joined the ranks of Up a Creek to search for buried treasure on the Kaw, and disappointed they were not! Starting with a hidden message in a bottle, they followed the pirate map and clues which led them to dig up treasure on two sandbars down the river. The third treasure, however, had already been looted by a famous pirate known to frequent these parts. Not to be bested, the young mateys banded together, chased down the pirate and reclaimed their treasure.

Always one of our favorite UAC gigs, this year's Pirate Cruise was definitely a favorite. Be sure to check out the photos!

Before the big wedding day, Eric decided his bachelor party should start on the river, and UAC was honored to help out. Not only did the Hoffman party set a record for the slowest Delaware float on record, but they also achieved another UAC first -- back flips off the 24 Highway bridge!

Click here to view all the photos from this hilarious trek down the river! 

Originally Sunday's float was just going to be Cori and a small handful of biology department geeks (that's a term of endearment, by the way) from KU floating Jay's Run on the Kaw. Then Stone contacted us and wanted to add his group to the float. Then Cori's group grew in number. Before we knew it, we had 23 people in boats!

In addition to the usual float, occasional paddling, and numerous sandbar breaks, Stone found a great pseudo-cliff jump from a springboard-like tree that overhung the water. Just about everyone had a go at it (though Puppy managed to be the only to leave with an injury). Awesome afternoon all the way around. Check out the rest of the photos!.

Low levels of water coming across the Bowersock Dam in Lawrence make for some good holes and play waves perfect for some easy surf in the white water boats. So Craig and I kicked off the weekend with a little wave riding.

Not our typical UAC type of paddling, but if you're interested in trying out a more agressive element of paddling, holler at us and we'll keep you posted when we head out with the play boats. More photos here.

Katy and the crew from Lawrence Therapy Works joined UAC for a lazy Saturday on the river last weekend. Mother Nature tried to scare us off with rain as we hucked canoes and kayaks down the hill to the get-in at Jay's, but we pushed through and paddled through the rain for an hour or so.

 The weather improved and so did the afternoon -- just got better and better. And for those of you who were around for our 2007 Therapy Works float -- at least this time we didn't kick off the afternoon by sinking a Jeep and two trucks up to their doors in the mud. Check out the pics from this float, and paddle on!

On Friday night Up a Creek held it's second float under a full moon with a whopping 26 boats and 33 people on the water. What started as just a half dozen people in kayaks planning to paddle the Kaw on Friday night ballooned into 5 times that number in the past several days. Everyone was on the water by 8:30pm, right on schedule, and as the sun set behind us the glow sticks were cracked and the head lamps switched on.

Two sandbar breaks later we were rounding the confluence where the Delaware River meets the Kaw when we were greeted with some mortar rounds exploding into an array of colors overhead. Puppy, who couldn't join us for the float, hiked in to a sandbar with a backpack of fireworks, lit off the mortars and started a campfire - not a bad homecoming as we rounded out the last leg of the float.

Be sure to check out the photos from last night in the gallery.

As part of my sabbatical from my employer this summer I have committed to paddling the Kansas River in its entirety -- 170 miles from Junction City to KCK -- and photograph and document each stretch in detail. I currently have 50 miles left to cover, but thought I would go ahead and post some images from the journey thus far.

Craig has paddled the majority of this adventure with me, including 3 days of paddling / camping at the onset.  We averaged 40 mile days coupled with exhausted nights.  Beautiful sandbars, rolling hills in the Kanza Prairie, and roaring campfires made for a more than enjoyable time on the water.

And some of our best friends and family joined us for an evening celebration at La Tropicana in North Lawrence after returning from the opening stretch from Junction City to Topeka. Many thanks to everyone who supported us in this endeavor. And Bear, we'll make sure you're along to float this stretch next time. 

Click on any of the photos above to see more from this trip. And more will no doubt follow after I knock out the last 50 miles.

Two years ago the guys from Standard Tire hosted a bachelor party on the Kaw with Up a Creek. After that experience we thought no other float could be quite that rowdy. Last weekend the Standard Tire guys, along with some of the crew from Ace Steering came back and proved us wrong.

Who would have thought you could actually stretch a 6.5 mile float into 8+ hours of river?!? How do you do this, you ask? You strap half a dozen canoes together for one massive party barge, and you stop at every single shred of sand on the river for a sandbar break! Come back again, guys, and we'll see if we can set another mile-to-hour record!