Black canyon on the Colorado river and picture posting rant

About a week ago a buddy and I took an AI and a TI up the black canyon on the Colorado river (below lake Mead). This was a really fine thing to do, please see the embedded picture.

Part of the reason for this post was to give my opinion on your facebook page as I tried to post this picture there. Im fairly new to facebook but it looks like you can post pictures there from the front page but when you do, your post "sort of" shows up in a guest section - worthless. It also looks like all posts are by Hobie club or something like that. Seemed like another highly moderated page - which in my opinion makes it worthless. A sailboat forum I also participate on (and sells stuff) hosts pictures and makes it very easy for any members to post pictures so people do. Cant beat the marketing from enthusiastic owners. I sure wish Hobie would make it way easier to post pictures on this forum.. To post the picture below, I had to first load it to another host, then link it (ie, a pain in the axx). I dont believe the cost to host is very high now days..

Walt, that looks like a great trip. Here is a link to the National Water Trails site: http://blackcanyonwatertrail.org/

I've probably posted hundreds of pictures. It is a bit inconvenient to have to use a hosting site, but it works.

Keith

_________________
2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

We own our own server and it is a legal liability... and a possible security issue to host images and video or other files. Too many possibilities for it to be miss used, so we don't host.

The facebook page is a company page, not a club page, so is controlled by the company. Works just like a personal page, but allows other people to post as well. We deal with competitor trolls, so have to keep some control on that one.

You can also easily post images to share on our #HobieWayofLife scroll down the front page for that. It has a whole gallery of owners images.

There is a great forum section for this sort of post as well:

Hobie Islands - Adventures and Sailing http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=70

Have you done any "expedition" trips on the AI? http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=7276&start=780

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I also post on the WaterTribe forum, so having my images hosted on a "neutral" site is convenient.

Keith

_________________
2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

That looks like a very cool trip. Did you bring your own boats, or did you rent them from an outfitter? If you rented them from an outfitter, who did you use?

I wonder if facebook knows about this issue!!! LOL.. Oh well..

(no place to rent that I know of, we had our own boats)

Fantastic pictures Walt. Thanks for posting. That had to be a world class trip.

_________________
Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

Its a great place.. Its day trip thing for me as its only a little over 100 mile drive from where Im spending the winter. I made a motor mount for the TI to do trips like this and we used it to go up river (you can see Im towing the AI in one of the pictures with a 2.5 hp outboard). There are restrictions on outboard use (no motors Sunday and Monday and no more than 65 hp) which is a great thing but in this case, we went on a Friday. You launch at a place called Willow Beach and we motored in the morning up river about 11 miles before running out of gas (only had 1.5 quart gas total). Where we ran out of gas, we tried to pedal sail farther up and made it a little ways but ran into a spot with strong current so turned around. The current on the river is overall not bad (at least for this water flow) and fairly easy to pedal sail against but in spots the river gets shallow and the current can be fairly strong. In the winter its common to get N or NW winds which we had on this day so for the sail back, it was down river and down wind although the winds were fairly light. If the winds had been strong, there is nothing better than the TI or AI for down wind sailing (especially the TI from the back seat).

After we had done this trip, I was talking to someone who's parents had taken a small motor boat up this part of the river years ago and beached the boat and hiked to the hot springs. When they came back, the river level had gone up (only a few miles below the dam) and the boat was gone. They had to spend the night in the hot springs as the desert temps fall off quickly after the sun goes down.

I think you can camp up in the canyon (check for yourself) and without the outboard or perfect wind conditions, it probably would be an overnight trip (and a really great overnight trip), The AI and TI's are also about the prefect sailing craft for doing something like this... There are outfitters dropping off kayaks and canoes just below the dam so expect company in the hot springs (bring a bathing suit).

We shared your photo on the facebook page this week - it's received many likes and comments - also questions - maybe you haven't gone back for a look https://www.facebook.com/hobieislandclub/?ref=hl

_________________
Jacques Bernier
http://www.hobie.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HobieCatCompany

Yep.. I see that. Im new to facebook so some post (like the one I did) are "experimental" to see how things work. When I posted there the first time, my post went to some far corner - but it did show up in my time line going to a bunch of people who I didnt intend to see. Didnt work like I intended. If I post again as a response it would once again be an experiment to see how facebook (and whomever moderates that page) reacts. Maybe the responses just show up rather than having to rely on the moderator to post them. But.. Im shying away from using that page simply because Ive not the type who likes heavily controlled/moderated forums.

There is a facebook club page for a local sailing spot that I do like (pocket cruiser sailboats) - much more open/free to use. But.. its also a small group so we would not run into the problems Hobie might. Anyhow, I like this forum better even with the hassle of posting pictures here so will just use this one.

Anyhow.. thanks for sharing that on facebook.