Rogue Otter Blog @ miahjohson.org

It was an inspiration paddling with you guys yesterday. A lesson learned, next time bring more than 4 beers, you can never tell when you’re going to make new friends.

Here is a copy of the trip report that I just posted on the CKF mailing list.

I hope you have fair weather and meet many more new freinds along the way. I also hope we get a chance to meet again.

Patrick

TRIP REPORT:

Yesterday Mike Bode and I paddled from Mothers Beach in Ventura to Pitas Point and back. We planned to do a landing at Pitas Point and take a break, but just as we got there we got lucky and met Jerry Sparks and Brett Tanner, the two guys who are paddling the coast to raise awareness and funds to fight a disease. The disease is called Wagner’s Granulomatosis and it took the life of really good a friend of theirs named Jeremy “Miah” Johnson.

When we met Jerry and Brett it didn’t take long to strike up an interesting conversation which resulted in our decision to skip our landing and paddle back to Ventura with our new friends who were coincidentally heading to Mothers Beach. Although we didn’t see any whales, or experience any carnage, this was one of our most interesting paddles because Jerry and Bret are worth spending time with. Mike paired up with with Jerry and I paired up with Brett and our conversations never let up. Who would have imagined that these guys not have one hell of an adventure to share, we also found out that we had a lot in common professionally!

As best I can remember Brett and Jerry’s plans were to do landings in the following order:

Channel Islands Harbor

Thornhill Broom

Leo Carrillo

Malibu State Beach

They were looking forward to meeting Billy Kroll at some point. But I’m not sure when, where, and who was to follow.

If you want to get in touch with them, Brett’s email address is Brettatanner@msn.com. These guys have been on the water for quite a long time, they’ve been through a lot, and they deserve a little hospitality. Let them know if you could offer a place to spread their sleeping bags or if you have a good microbrewery you can share with them.

It isn’t often that you get a chance to spend some quality time with people who put their hearts into an adventure the way these guys are doing. Who knows, after meeting them you might just get inspired to follow one of your own dreams.

Life is short, so LIVE.

Patrick Martin