UPDATE:

• Centro del Pueblo Says Its Annual Día de los Muertos Event is Going Forward as Usual, and It’s Going to be a Jam-Packed Celebration

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Original post:

Since 2019, local volunteers with the Somos Medicina Collective have organized the Día de Muertos Festival of Altars — a free, family-friendly celebration featuring food, music, dance, face painting, and ofrendas honoring ancestors and loved ones, in keeping with traditions from across Latin America.

The 2025 edition of the event had been advertised for this coming Sunday, Nov. 2, but now organizers have announced that it’s not happening, citing fears over the targeting of their community. 

From their post announcing the event’s cancelation:

With a heavy heart, we have decided to cancel our Day of the Dead Festival of Altars celebration this year. 

In short, we feel that we cannot bring our people together safely at this time, when we are being targeted and kidnapped. 

We thank you for understanding and wish you a beautiful celebration con sus muertitos at your altares in your homes. 

Cenca Tlazokamatli / Mil Gracias 
Somos Medicina Collective

The Outpost has reached out to organizers in the hopes of learning more about what led them to this decision. We will update this post if and when we hear back. 

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Michelle Bushnell, Humboldt County’s Second District supervisor and the current chair of the Board of Supervisors, believes that her due process rights were violated during a recent county investigation into alleged misconduct on her part, and she has retained an outside attorney to fight her corner.

Reached by phone this morning, Bushnell said she doesn’t think county employees have done anything wrong; rather, she believes that the county’s established process for investigating misconduct allegations is flawed. 

“When you have a complaint filed [against you] and you don’t agree with one of the findings, there’s no process to say, ‘That’s not what happened,’” she said.

Bushnell declined to get into the details of the complaint itself, except to acknowledge that she “got upset and emotional” while on the job recently. She has hired Harland Law Firm attorney Allison Jackson — a frequent antagonist to Humboldt County’s government — to challenge the county’s process for investigating alleged violations of the Board of Supervisors Code of Conduct and Ethics.

Bushnell herself played a role in modifying that document in 2022 and 2023, following an earlier allegation against her. (She later was found to have violated the board’s code by mistreating a staff member during a Planning Department meeting.) The Board of Supervisors approved amendments to the code of conduct the following August. 

But now Bushnell and her attorney say the investigation process prescribed by the code is fundamentally unfair: On Oct. 2, Jackson had a letter hand-delivered to County Administrative Officer Elishia Hayes, Interim County Counsel Scott Miles and Human Resources Director Zachary O’Hanen. The letter says, “the Boards [sic] articulated process does not contain adequate due process protections for any subject of any investigations.”

Specifically, Jackson objects to the fact that Bushnell was given only an executive summary on the outcome of the investigation into her behavior. She’s entitled to read a copy of the full report (with employee witness names and/or identifying information redacted, if necessary) so she can “evaluate the quality and veracity of witness statements,” according to Jackson.

The letter also quotes the following portion of the Board of Supervisors Code of Conduct and Ethics:

If county officials or staff become aware of any improper behavior by a Board member, they are encouraged to formally report such behavior in writing to the County Administrative Officer and Director of Human Resources. Any such report or complaint will be reviewed by a committee consisting of the County Administrative Officer, Director of Human Resources, and County Counsel (Committee). … 

This presents another problem, Jackson argues in a follow-up letter sent on Oct. 20: The county counsel shouldn’t be part of any review committee because that gives him two incompatible roles to fill, Jackson’s letter says. He’s charged with being both an advocate for his client (Bushnell, in this case) and an objective arbiter of justice. 

The letter argues that Bushnell not only has a right to hear the charges against her but also deserves “an opportunity to be heard before a decision is made by an impartial decision-maker as mandated by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Section 7 of the California Constitution.”

To meet those constitutional due process thresholds, Jackson’s second letter says, Bushnell must be given a chance to present her side of the story, “which includes the right to call and cross-examine witnesses, present evidence, and make arguments.”

The county has now hired its own outside counsel to handle this matter: Savana M. Jefferson with Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, a big California firm that handles much of the county’s business. (Jackson’s second letter was sent to Jefferson in Sacramento.)

Bushnell reiterated during our conversation that she doesn’t believe any employees did anything wrong — not CAO Hayes nor Interim County Counsel Miles nor HR Director O’Hanen. Nor does she want to cost the county extra money. 

“It’s just about the process working better,” she said, adding that the procedures aren’t just unfair to her. “I’ve seen it with department heads [and] anyone with a complaint filed against them. … If whatever comes back to you [in a report], if you feel it isn’t accurate, there’s no way to work through that.”

Bushnell said she expects a redacted version of the employee complaint to come before the board soon, possibly for discussion at next week’s meeting. When it becomes public, she will respond to the allegations, she said. But until then she’d rather not discuss it.

“This is not comfortable for me,” she said. “And then it gets played out in the media. … That’s not comfortable either.”

The Outpost has requested a copy of the complaint and all related documents but has not yet heard back. When we asked for a comment on the situation, Public Information Specialist Cati Gallardo gave us essentially the same comment she provided to blogger John Chiv over the weekend: 

“Concerning this situation, the county has followed the processes as outlined in the Code of Conduct adopted by the Board of Supervisors. Given this is a legal matter, and in order to respect the integrity of that process, the county will not discuss this topic further with the press at this time.”

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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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As in-person voting begins in California’s special election on redistricting, Gov. Gavin Newsom has repeatedly asserted that the Trump administration could send immigration agents to polling places in an attempt to intimidate voters and depress turnout.

The governor’s warnings, while unspecific, speak to what community leaders call real, palpable fears within some Latino communities that immigration agents could show up on Election Day. And ever since the Supreme Court greenlit using racial profiling in immigration stops, even U.S. citizens are scared they could be detained simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“You’re going to likely see members of our military in and around polling booths and voting places all across this country,” Newsom warned last week during a virtual event with former President Barack Obama in support of Proposition 50. “I would say the same about ICE and Border Patrol, and I say that soberly.”

Newsom has not provided any evidence to suggest that the Department of Homeland Security will deploy immigration agents to polling sites. But he pointed to the Los Angeles campaign launch event for Prop. 50, his plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats, where federal immigration agents blocked supporters from entering the area and detained a nearby strawberry vendor.

A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote in a statement that the agency “is not planning operations targeting polling locations,” but that if agents are tracking “a dangerous criminal alien” who goes near a voting site they could be arrested there. A spokesperson for Customs and Border Patrol did not respond to emailed questions.

The governor argues that the Trump administration’s indiscriminate immigration raids, military and National Guard deployments are intended to suppress Democratic voters and keep Republicans in control of Congress for the duration of Trump’s presidency.

“We know the intention of this administration — to rig next year’s midterms,” Newsom told reporters recently. “It’s absolutely predictable. It’s a script that’s been written for centuries. It’s the authoritarian playbook.”

The Trump administration’s Justice Department announced on Friday that it will deploy personnel to monitor polling sites in five counties: Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside on Election Day. Fresno, Kern and Riverside counties are majority Latino.

The poll monitors will “ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law,” according to the department. The administration has not said whether the agents will be stationed at polling sites in addition to county election offices where ballots are counted.

Democrats denounced the plan.

“Deploying federal forces to ‘monitor’ elections is nothing more than an intimidation tactic meant to suppress the vote,” said Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party. “What Republicans are really afraid of is record voter participation and a clear verdict from the people of California in support of Prop 50.”

‘Alarming’ number of Latinos fear ICE at polls

The vast majority of Californians vote by mail, especially since the state adopted universal mail-in voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Just over 80% of votes cast in the 2024 presidential election were mail-in ballots.

But casting a ballot in-person on Election Day is a point of pride for many American immigrants, especially Latinos, said Yvette Martinez, executive director of the California Democratic Party.

“It’s a cultural thing,” said Martinez. “People want to show up and say, ‘I’m patriotic, here’s my civic duty. I’m here to vote, I’m here to make my voice heard. And when you quell that, it’s dangerous. And it’s actually sad.”

In a September survey of 1,200 registered Latino voters conducted by the Latino Community Foundation, a nonprofit that funds Latino advocacy, 53% said they planned to vote in person. Of those, more than half said they would vote on Election Day.

The same survey also found that two-thirds of the Latino voters surveyed said they were at least somewhat worried that ICE or Border Patrol agents could show up at polling places. The poll had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

“These are citizens of this country. And if they are concerned about immigration or any type of federal presence at in-person voting sites, that is alarming,” said Christian Arana, who leads policy strategy for the foundation.

“If people want to vote in person, it is their fundamental right,” Arana said. “I never want us to buy into the fear that you can’t participate in democracy because immigration enforcement may show up.”

Federal immigration authorities face off against protesters during an ICE raid at Ambiance Apparel in Downtown Los Angeles on June 6, 2025. Photo by J.W. Hendricks for CalMatters

So far in the race for Prop. 50, only 9% of registered Latino voters have returned their ballots, according to the most recent data available from Political Data Inc., compared to 19% of white voters and 13% of Black voters. California pollster Ben Tulchin, who recently surveyed Latino voters about Prop. 50, said those numbers “are not unusual” since Latino voters tend to lag other ethnic and racial groups in casting ballots.

Sen. Anna Caballero, Democrat of Merced, said U.S. citizens told her they’re afraid to go outside, especially when there have been reports of ICE sightings in the region. Many of her constituents come from mixed-status families in which some family members are citizens and others aren’t. She blames the Trump administration for terrifying those families so much that they don’t want to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary.

“This idea that all you have to do is pull out your driver’s license, or pull out some kind of documentation, that’s a fantasy,” said Caballero. “U.S. citizens have been detained and taken into custody.”

A recent investigation by ProPublica found that at least 170 U.S. citizens have been wrongfully detained by ICE since the second Trump administration took office, prompting intense criticism from opponents. Top Democrats on the House and Senate government oversight committees, Rep. Robert Garcia of California and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, have opened an investigation.

Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, another Merced Democrat and the daughter of Mexican immigrants, said ever since the Supreme Court issued its racial profiling ruling earlier this summer, she keeps her passport in her bag at all times.

“Just because you may look like an immigrant — which I don’t even know what that really means — you know, I could also be targeted,” Soria said.

‘My voice will be heard’

Opponents of Newsom’s redistricting plan say the governor’s warnings about Election Day intimidation and interference from federal agents are exaggerated.

“People see it for what it is. It’s politics, it’s headline-grabbing,” said Hector Barajas, a spokesperson for the No on 50 campaign.

Barajas denounced Democrats for what he said was intentional disenfranchisement of nonwhite voters, since white college-educated voters are historically far more likely to turn out during off-year elections.

“This is what happens with special elections, is people don’t turn out to vote, especially Hispanics, which is a sad tragedy in itself,” Barajas said.

Martinez said Democratic Party volunteers are for the first time urging voters to return their ballots early via mail or drop-off when they go door to door and handing out pamphlets with instructions for how to report any suspicious activity near polling sites.

The party has also trained hundreds of volunteers as poll watchers who will monitor polling sites for signs of intimidation or federal interference starting the weekend before Election Day.

Arana, with the Latino Community Foundation, said he’s choosing to vote in person as an act of defiance.

“I’m seeing this as a form of a declaration that I am a Latino man in the state,” he said. “My voice will be heard on this issue, and no one is ever gonna take that right away from me.”

UPDATE, 8:30 a.m.: The Arcata Police Department says the missing juvenile has been found safe. In keeping with the Outpost’s policy on missing kids, the previous post and identifying details have been deleted.

“Why?” is the perennial question. From philosophers to theologians to conversations between children and their parents, and now to the next generation of athletes, that deeply human question is being asked.

Recently, Nike switched up their marketing from “Just Do It” to “Why Do It.” Advertisers clearly felt that there was a vibe shift in the culture. They see a realignment from risk to hesitancy among young consumers. 

In Nike’s own words about their latest ad campaign: “…the film stands as a challenge to the hesitant generation: Greatness isn’t handed out, it’s chosen—and sometimes the most important choice is to simply begin.”1

Nike’s not the only one identifying caution sociologically. From the impact of COVID to NYU professor Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation, there seems to be an uptick in safetyism. This kind of ethos creates the questions the commercial asks: What if we just do it? Is it worth the risk of failure?

The ad, voiced by Tyler, the Creator, ends asking: “What if you don’t”?

I don’t mean to indict the up-and-coming generation. Every generation has its strengths and weaknesses. After all, I remember Bud Dry’s “Why Ask Why” campaign in the 1990s. That implied a dismissive who-cares-about-why approach—just drink the beer. But not only is that beer now discontinued, purpose matters.

Investors should be asking the why question too. 

Athletic greatness (or skill) doesn’t come from sitting on the sidelines. Wealth-building doesn’t either. Of course, there is risk. But it cuts both ways.

There is a cost to not investing. Since 1950, a $100 held in cash is worth less than $10, while that same single Benjamin Franklin would be worth $2,899 today if it had been invested in the stock market via the S&P 500.

Many times people come to me asking the “what” questions first.

“What should I invest in?”

Or, even worse, they call announcing what they’ve heard they should invest in. 

And they want me to give a quick yes/no answer.

A good financial advisor can’t answer that question without uncovering the why behind it.

• Is the money for your future retirement?
• Is the money for a future down payment on a house?
• Are you trying to earn income off it to pay bills?
• Will you need the money in 1 year or 20 years?
• Is this for your children’s school or your children’s inheritance?
• Why are you investing now and what are your goals? 

“I want to make money” isn’t a good enough answer.

Why precedes what in financial advice. You can’t know the what or how to get there without answering the why question first.

Why comes first because if you focus on the what first, and your investment starts to sink, you may stop investing or switch your investments at the worst possible time.

Consider 2025 year-to-date as an example. In order to be up 15% in the S&P 500, you had to endure a -19% drawdown along the way.

If you are only focused on the performance of what you are invested in, you may not make it.

If you zoom out even further, since 1990, investors have had to endure an average of -14% intra-year declines to experience a 10.5% annual return.

It’s been said, “He who has a why can deal with any what or how.” True in life. True in investing. Though not easy in either.

Why are you choosing to invest or not?

What if you don’t? 

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Brandon Stockman has been a Wealth Advisor licensed with the Series 7 and 66 since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. He has the privilege of helping manage accounts throughout the United States and works in the Fortuna office of Johnson Wealth Management. You can sign up for his weekly newsletter on investing and financial education or subscribe to his YouTube channel. Securities and advisory services offered through Prospera Financial Services, Inc. | Member FINRA, SIPC. This should not be considered tax, legal, or investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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Meltwater cascading from the glacially carved ridges of the Trinity Alps feeds a vast, dendritic network of streams that cut through ancient geology to form the Trinity River, the largest tributary in the Klamath watershed. The Trinity is one of the most ecologically important streams in the Klamath Mountains, a remote and rugged region renowned both as a global temperate biodiversity hotspot and for its dense concentration of Wild and Scenic rivers. The Trinity’s blue-green waters, sculptured bedrock, and steep incised canyons are beloved by the north coast whitewater paddling community. The river supports three of the region’s core adventure rafting companies, all based around the small Trinity County river community of Big Flat. Here, this past September, the Trinity River hosted the 2025 United States National Whitewater Rafting Championships, an event entirely curated by a tenacious homegrown Humboldt County youth rafting team: the Redwood Rafters.  

If any river locals have spent recent time on the Illinois, Smith, Salmon, Van Duzen, Eel, Mad, or Trinity rivers — even on Humboldt Bay or Big Lagoon when rivers are swollen — then you have likely run into the Redwood Rafters. The team floats under the radar as a local youth sport but they are hard to miss on an isolated river as a flotilla of 4-person boats in bright river safety gear and their infectious teenage stoke coming out of a posse of 12- to 17-year-olds. They travel rain or shine most Sundays, year-round, to some of the most remote and stunning riverscapes in our region, often leaving surly before sunrise when you can drive through the entirety of Eureka in a tunnel of green traffic lights. All the surly floats away when they push their rafts off the banks. What’s unique about this team is its rarity, being entirely supported by parents, dedicated volunteers from the region’s boating community, and help from local organizations, and businesses.

My kids were recruited to the team from friends they met way back from daycare days. Other rafting families have similar word-of-mouth community connections with kids floating in from six different Humboldt County schools. The Redwood Rafters have blossomed over the past three years to around sixteen kids since its humble beginnings starting with the Guthrie family. Abby and Neal Guthrie met while kayaking on the Klamath River back in 1997 and are both former commercial river guides who worked as young adults for adventure rafting companies across the Sierra Nevada. They, along with their daughter and a few trusting families, created a rafting team during a pandemic and are the reason why this unique and competitive sport exists on the North Coast today.

Like many naïve parents, my daughter, who was 12 at the time, convinced me she needed to join her friends and try rafting. I had no idea this is a very competitive sport that measures athleticism from endurance to technical maneuvers, similar to an all-around track and field athlete. I also had no idea I would be rafting too, supporting the team. Now, as a ‘raft dad’, I find it incredibly inspiring to spend whole days with these kids in nature where, through practice and experience,  they are fully engaged and in tune with the pulse of each river. They imprint on everything the river brings to them, especially respect for water, massive helpings of focused teamwork, and rewarding wildlife moments from spending deep time in nature. While driving to the put-ins, along river canyons, they dissect rapids into their parts (holes, waves, eddy lines, wave trains, boof rocks!) while fiercely debating the cleanest line and the line with the most carnage. They know trouble, they know how to avoid it, and they know how to respond to trouble just as much. These decision skills have been patiently and iteratively reenforced by their coaches, Abby and Neal. Parents are improving their boating skills too while serving as backup teenage river chaperons.

As a fish biologist and self-described nature nut, I find it deeply rewarding to see local youth exploring remote areas that few visit outside of biologists, naturalists, anglers, and boaters — especially in winter. Now more than ever, young people need opportunities to re-connect and imprint on the natural world through lived experience. Like surfing, mountain biking, or climbing, competitive rafting blends nature and sport in wild places, fostering senses of belonging and adventure. However, rafting seems to stand apart as a group endeavor, where every paddler shares responsibility and learns to both lead and listen. Based on my own experience, it’s a sport that builds not only physical skill, but also trust, crystal clear communication, and deep connection to place. 

Besides being the team superglue, Abby is a big advocate for the sport in the US. She is the secretary of the United States Rafting Association Board, the governing body for whitewater rafting in the US that supports top American whitewater athletes of all ages with goals of advancing to international competitions.  Abby encourages youth participation, and some Redwood Rafter members serve on the association’s youth board giving them experience in leadership at a national level. She also heads the USA Rafting Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes rafting, and secured crucial funds to host the Nationals on the Trinity this fall. Oh yeah, it’s also worth mentioning Abby and Neal also race on separate adult teams with members joining from across the western US to represent the United States and compete on the world stage. Through winning 2024 National titles in Oregon, both Abby and Neal’s Masters teams have qualified for the World Championships, and they are travelling to represent USA and race in Malaysia this November. The kids cannot wait to cheer their coaches on!

2025 USA Whitewater Championships

It took nearly a year for the Redwood Rafters to prepare for hosting Nationals this September. Every detail from the US Forest Service use permits to fish surveys, from spectator shuttle vans to installing portable bathrooms in remote locations, all needed detailed advanced planning to create a minimal impact and safe event. The team also got the blessing from a gold miner to let us build a temporary slalom course along a key rapid on a placer mining claim. Many local businesses contributed funds and materials to the event. Special thanks to Jeramiah Lewman of Sotar Custom Rafts, who built and shuttled all of the competition rafts,  Wing Inflatables for building racecourse buoys, along with The Mill Yard, Almquist, and Shaffer Ace Hardware for supplying materials to build the Slalom course.

In true North Coast spirit, the Redwood Rafters recruited Humboldt’s very own Jacki and the Jollies band to play as the sun set in the V of the river canyon at Friday’s awards dinner. And as any high-profile race in the region would be lacking without the legendary Cal Poly Humboldt marching band. Twenty-six suspender-clad Marching Lumberjacks and their brass were ferried across the river near the finish line, where they played everything from the National Anthem to Ozzy’s Crazy Train as racers paddled for the finish — it was no less than heroic! 

The event was also livestreamed on multiple cameras and radio broadcasted live on Arcata’s very own Humboldt Hot Air 94.7FM, and on YouTube.

Four Events, One Goal: National Titles

A rafting team consists of four paddlers per raft who compete in four separate types of races, all in identical rafts, that collectively measure the physical endurance and whitewater skills of each team: Sprint, Downriver, Head-To-Head, and Slalom.  Twenty-five teams descended on the Trinity River September 12th-14th, including nine youth and 14 adult team combinations, with teams coming from as far away as Colorado. Team categories include Men, Women, Mixed, Adult Masters (over 40), Adult Open,  U23 (youth ages 14-23), U19 (youth ages 14-19), and Cadets (ages 11-19).

Sprint

The first race was the Sprint, an all-out paddling frenzy, lasting just a minute or so. This race determined each team’s order and opponent pairing for the following three race event categories. The Sprint course on the Trinity required teams to paddle as fast as possible through flat water, then through Hell Hole, a locally famous and stout Class III rapid with a formattable drop and strong hydraulics that can flip or dramatically slow a raft down depending on the line a team chooses—or is forced to choose. In such a short race, just seconds separated the 25 teams, so every element of synchronicity and perfection was needed to have the edge. Surprisingly, not a single raft flipped in Hell Hole. Based on the stunning photos taken by rafter mom and photographer, Juliana Dean, teams were all smiles after dropping through the rapids’ roaring chasm of foam and bedrock as delighted spectators on both banks cheered them on to the finish.

Downriver

The second race was Downriver, a sustained endurance test of synchronic paddling, threading rafts through tight boulder gardens, and navigating Class III rapids as racers vied for the fastest river currents over an average of 28 grueling minutes. Much of this race is won in the slower flatwater sections where teams read subtle currents and eddy lines to minimize drag while maintaining a strict paddling cadence. The faster intermittent rapids are where teams can regroup, catch a breath, and soak up the beauty of the Trinity.

Head-To-Head

On day two racers competed in Head-To-Head, a spectator favorite which is gaining traction internationally to nominate it as an Olympic Games sport. Two closest-ranked Sprint teams are paired together in elimination rounds and are simultaneously started. The race is timed, and each team needs to circle all four of their heads round two separate giant red buoys suspended from highlines in challenging rapids. One buoy must be navigated on the left side of the river, and the other on the right. There are four buoys to choose from, so this race becomes very tactical, with teams bumping and battling. Being the fastest raft out of  the start is not necessarily an advantage in this scenario, as many leading boats get T-boned and pushed out of the way at the first buoy if racers are neck-and-neck. The race is less than 3 minutes, but the side-by-side battling and technical buoy navigation fully tests a team’s strength, endurance, and tactical decisions. This race is often unpredictable with strategic chaos often being imposed on your team by your competitors — adapt or lose. Oh, and let’s not forget the strategically positioned giant marching band that provided auditory jet fuel at the final sprint to the finish!

Slalom

On day three, the final race was Slalom at Sailors Bar — the most technical race of the weekend. Teams had to navigate through whitewater and a dizzying maze of 11 gates, formed by pairs of poles slightly wider than the raft that dangle from river-spanning ropes. I helped build this course and it was no small feat erecting 300 ft-long highlines until just days before the race. I came to appreciate Neal Guthrie’s rope skills as we set highlines by adapting gear and methods he used to climb and haul equipment up walls in Yosemite. All our anchors were temporary and constructed out of tree-friendly soft tubular webbing. Some gates were placed in precarious locations with powerful hydraulics that can instantly flip a raft (some did) after a wrong move so split-second team decisions and paddling finesse define this race. To add to the challenge, four gates required teams to pass through the gate against the current—literally paddling upstream in whitewater!  Namely, Gate 10 was a crowd favorite because it forced teams to paddle upstream, then get sucked directly into a “hole” that surfs the raft across the river and spits it out on the other side of the gate. To clear a gate, all four paddlers had to pass through in the correct direction without touching the poles. Each team had two timed runs, scored on speed, the number of gates cleared. Points were also subtracted if a gate was touched.

Redwood Rafters Made Their Mark

In the U19 category the Troublemakers (U19 Boys) and the California Poppies (U19 Girls), both who hail from the Lake Tahoe region, won the overall combined National Race titles. The Troublemakers competed at Worlds in Bosnia the previous year and both Tahoe teams are older (and inevitably stronger) than the U19 Redwood Rafters by a few years on average. Basically, our youth look up to these other teams as inspiration, role models, and the teams to beat as they build their own skills and strength. 

Perhaps the most rewarding outcome of the weekend for the Redwood Rafters was the pair of upset-wins made by our U19 Girls and U19 Boys teams.  The Girls handily defeated the Poppies in the Slalom race, while the Boys edged the Troublemakers in the Head-To-Head event. These were the most technically challenging races of them all, so our teams were ecstatic when they realized they became the National Champions for these individual events. In the Cadet categories, Boys, Girls, and Mixed teams ran unopposed but delivered strong performances in all four events. These 12- to 14-year-olds confidently navigated the Class III whitewater course highlighting their hard-earned skills and growth in the sport. Our Cadet Girls even edged out the California Poppies in an exhibition match showing they will be a force to be reckoned with.

Rafting is a community-based sport in general so when the boys Cadet team needed another paddler, they recruited a younger sibling from a Colorado U19 team. It’s great to see youth strangers join and achieve shared goals on a big stage. Speaking of recruiting, the Troublemakers have now invited one of our U19 boys, Zade Hatton, to fill a critical spot on their U19 team competing at World’s in Malaysia this November!

Watching all these kids work together hosting this event, cheering each other and other teams on, and racing with everything they had was inspiring and showing their growing leadership will sail far beyond whitewater rafting. Seeing them thrive in such a wild, natural setting also warmed my soul. Based on feedback from many travelling teams and overall event stoke, hosting Nationals locally was a massive success for this growing sport. With their impressive race results, the Redwood Rafters now have realistic aspirations of representing the USA in International competitions in the years ahead. They are the future — one paddle stroke at a time.

Thank you to Abby and Neal, the parents, the teams, the volunteers, the safety team, all the sponsors, the community and businesses of Big Flat, and the US Forest Service for creating such a magical event.

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Besides being a “raft dad” Justin Garwood is also a co-editor and author of the book — The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History.

On this week’s EcoNews Report, historian Jerry Rohde joins the show to discuss his new book, Northern Humboldt Indians, which you can download as an e-version here.

In his book, Jerry details the history of the seven tribes of Northern Humboldt County, with many newly colorized photographs and transcripts of interviews that help to bring to light the indigenous people of the area. The book is the companion to Jerry’s 2022 book, Southern Humboldt Indians.