SUCCESS!!!!! If I met you inBaja then read this! A BIG THANK YOU!

So I have made it to La Paz.  The trip was a great success.  I'm a little blistered, chafed, cut up, and bug bitten but the trip never truly went knucklehead on me.  My plan is to do a longer writeup of the trip in 3 parts (Norte Cortez, The Middriff, and Baja Sur) and to post some of the best pictures.  This will take some days to get done.  In the meantime while people are still fresh in my memory I wanted to single some people out for helping make my trip a resounding success. The people I met made the trip even more spectacular.

First I want to thank my parents.  Teaching me to ski before I can even remember and traveling as much as we did gave me an early love of the outdoors and adventure.  From these early roots comes the drive to do a trip like this and the other activities in my life that give me so much joy.
However, my biggest beef of this trip is also with my parents.  What were you thinking when you let a 4th grader go see JAWS in the movie theatre alone when it first came out?  That movie has messed with my head for my whole life and this trip was no different.  Always waiting for a huge mouth to rise up out of the water from underneath me, especially when paddling early in the morning.  Hell, even swimming pools used to make me nervous.

Just as big a thank you needs to go to Kathleen.  Your love, support, and words of encouragement gave me more strength then you even know.  I know it was hard for you for me to be gone and out of contact as much as I was.  I am SOOOO looking forward to this next adventure stage that I get to share with you.  Thank you for being my biggest fan and supporter.   

Juli and Morgan Cavanaugh were a key component in the logistics of pulling this together.  Their house (actually houses since they moved while I was paddling) was Home Base California.  They have watched my truck while I was in Mexico and I have a bunch of gear and another kayak in their garage.  They helped simplify the process of getting myself and my gear both into and out of Mexico.  Plus they are a blast to hang out with and always have good wine.

The other person I could not have done this without would be Toby Storie-Pugh.  Toby is a friend of a friend (and now a friend of mine) via Facebook and Kenya of all places.  He has a crazy love of adventure.  He heard about my trip and decided that without knowing me it sounded like fun to fly out, come help me drive into Mexico and then drive my truck back to Juli and Morgan's house.  He turned out to be cool as shit and I hope to be able to have other adventures with him in the future.  Without his help I am not sure how I would have gotten to the starting line with a 17' kayak and 200 pounds of gear.

GU Energy Labs also provided nutritional support for my expedition.  I actually really like their flavors and the packets easily fit into my life vest.  When I was tired in the afternoons, the wind was picking up, and I needed that extra energy to my muscles to keep me going (or to turn on the afterburners when it got rough) the GU shots provided it.

The following is a list of (hopefully) all of the people that showed me the Baja Way.  I had several different people call it that.  It meant sharing what you have, helping people out, and just generally being hospitable. So many people offered help, big and small, without solicitation. From the first bar that Toby and I sat down at in San Felipe to the final beach in La Paz.   No one I met that lives or visits regularly here felt unsafe and the same applies for me.  I would have no problem recommending to people to come visit Baja.
-  Louise, Mike, Ken, and Carol - let Toby and I stay in their guest house in San Felipe in the middle of race week for the Baja 250.  It was the last bed I slept on for almost 2 months. 
-  Rob,  Mike, and the boys from Yuma - fed me a home cooked dinner in Puertocitos.
-  Antonio at Alfonsina's - let me camp on his front porch for free.
-  Dennis and Larry - gave me a ride from Alfonsina's to the market in Gonzaga Bay.
-  Joe and his friend (sorry, I don't remember your name) - conversation and cold beer in San Francisquito.
- Russ & Gwen of S/V A-Train - watching my kayak so I could go into Santa Rosalia for supplies.  This turned out to be the best/most incredible day of the trip and they started it out on the right note for me.
-  Javiar & Marco Dominguez - sharing ceviche and their Easter Sunday with me and tolerating my horrible Spanish.
-  Russ Blackman in Punta Chavato - a great help.  The perfect beach to have washed up on that day.  Beer (and a lot of it), internet, electricity to charge cameras/phone, finding me some white gas in the community, taking pictures, letting me camp on his property, and just great general conversation and hanging out.
-  Dave - gave me a ride into town in Mulege.
-  Kenny F - helping me find stuff that I needed around Mulege.
-  Pete, Janeene, Allen, Cathy - beer and good times in Santispac
-  Scott, Joy, and family  - another great beach to have washed up on after the most intense paddling conditions of the trip.  They let me camp on their beach and then fed me both a home cooked lunch and dinner.
-  Jim & Diane of S/V Prairie Oyster - coffee on their boat at Punta el Pulpito.  Spectacular scenic day.
-  Brian & Elizabeth of S/V Autumn Wind - cold beer on Isla Coronados.
-  Bob and Mike - letting me stay at Loreto Shores and cutting me a deal.
-  Danny & Jane - cold beer and a ride into town in Loreto.
-  Christian of BOA (Baja Outdoor Activities) - coffee cake.
-  Jim in Agua Verde - gave me the fishing lure "that never fails".
-  Janet & Pat from Telluride (an older version of me and Kathleen) - coffee, blue cheese, and for letting a lonely kayaker hang out with them for entertainment and travel/adventure conversation.
-  Louisa & Greg - Vegy stir fry
-  Andrew of S/V Del Mar - gave me his last beer for celebrating getting to the finish line.

All the help and interactions I had with you (and others) made an incredible trip even more special.  Thank you.  Some of you don't have my blog address or even computers but I still wanted to send you a shout out for being you and to show people how incredible this part of the world is.