Chladek, Crystal

From Spearfish Lake Tales Wiki

Revision as of 11:35, 20 June 2009

Crystal was the first child of Karin and Pete Chladek; born in 1975. It wasn't until the fall of 1999 that she discovered that her real father was Al Buck who had been on a Canyon Tour with Karin in 1974.

Crystal is best described as an Amazon; she is tall, muscular, with a healthy appetite, and a real outdoors addict.

Described (in The Lone Ranger) as:

She was a big girl, five-nine, maybe five-ten, and big-boned. 
Not slender, but lean, with not an ounce of fat on her; 
well muscled -- not like a body builder, but you could see the muscles working, 
and obviously strong, and muscle tone at least as good as most female jocks, 
maybe better. A bigger bust than you'd expect on a swimmer, 
but not that big. Skin a touch on the dark side, not from a tanning booth, either. 

She became a real outdoors nut in high school, and before college (Northern Michigan University, in the Upper Peninsula) she persuaded her parents to send her to OLTA (Outdoor Leadership Training Academy in Idaho). Not into team sports, she excelled in almost anything else athletic, especially if outdoors; including (but not limited to):

• Swimming (she was roped in by chance by the coach and set a pool record, but adamantly refused to join the team); also was a lifeguard
• Kayaking
• Karate
• Judo (black belt)
• Snowboarding
• Surfing
• Ski jumping
• White water rafting (was a raft guide at Ocoee)
• Scuba
• Small boat handling (had seamanship course and Coast Guard 6 passenger license)
• Skiing (1997-98 was instructor in Colorado)

In college, she was a roomate of Myleigh Harris and a close friend to Randy Clark.

In addition to all this, she spent a winter in Spearfish Lake tending the sled dogs of Tiffany and Josh Archer. She also (October 1977) hooked a ride on a fishing boat from the Alaska Inner passage to Seattle, in the course of the trip, they endured a severe storm and muddled through. In 1998 she signed on to crew a yacht trip from California to Hawaii and back, again, there was a storm which slowed them down, although Crystal did some rigging repairs suspended from a bos'ns chair far above the deck.

In 1998 she hooked up with Canyon Tours and by 1999 she was a trip leader.