The river of my life has flowed around a sharp bend and tossed me on some un-scouted currents. My wife accepted a job teaching at an international school in Malaysia. She left for her work last July. I finished up my river ranger season, packed up, and joined her in October. Thus the long break in posts. Sorry for that to any regular readers out there. Part of our deal is that I get to … Continue reading
By the time we got to the take out, flows on the Grande Ronde River had tripled and reached record levels. Rafting a whitewater river while it was spiking was a first for me and made for a powerful ride. My rafting partner Kevin and I played the river flow and weather forecast game the week before our planned 91-mile float on the Grande Ronde (Minam to Heller Bar). By the time we decided the … Continue reading
This is my rafting buddy Kevin Buck’s video of our run down Green Wall Rapid while whitewater rafting on the Illinois River February 19-20, 2011. First down is Will and myself, followed by Mike. … Continue reading
A few weeks ago, I was sleepless and thinking about whitewater rafting on the Illinois River. There wasn’t much sleeping while on the Illinois either. Pretty much spent my time wide eyed, awake, and focused. Maybe you relax a bit in camp, hanging out, passing the Fireball around. But go to bed and us first timers (and maybe some of the veterans) lay there most of the night anticipating Green Wall, the monster Class V … Continue reading
When I can’t sleep, sometimes I think about whitewater rivers. Sometimes I review highlight reels in my head of past whitewater rafting trips, and sometimes imagine upcoming ones. Not that whitewater rivers are necessarily a relaxing thing to contemplate. Just passes the time waiting for sleep to come. I’m also one of those people who experiences trouble sleeping as a side effect when taking narcotic opiates. No, not recreational. Prescription pain meds for surgery I … Continue reading