Category: Essays
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Swiping a Shuttle: The Tinder Misadventure
Sometimes the shuttle is the adventure (click for video). Cabot and I sat on the boat ramp, watching the aquamarine tendrils of the Salmon River swirling at our feet. As we drank our last two Rainiers, I checked my phone. Still no signal and the hour was growing late. It had started as a joke,…
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Pop a Squat
“Oh woah, sorry!” “For what?” I looked up at my friend from the squat I just popped. Bare ass dangling over the rock’s edge, crouched and facing in toward the group, I waited. “Well, uhm, I mean,” he turned his body away, clearly wanting to exit the moment, and yet also still hovering out of…
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Exploring Tajikistan’s Untamed Rivers Part Two: The Muksu
The team, burdened by leaking drytops and broken kayaks, explores the frigid, high elevation Muksu River.
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A Father-Son Picnic on the Middle Kings
He believed me when I told him that the Middle Kings was the pinnacle, the ultimate river. I planted the seed.
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A Fine Line
Eric Adsit clings to the fine line between life and death in the depths of New York’s Broke Back Gorge.
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No Province for Old Men
Prolific guidebook author Kirk Eddlemon unravels on BC’s Snowcap Creek, and ponders his future in the fringes of class V kayaking.
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The Grande Finale of the Jamie McEwan Trilogy: Denied- Linville Gorge, 1973
In the final chapter of the McEwan Trilogy, Tom and Jamie attempt the first descent of Linville Gorge. The misadventure results in, among other things, Jamie finding “indestructible pleasure” while sleeping in an outhouse on the canyon rim.
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Jamie McEwan II: Years Later, I Added the Frame- Chattooga River, 1971
Tom and Jamie hit the road in search of warm temps and wild whitewater. Tom, sidelined due to an injury, drives shuttle. Meanwhile Jamie searches for his soul, and a lost paddle, on the Chattooga River.
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The first of the Jamie McEwan Trilogy: Iron Ring 1970
In the first installment of the McEwan Trilogy, Jamie watches his brother “talk to river gods deep in their secret places” as Tom probes a feared hole in Iron Ring on an early Gauley run.
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Life and Death Beyond the Edge
The author contends with the juxtaposition of joy and danger in whitewater through the lens of close calls, days of progression, and moments of utter horror.
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