It’s Sunday morning in January in McCall, Idaho, and I’m kicking away at the snowbank alongside my yurt in an effort to excavate my creek boat from where it’s been wintering underneath. My hands are already frozen from attaching my kayak stackers to my roof rack in the bitter cold, and now my toes are…Read more »
The River, my Old Friend
Mind Body Paddle recently re-posted the very first blog post I wrote at Anna’s request—the story of how I became a kayak instructor, written before I actually started instructing. Written before I ever knew that I would end up working for Girls at Play/Mind Body Paddle. I was in high school, writing about this dream…Read more »
Honesty is the Best Policy
“Guys, I think I’m done.” “What!?” We’d barely paddled a mile yet. I sighed. I looked around, up at the cloudless blue Idaho sky, down at the matching blue Salmon River, upstream towards the rapid I’d just swam. It hadn’t been a bad swim. Not pleasant, but not terribly damaging or dangerous. “I’m fine. I…Read more »
Minding Mindless Beauty
Hometown River This river is my home because I know all of its secrets. It needs my heart, and not my brain. It knows which of my fears remain. This river is my home because I wrote all of its secrets. This river is my home because it’s in me. It’s my white bones,…Read more »
Telling Good Stories
It was Memorial Day weekend, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was blessed with rain, runoff, warm weather, and a gaggle of eager kayakers. I couldn’t wait to paddle the Presque Isle and Black Rivers until they dropped into Lake Superior. I couldn’t wait to just be in my boat, making moves and looking where…Read more »
Swim to Victory
Saturday, April 29. It’s sunny but cold in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, and the Peshtigo River is raging from recent rains. I’m standing at the check-in table for the Pesh Fest 2017 downriver race, agonizing over whether I should sign up. I’ve been in a sort of kayaking slump for the past month or so—really the…Read more »
Making it: the must-make move
“Must-make moves” exist on every river, everywhere. In a class V scenario, they may constitute the only physical options we have to safely run a rapid. On a class II river, they more often represent the choices we have made about how we want to paddle a rapid: hit this eddy. Complete this ferry. Surf this…Read more »
Shuttling, Schlepping and Savoring the Journey
Many of us have driven or ridden along on those white-knuckle shuttle rides, where gnarly dirt roads, steep inclines, and zero-inch-margin-of-error switchbacks leave our engines wheezing, our kayak racks and straps straining, and our hearts pumping out half the day’s supply of adrenaline before we even get to the put-in. At the road’s end, we…Read more »
Look where you want to go!
It’s winter in Wisconsin, and I’ve been playing a bit with my new toys from Santa: a secondhand pair of cross-country skate skis. I’ve been a trail runner my whole life, and paddling long enough that my boat feels like another limb, but skis are an unfamiliar tool. As I flail and careen up and…Read more »
This Year, We Dream
Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you have had the opportunity to reflect upon the memories of 2016 with awareness and self-love. If you’re like me, you are probably overwhelmed with gratitude for the year’s blessings, and also feeling incredulous that you survived the challenges. You may be looking to the future with much excitement…Read more »
