In August 2004, two friends started a trip down the Mississippi River. They planned on paddling 560 miles in 15 days, and one of them – me – made it. The other quit early. In this personal essay, I explore the meaning of friendship and how expeditions can ruin them.
Every year it seems that people are making their newest New Year’s resolutions within a day or two after the big year ending celebration of December 31st. And, of course, it seems that if someone has made a New Year’s resolution, then they want you to share yours, and every year, when asked, I say [...]
At the holidays, I find myself, like most Americans back home with my family, and usually just after we finish our holiday ham and while still leaning back with full stomachs, the subject of my life comes up. Often this leads to the discussion of my job or lack of job as they see it [...]
Its that time of year again when the Mississippi thaws and sends giant chunks of ice spinning down to New Orleans or to their eventually return to fluid. Its also that time of year again when we paddlers tend to venture out to the retail outlets and send large chunks of change to the bottom [...]
Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way. -Blackfoot proverb Yesterday, I took my new West Greenland skin-on-frame kayak to the flooded Hawkeye Wildlife Management Area in the middle of Iowa – little did the Inuit know that their type of watercraft would be used so far from Artic waters. This WMA [...]
Things I Broke in 2007
Gear breaks and wears out and most of the time it happens in the worst moments. In 2007, I only managed to break a few items. Here they are: Current Designs Phantom FX Composite, Fiberglass straight-shaft, compression molded fiberglass blade with a Lever-lock adjustable ferrel: It’s a mouth full to say and it broke right [...]