Going back a few years, I was lucky enough to spend a summer as a guide in the BWCA ('87). After some school at University Minn - Duluth, I left the Central Time Zone and tried my hand at whitewater guiding in the fine state of Oregon with a little bit of northern California thrown in. During that summer of guiding in Oregon ('88), I was lucky enough to experience the Rogue River, the Deschutes, the Upper and Lower Klamath, the McKenzie, and the Santiam. Going there from Minnesota was quite the change for a naive small town college boy. I did manage to survive it though.

The next two summers ('89 & '90) I was even luckier and managed to latch onto an outfit in Salmon, ID, Action Whitewater Adventures. I found myself running the main Salmon and the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Unbelievably fabulous bodies of water. I fell in love with Idaho. It is an absolute gem of a state. I think it is the best kept secret in the country.

Those summers in college were the best of my life (wife and kids are better but they are not seasons of the year). Working on the water those four summers was like getting paid to play for the most part. I reluctantly walked away with some great memories and a love for water. Especially quiet water and the sounds that come along with being outdoors on the water, whether loons in the BWCA or wind through Ponderosa pines out on the Salmon. Life has been good to me. I feel blessed in many ways, from wife and healthy kids, to those four fabulous watery summers in college. I even managed to take a few pictures from some of those places.