WHITE WATER SPORTS:

Wild rivers and streams are among the prettiest places for wilderness adventure, and convenient: since they afford "rapid transit on the New River" as well as occasionally furnish lunch, a shower, and a drip-dry laundromat.

We have done more than a bit of white water river running in kayaks, rafts and canoes. Three Geelhoeds are seen in a raft and kayak takeout campsite along the River of No Return (Lewis and Clark named the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho's wilderness for the one-way valves of the continuous rapids) after we have been dunked in those wilderness rapids. Donald and I are also shown paddling through the Florida 'Glades in the River of Grass. Michael and I had rafted through the Desolation Canyon on the Green River in Utah already when he was ten and had learned to float through some of the rapids without benefit of raft--a worthwhile skill that becomes quite a necessary virtue when tossed by an inexpertly run hydraulic. We have also enjoyed some Eastern Whitewater--the New, The Gauley, the Youghiogheny, the Cheat, the Savage, even the Shenandoah and the Potomac--they are all a downhill course!

The large dugout canoes hollowed out from single giant rainforest trees are an amazing way to navigate the headwaters of the Amazon and Orinoco basins, and sometimes the paddle downstream is supplemented with Yamaha power for the heavy stable craft's upriver run.