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If you have a soft spot in your heart for rivers, then chances are Martin Litton is on your list of heroes. He first floated the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1955—the 185th known person to follow in explorer John Wesley Powell’s footsteps. Not long after, he founded Grand Canyon Dories and has since led scores of trips on the Colorado. In 2004 he broke his own record becoming the oldest person to row the entire Grand Canyon at the age of 87.

Lifelong environmentalist and wilderness activist, the now 94-year-old Litton continues to speak mostly with his actions. He’s currently on the Advisory Committee of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a former travel editor for Sunset Magazine and he fought alongside fellow activists David Brower and Edward Abbey against dam proposals and the logging of Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument. 

                   Photo: John Blaustein

How were you introduced to rivers?

At one point, I learned that a river trip—a Norm Nevills river trip, called Mexican Hat Expeditions—in 1952 was going to be running Lava Falls on a certain day. I don’t know how I found that out, but Esther and I had already taken the Toroweap Leap, that is where you step off the rim of the canyon and the whole side of the canyon starts moving with you as you go down to the bottom (to the river). We had done that and had actually climbed out at that point by Lava Falls. Don’t ever try it, it’s horrible, but at least I knew the way down and I’d decided to make a newspaper story out of it for the Los Angeles Times.

So I went over there, and a couple ladies who had gone down the river with Mexican Hat Expeditions found out about it and wanted to go with me. So we drove over there to the Toroweap Overlook (as it’s called), above Lava Falls, and we went down the so called trail. There is no trail, but as one of the ladies said, “From the moment we stepped off the rim, it was always a question as to which would reach the river first—us or the topography,” because everything moves when you move down that slide. So anyway, we got down there and I photographed what they did—they lined Lava Falls, they never ran it in those days. There was also a big cabin cruiser, a motorboat, in-board that was there being driven by Bob Rig of the Rig Brothers—that boat ran Lava Falls. So that big boat ran Lava Falls and I’ve got movies of that and stills. Those pictures of that run appeared in the Los Angeles Times, along with the article about what they were doing.

That really got me acquainted with the river because these people who ran the river with Nevills were about the only ones doing it and would always have big barbeques afterward and show all their slides. And those barbeques would be out in the San Fernando Valley somewhere, in a backyard, at night, and they would show the slides—everybody would show every picture that he or she had taken on the entire river trip. So you sat out there all night, eating and drinking and watching slides. And one of the people I met doing that, who had not been on the river at any time that I was associated with it, was P.T. Riley. He got in touch with me by phone later having met me there at this party, and wanted me to go down the river with him and row one of his boats that he was building out of fiberglass.

He knew I’d been on the crew rowing at UCLA, as if that would’ve had anything to do with skill on the river, it really wouldn’t, but as a result of that, even though I couldn’t row on the first trip because I’d had a bad accident with a horse and dislocated my shoulder. My arm was strapped to my side for the entire trip, 21 days; so I couldn’t row a boat on my first trip through the canyon. I was a passenger, and Esther went, she was a passenger, and there were a total—I think—of nine people on that trip taking these boats that P.T. Riley had made, which turned out to be [laughs] not very good boats. That started me.

Which river trip stands out most in your mind?

Maybe the second one which was the first time I rowed the boat all the way through with Esther, but actually until we got into dories—when we were no longer running those ridiculous little boats—we didn’t have great river trips because any trip in which you line a rapid and don’t run it can’t be really 100 percent great. We have to be able to handle all the rapids in the Grand Canyon, nothing from the shore, everything happens on the river, the boat makes it through and you hope you’ll be right side up at the other end, and we usually are.

What’s special about a dory?

Anyone who asks that question, what is special about a dory, has obviously never gone through the Grand Canyon in a dory. A dory is a shape that belongs on the river; it started in the ocean, conquered the waves of the ocean, and now conquers the waves or crashing water of almost any river. A dory is made for people to be in, it has the right shape. And in a Grand Canyon dory, you have the right places to put things, including yourself. The oarsman is accommodated as if the dory were made for him (or her), and it just belongs. I could describe the shape of a dory, which is a row boat, doesn’t have to be a row boat, it could have a motor on it, but ours never did; a boat propelled by two oars in the hands of a single oarsman because the decisions that are made as to the strokes you take and how you do the rowing have to be unanimous. The only way you get a unanimous decision is to have just one person making that decision, and the boatman (the oarsman) is responsible for what happens in the river because he/she is the one propelling and guiding the boat.

They show their utility, they say to you, “I belong on big waves; I’m stable, I’m sturdy, I’m wanting to go, and I respond to the oars beautifully,” that’s bragging, in a way, “and I’ll go where you want me to go, and I’ll carry what you want me to carry.” That’s what the dory does no matter how the water behaves.

How have modern-day dories evolved?

It’s hard to know how a dory evolved into the shape that it is now; although, you can say conditions caused that to happen. People wanted to go fishing in rough water in the Atlantic Ocean, Europeans. Gradually, they developed boats that were—more or less—self-righting (certainly were stable, as stable as you could get in big waves) and that were easy to maneuver, easy to row and that would move with pretty good speed. And gradually we came into the shape of what we call a dory. We say that the best representation of that was in Portugal, in the ocean fishing boats. Gradually that went West into the United States and we had fishing boats in New England that were similar; self-righting almost, very stable, easy to row, they moved readily when asked to, and so we got an Indian name, though I don’t know the evolution of the name dory exactly, but they say it’s an adaptation of an American Indian word, duri from the Caribbean Sea.

Then it became dory in New England and of course many, many fishing boats in New England are dories, rowed with oars (some are motored, of course, out into the ocean). When they moved west, we called them dories, eventually, but they were first called drift boats, mostly in Oregon where there are lots of runnable rivers and they were used for fishing, floating with the current of a river. Such as the Rogue River or the Mackenzie, and we ended up with a boat very similar, though not as big as the Grand Canyon dory. A Grand Canyon dory has to be bigger because it has to carry passengers through the canyon, not just one or two fisherman, and it has to be able to carry a load. It has to be able to haul all the equipment and all the supplies that are going to be needed on a trip of two or three weeks through the Grand Canyon which is going to take, well, time, obviously! And two or three weeks going through the Grand Canyon you need a hefty amount of supplies, so you put them in the dory, and once you close up the hatches, you hardly know they’re there. It just runs beautifully.

Why did you choose George Wendt and O.A.R.S. to carry on the dory legacy in the Grand Canyon?

The word got around, somehow, that I had other things to do. Grand Canyon Dories was doing alright, but that someone else could be owning it and managing it, yet I wasn’t willing to let it go just as a river running company and into some other hands in which it would run differently.

Things were going on in my life that demanded my attention and my presence more. I didn’t really want to stop what I was doing there, but owning Grand Canyon Dories was just too much fun. I couldn’t be having fun all the time, you know you’re not supposed to be happy in this world [laughs], and so I was ready to give up something that had made me very happy and which I’d enjoyed greatly. One of the conditions of the sale was that it would always be dories, and it would always be oar powered and they would run the trips the way we had run them. George happily signed up for that, there wasn’t a great deal of money involved. It could’ve gone higher if I had accepted some of the propositions I had from others, but George was the one I had faith in to do it right. He was doing it right with his oar-powered trips anyway, he just needed a little bit of an upgrade and that upgrade would be dories.

It said it on his license plate, ‘WE ROW,’ and that meant that he was an advocate for rowing, so that gave him a pretty good place in my heart as one of those who wanted Grand Canyon Dories, who wanted to buy Grand Canyon Dories.

What is the most important issue facing us today?

The obvious, most important issue is numbers of people. The earth is already terribly overcrowded and overcrowding causes people to move around. In our case it causes people to move from Mexico to California, and [chuckles] we’re overcrowded. It’s the most important issue on the earth—movements of people, and growing numbers of people.

What is one thing you wish you had accomplished?

I wish I had accomplished some things in conservation that I did not. We could’ve stopped Glen Canyon Dam and we didn’t, but we didn’t try hard enough. We tried very hard in Grand Canyon dams and even harder in Dinosaur National Monument dams—those were our first big issue, and we beat them. Those were said to be necessary for the development of the West. Well we didn’t get them built, we fought against them, and they turned out to be unnecessary.

What are your favorite books about rivers?

What comes into my head immediately, and if I were to think longer I might find more, but a great book as far as the rivers are concerned (especially the Colorado River) is, Time and the River Flowing by Francoise Leydet. He’s one of the greatest writers in history that had a few problems that he couldn’t overcome, but when he did sit down and write a book it was a masterpiece. The amount of work that went into that is not only amazing, but the result is amazing. Time and the River Flowing: Grand Canyon by Francoise Leydet. Another one that he did was called, The Last Redwoods about saving the redwoods, and as a result of that book, more than any other thing, we obtained Redwood National Park.

Who are some of your heroes?

What’s heroic about having a good time? That’s what you’re doing when you’re in the Grand Canyon. Maybe not every minute, if you end up out of the boat and in the water, and the boats upside-down, you don’t feel heroic at that time.

What about conservation role models?

It certainly included David Brower who was the greatest conservationist of all time, that doesn’t limit him to the Grand Canyon though, I’m speaking of worldwide events. Dave Wegner, he worked for the Bureau of Reclamation and his job was to persuade the river runners and other conservationists that there could be dams in the Grand Canyon damming up the Colorado River in a way that would be acceptable. We said, ‘No, it will never be acceptable to put any dams in the Grand Canyon.’ And gradually, this guy from the Bureau of Reclamation who was trying to persuade us to accept dams in the Grand Canyon, came around to our side of the issue. He became a conservationist and brought the Bureau of Reclamation around in a way, and he himself more or less would not let them do what they wanted to do. As a result of that, partly, we didn’t get the dams. Dave Wegner stayed with the government and is involved in conservation within the government now in Washington D.C., he has a very responsible position, and the Bureau of Reclamation as you know doesn’t have any more ambitions about dams in the Grand Canyon, partly because we – as a group of people – talked Dave Wegner out of the idea.

[Paraphrasing Wind in the Willows…] “There is nothing, absolutely nothing quite so much worth doing, as simply messing about in boats.”

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Stephen Kenney is one of our top river guides on the forks of the Salmon River, the Snake River through Hells Canyon and on the Colorado River (both in Cataract Canyon & the Grand Canyon). Considering his diverse boating capabilities, Kenney gets to enjoy a multitude of watersheds – the best the West has to offer in terms of alpine scenery and wild landscapes! He also has a big sense of humor, wide range of educational experience, and can occasionally be found dressed in women's apparel while cooking on the river. Get to know this well-educated, Kentucky native in our ninth episode of guide interviews!

How long have you worked for O.A.R.S. and what did you do before becoming a river guide?

I’m from Terlingua, Texas, originally from the great commonwealth of Kentucky. It’s my ninth year working for O.A.R.S./O.A.R.S. Dories, and my thirteenth year as a river guide. I’ve had a pretty eclectic professional career prior to guiding – I’ve been a banker, a college basketball coach, and a professor. I have two Bachelor degrees and even a Masters, and in some crazy, roundabout way, I think it’s helped me to become a decent river guide [smiles].

What do you love about your job?

One of the few reasons why I love doing it, is that O.A.R.S. Dories loves taking people down wild and scenic places. We’re very much committed to taking care of our wildlands, trying to have as little impact as we can on the wilderness setting, and at the same time showing our customers some of the most beautiful, historic landscapes that you can find in the lower forty eight.

What is a typical day like for you on the river?

I like to start my work day in the morning by smelling that cowboy coffee, floating across the beach. Then the guests start to wake-up smelling it, and you catch that first light hitting the canyon walls. It’s all quiet and peaceful, and you get up and cook a really nice breakfast for your clients. Then when you get out on the water, you can see that mist coming off the water as you turn corners…

There are some days where we run real technical Class III-IV water, and then we get to float on sections of just liquid glass. Our days are chock full, there are times when we get to do side canyon hikes where you’re staring at a 200-foot waterfall and then go back to running rapids. Once you get to camp and get everything set up, and you’re sitting there with your clients and your friends, and you get to enjoy the campfire and watch that last bit of light hitting the canyon walls, you all of a sudden realize, you’ve created magic again.

What is it about river trips that you find most appealing?

What I love most about multi-day river trips is the odyssey that is created with that trip, and each trip is unique onto itself. I love the blending of clients and guides with the water and the wilderness. This collective odyssey creates a sense of timelessness and a freedom, and I love sharing in that process.

How have the people you’ve met on the river impacted your life?

I have met so many amazing people from all walks of life during my years of guiding, though two probably had a particular influence on me. Both of them have terminal cancer, and they’ve done multiple river trips with O.A.R.S., and to see their incredible personal strength and sensitivity is really inspiring. To share our world with them – again and again – while watching how they value the small, little things of everyday life has been really enriching.

What important skills must a rafting guide possess?

Most all river guides, we love to talk, especially about things we know and other things we think we might know, but with the ability to listen, you’ll get to know your clients better. Then together you can start to put together the pieces of the puzzle to create a successful river trip. I think we’re able to get out clients to more quickly start to live in the moment, and then be able to start to strip back the layers of the onion that can symbolizes the challenges that they have out there in their everyday lives.

I also have a very wide collection of feminine apparel [laughs]. I really enjoy getting our guests to dress up with me. I think it helps to push to envelope a little bit, and maybe expand a few comfort zones. For me, it helps me to try not to take myself so seriously.

What do you like to do when you’re not on the river?

I really enjoy reading and scribbling out more river poetry when I’m not on the river. I also really love to sleep; I mean I really love to sleep [laughs].

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Natali Zollinger is one of our top river guides in Utah & Colorado. Working primarily in Dinosaur National Monument, she gets to enjoy the Yampa River, Green River through the Gates of Lodore, Split Mountain 1-day trips and many more! Zollinger has a spunky personality, mountains of geological knowledge, and sheer flower power on the river. Get to know this easy going Utah native in our eighth episode of guide interviews!

What water level do you enjoy rowing most, and what makes Utah watersheds unique?

I think the coolest thing about Utah, is that you have a scale of Class I to Class VI all within a 150-200 mile radius. You have extreme desert where there’s very little vegetation, to the Gates of Lodore where it’s a narrow stretch with clear water and tons of wildlife so you can kind of pick and choose. What’s really great about being here in Utah is starting in one place, and through your whole season you bounce around to different rivers and then come back to that same place. You can go from Cataract Canyon to Westwater, to Desolation Canyon to the Green River, to the Yampa River to the San Juan and meet a lot of different people because they’re choosing that adventure. When you’re always on one river, you’re seeing that same group of people, but when you’re bouncing around from a lazy river to a Class V river, it’s cool to see the variety in people.

What does the job mean to you?

The biggest thing for me is meeting a bunch of people and being able to have a lot of conversation that provides you with connections all over the world. It’s really cool to say that you have friends all over the place and that you’ve all shared a connection on the river. What keeps me going is running a rapid and having the adrenaline completely fill me up, there’s nothing better; it’s free drugs, it’s awesome! I think that’s what keeps me going as well as just being very physical all day and having that challenge and just working really hard, being at the end of the day completely exhausted – it (weirdly) helps me keep going.

What individual thing would you say inspires you the most?

I had a brother pass away approximately 12 years ago, he was an outdoor enthusiast who loved and seeked adventure; he was an extremist. When he passed away, I vowed to myself that I would live the life that he would’ve lived. So when I’m on the river or when I’m out hiking, climbing, biking, (things like that), I just consider him and think that he’s with me and we’re both able to do what he would’ve done if he were alive. We both live his life, it’s kind of cool.

What’s something you can’t leave home without?

My flowers [laughs], I’ve got a bouquet of flowers that I started doing my second year [guiding], and it sits on the front of my boat – it’s a maiden head. And it’s progressed from a bouquet of bird of paradise to a bouquet of carnations to – a couple years ago – changed to poppies. I’ve found that poppies are my power flower! And also turquoise [shows her turquoise pennant]; I always make sure to wear turquoise on the river.

Can you share a story where you’ve had a unique interaction with wildlife while on the river?

‘Skunkito bandito’ got us one night. We’re sitting there asleep on the boats, and the skunk travels up to the cooler and hops off on one of the guides – checking him out, looking him in the eye – until the guide was fed up with it. So we got out our water guns, so next time we’d be ready. An hour later he comes over and we get the water guns and squirt him, but he flips into the front of my boat and gets into the front hatch! I then open up the hatch, and there’s this pink sphincter looks right at us, we thought he was going to spray, but he didn’t, he was scared. Then I got a stick and tried to get him out, but he kept nuzzling up against it like a cat. I realized he probably didn’t know how to get out, so I made him little steps. He then went up to shore, so we went back to sleep, but woke up with him still there only to find that he pooped all over the front of my boat. We tried to wash it out, but the poop just went to the sides and into the back. The next day my whole boat stunk, and since we were in an eddy, the whole boat next to us stunk too, so we got shunned a couple miles back from the rest of the group because we smelled so bad [smiles].

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The Middle Fork of the Salmon encompasses every aspect that river runners love about rivers. It’s natural flowing, no dams, no water being diverted. At any moment in the journey, there is a very good chance you will see wildlife in its most wild setting. The water is clean, the rapids are fun and the pools are relaxing.

Did I mention the hot springs?

Once you get 40 miles into this trip, you’re 40 miles from any road. The only way out is by foot, horse, airplane or to stay on your present course downstream. It truly is an extraordinary environment. Nestled deep inside the Frank Church Wilderness of Idaho, the Middle Fork leaves an impact on all of its travelers.

O.A.R.S. has long specialized in taking guests deep into the wilderness for a blend of adventure and relaxation. Guests come from all over, motivated by a multitude of reasons.

Whether they need to immerse themselves in a pristine environment, unplug from cell phones, laptops, traffic jams and daily meetings, or give their children an experience that can’t be found in their local neighborhood or school system, these guests show up at the put-in on the verge of a transformation within themselves.

It’s just simply what happens on extended river trips.

And as a videographer on these trips, you can literally watch the transformation take place through the viewfinder. Focusing on faces and smiles, the camera records reactions of delight, anxious anticipation, and pure relaxation. By the time each of these guests reach the confluence of the Main Salmon River, 60 to 100 miles downstream of their launch point, their appreciation for life will have been enriched, one way or another.

Even folks that have been on many of these trips will experience it again. It’s the same feeling that keeps the guides coming back year after year.

Our film crew certainly wasn’t immune to it. After all, you’re floating through a region that demands your attention and focus. The beauty of the landscape inspires; its vastness makes you feel small.

The rapids are filled with adrenaline and the evening’s campfire provides the perfect place to reflect on daily revelations.

Content for this blog post was taken directly from the, "Transformation Through the Viewfinder," article on WELD's website.

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Vegetarian Lasagna

• 1 x large onion (diced)
• 4 x Japanese or Oriental eggplant (sliced)
• 1 x green and 1 x red bell pepper (diced)
• 12 x mushrooms (sliced)
• 4 – 5 cloves garlic (sliced)
• 3 x zuchinni (sliced)
• 1 x large bottle of pasta sauce
• 1 x large riccotta cheese
• 2 eggs
• Italian seasoning
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup grated mozarella cheese
• 1+1/2 box Lasagna noodles (wholewheat ready to use)
• olive oil
  

     Slice and dice the vegetables, then saute the onion and eggplant in olive oil on a hot griddle until they soften. Add the bell peppers and mushrooms until they also soften, add the garlic and finally add the zuchinni and cook for a few more minutes. Then add the pasta sauce and mix well. Season with salt and pepper and any other herbs you fancy.

      Meanwhile, beat the eggs and mix with the riccotta cheese and italian seasoning. Add salt & pepper to taste.

      Lightly grease the bottom and sides of the dutch oven.

      Commence layering the lasagna, starting with a layer of the vegetable sauce, followed by lasagna noodles, riccotta cheese mixture, cheddar cheese, mozarella cheese and parmesan cheese.
Continue layering finishing with parmesan cheese. You'll probably end up with about 3 layers. Go to 4 if you have enough ingredients.

      Bake for 40 – 50 minutes until golden brown on top. Serve with salad and garlic bread.

Meat Lasagna

• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 1/2 pounds italian sausage (spicy preferred)
• 1 x large onion
• 4 – 5 cloves garlic
• 1 x large bottle of pasta sauce
• 1 x large riccotta cheese
• 2 eggs
• Italian seasoning
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup grated mozarella cheese
• 1+1/2 box Lasagna noodles (wholewheat ready to use)
• olive oil
  

     Saute the onion, add ground beef and sausage until meat is cooked. Add pasta sauce and seasonings to taste. Follow the remainder of the vegetarian recipe.

Pro trips:

1. Saute the vegetables over a relatively high heat to bring out the most flavour. Once they're 'seared' you can turn down the heat to medium. This might mean doing them in 'batches' depending on your griddle/pan size.

2. Place lid on oven and distribute prepared coals evenly around the outside top in a circle, making sure all are touching. Additionally, add 3 or 4 coals to the center of the lid and place 5 underneath the oven.

3. Bake until the top layer is golden brown and bubbling. Allow to sit for 10 – 15 minutes before serving.

Click the play button to watch the video interview.

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Have you heard the one aboot the Canadian who migrated to California for the summer? That’s right, our California & Oregon regional manager has come down to foster the camaraderie of a tight California rafting guide crew and wow everyone with his off-the-charts Karaoke renditions of Sinatra. Avoiding the bitter cold each winter, James Rodger escapes to Patagonia to raft the wild Class V whitewater of the Futaleufu River. Having started river guiding in 1996, Rodger has worked for O.A.R.S. now for seven years. He loves to cook a variety of local, organic dishes and enjoys casting a fly rod into a river or stream on his days off. He is known for his friendly personality, can crack a joke in any crowd setting and takes pride in his Canadian heritage – still watching the Canadian news at night. Rodger has the confidence you want on a river trip; he is always happy to share his knowledge about a given area, and goes out of his way to make sure that our guests have a trip of a lifetime.

1.  What made you fall in love with rivers and become a river guide?

I think it was 1981 or 1982, on a Sunday afternoon around 6:00 watching Walt Disney, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer came on and I figured that would be a great way to live my life – floating down a river.

     2.  What have you been doing with yourself for the last few months leading up to the 2011 season?

I just got back from Chile, rafting down the Futaleufu (one of my favorite spots in the whole world). I was down there late November and just got back to get ready for the California season. In the winter time I like to be in other warm places on rivers where it's sunny – chasing the endless summer.

     3.  What are you looking forward to this season?

2011 is shaping up to be a pretty wild season here in California we got lots of snow and there's going to be lots of waves, lots of high water so we're looking forward to a busy spring and getting all the guides back together. It's a bit of a family and everybody has fun, so it will be nice to see everybody back and doing what we do best – floating down the river.

     4.  What is your favorite California river?

It's sort of a toss up between North Fork of the Stanislaus and the Tuolumne River, I think. Again, the rivers in California all are pretty amazing and all have their charm. Actually, I think my favorite California river would be the one that I'm on that day.

     5.  What makes a good trip leader?

In my experience, the people that make the best trip leaders are the ones that have all the details and see the big picture, but at the same time they're very detail oriented people. People that trust the crew that they're working with to get things done. A good trip leader is one who knows when you run out of toilet paper, your water bottle is empty or you had a cold sleep – it's someone who notices all those little things that we can fix to help make your trip better (and that's all the guides at O.A.R.S.).

     6.  What are some examples of little things you've done for a guest to make sure they have a great experience?

Sometimes you need to get people to connect with the river and it takes a little bit extra effort like a hot water bottle in their sleeping bag if it's cold outside, helping someone get their tent set up, or lending out our personal clothes. We always carry an extra fleece in case it gets cold out; I end up giving a lot of my clothing out to the guests.

     7.  What does adventure mean to you?

So when you get people out in an environment that they've never spent any time in or they're not familiar with it, they're out of their element and that's an adventure. It sort of would be the same for me going to a big city for the first time. It's an adventure because I haven't spent a lot of time in a big city, and I think that people we bring out on the river who haven't been there before, everything is new to them. When things are new, that's what an adventure's about. Even if things are familiar, rivers are always changing creatures. Every corner has a new adventure around it with endless opportunities to explore.

     8.  What is your favorite outdoor activity outside of rafting?

I've been bitten by the fly fishing bug lately, so if I'm not on the river on my days off, then I'll be on a stream bank somewhere casting flies. Fly fishing is sort of my new thing I like to be doing when I'm not out and about.

     9.  We hear you love to cook, what is your favorite dish to share on the river?

Actually I think my favorite meal to cook on the river, the one that gets people the most, is a west coast eggs benedict with smoked salmon and homemade hollandaise sauce. That sort of gets people's attention when they see that coming out in the morning on the river.

     10.  What part about you would you say is the most "Canadian?"

Well being resident alien in this country, sometimes I feel like Charlie Sheen; people should just realize that I really am a rockstar from Mars, but they don't [laughs]. A couple things that give me away about being Canadian are my 'outs' and 'abouts' or my 'house.' I tend to throw extra 'u's' in words that makes George and others upset, but probably the thing that makes me the most Canadian is that I wear a tuque and not a beanie. That's a defining Canadian characteristic of mine, my tuques.

Click the play button to watch the video interview.

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After a career as a middle school match teacher, George Wendt, left Los Angeles, California with his wife Pam and found a home in Angels Camp. He wanted to focus more intimately on the whitewater rafting business he started in 1969, which was intended to be a weekend-only business but soon became a full time gig. As the founder and president of O.A.R.S. and recent recipient of the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, George is a true pioneer in the adventure travel industry.  His passion for running rivers was born in the 60s before the inception of his company, when he became one of the first 1,100 people to descend the seldom-traveled Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.  In the decades since, O.A.R.S. has set the industry standard for first-class rafting as well as environmentally and culturally responsible travel on over 35 rivers and coastlines worldwide. To date they’ve positively affected the lives of over 500,000 travelers and in 2008 and 2009 the company was recognized by National Geographic Adventure as “The Best River & Sea Outfitter on Earth” based on education, sustainability, quality of service, spirit of adventure and references.

Over the last four decades, George has testified before the Senate Subcommittee on River Preservation on behalf of American Outfitters, helped found an eco-tourism operation in Fiji and donated countless hours and numerous trips to support youth and community organizations around the county.  George is a founding member of the Adventure Collection and a regular speaker at the annual International Ecotourism Society conference.  In 2006 George joined producer/director Greg MacGillivray in the Grand Canyon with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Anthropologist Wade Davis for the filming of the IMAX movie, Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk, a story about the global disappearing act of fresh, clean water and wild rivers.

     1.  Many consider you a pioneer in adventure travel. How did you go from teaching middle school math to running rivers?

It was actually a fairly easy transition because as a middle school teacher I had summer vacations free. So that meant that after the last class in mid-June, I could take off for a summer of doing river trips. We did the Grand Canyon, Middle Fork of the Salmon, Cataract Canyon, [etc.] and it was something that really allowed me to recharge my batteries for the next school year.

     2.  How has O.A.R.S. evolved to meet the needs of your travelers over the last 40 years?

As our clients have gotten older, can you believe our client at one time was about 29 years years old? And they were very active as a camper. Over the years, we've found the typical client has gotten older and older, and today our typical client is 47 or 48 and these people in general are less willing to rough it. Therefore, we've had to create more creature comforts, we now supply real nice foam pads for people, we have more quality meals and we've actually added chairs to most of our trips. In the olden days – 35 years ago – people would sit on the ammunition case that we supplied and that was their seat for the evening. Not nearly as comfortable as the nice chairs we have now; we have better quality tents, of course the whole outdoor equipment field has evolved considerably the last 35 – 40 years.

     3.  What are the fundamental components of a good river trip?

Quality guides is number one. Great guides that are not only skilled in taking people through the rapids, but also in sharing their love for the outdoors, which ties in to telling them about the natural geology and the history of the area. It involves having good quality equipment and a very dedicated reservation staff that makes the pre-trip planning effortless.

     4.  Generally, what kinds of people take the trips you offer? What are the benefits of a guided trip?

As a professional outfitter we've gained the support of the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service, so we have dedicated trips that are available so that people can plan in advance for a trip. We take care of pretty much all the logistical details so there aren't car shuttles that have to be done before or after the trip. Guided trips offer a tremendous number of advantages and the biggest one probably is the nice people who come on our trips, who are [typically] not all from one group. We may get a couple from Seattle, or a single attorney from Chicago, or we could get a professional accountant who travels west for her first trip all the way from Atlanta. So it's a diverse group of people and that's the fun [typically] on a trip with about 16 people, to get to know a lot of different professionals from different parts of the country.

     5.  What would you say to someone who is apprehensive about camping?

Actually, there is no need to be apprehensive about going off on one of our trips because we specialize in catered camping. We make it real easy since the guides take care of the camp set-up, they take care of the food detail, they set up the portable toilet and the chairs for people every evening. They'll get out the horseshoes and it's just a relaxed experience. The guides – both male and female – are happy to take any novice camper aside, without embarrassing them, and give them some coaching about how they can take care of their feet or anything else they might be especially concerned about.

     6.  What is the most common question that people ask you?

Where do we go to the bathroom? [Laughs]. And so this year we added a special page in the back of our 2011 O.A.R.S. catalog that shows the nice, portable toilet that we take along on the river because, as we're trying to be good stewards of the resource, and to make it easy for our clients, this portable toilet containerizes human waste. We then take it to an approved sanitary facility after the trip.

     7.  You must have "a few" stories to share, what is one of your favorite tales to tell?

A long time ago, I got this phone call from an advertising agency in Chicago asking if I had a stamp collection. I thought that was a little bit of an unusual question, but I confirmed that I did collect stamps, and they decided that they would do a major print ad and video ad that actually ran as a 30-second commercial promoting the sale of postage stamps to collectors. This ad ran on Super Bowl Sunday, it showed at least twice during the game (maybe three times) and it was seen by millions of people all over the country. My son at the time who also was in the ad was only three years old, but today he is 35 and is one of the managers in the company.

     8.  What have you enjoyed most about the last 40 years?

The thing that charges me up more than anything else is hearing from clients after the trip. We get letters, phone calls and emails from people who I think very sincerely tell us that this was the best adventure vacation, or sometimes even the best vacation, they've ever had. And that's especially true because families have an opportunity to dialogue together without the intrusion from various electronic devices which impact most families at home.

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After a year of around-the-world travel, Tyra McCart-Swanson returned to California and found a home at the O.A.R.S. headquarters in Angels Camp. She's worked here for over five years now, and currently resides as the adventure consultant for Utah & Wyoming. Her favorite snack is chips & salsa, and she listens to a solid amount of bluegrass amongst many other genres in her collection. She is known for her boisterous energy and a loud, infectious laugh. She adores the people in this industry – including her fellow staff members and other O.A.R.S. guests. Throughout the week, Tyra can be found moonlighting as a bartender at the Murphy's Hotel. She likes to spend her free time outside the office donning outrageous costumes, climbing, skiing, refinishing furniture, thrift store shopping and cooking for her friends.

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     1.  When did you start working at O.A.R.S. and how did you get the job?

I was traveling for a really long time after I graduated college, and after a job in London I came back and was moonlighting as a bartender. The next thing I know I put in a resume at O.A.R.S., it got tossed aside (nobody cared about it), and then my manager just happened to come into the bar and after discussing things with me said, "Oh, you should apply at O.A.R.S." and I said, "I did" and the rest is history.

     2.  What do you like most about being an adventure consultant?

Dealing with the people. I love to work with and meet different people's ideas for adventure and their reasons, finding the perfect adventure for them. I also really, really enjoy the organization part. Dealing with the National Park Service, BLM, State Parks & Rec, and actually organizing the trip and making it happen. Actually putting the trip on the water to me is a lot of fun. [Swanson jokes] People have no idea how complicated it can be.

     3.  What does it take to be an O.A.R.S. office employee and brand representative?

I just love working for the brand of O.A.R.S. It stands for environmentalism, it stands for adventure in itself, customer service, great expectations, etc. It's not just a clothing company or a rafting company, there's so much more that's involved with it. So you really need to stand by everything that it does represent. I love to wear the O.A.R.S. logo and O.A.R.S. branded gear just because it represents so much about the company, the people who work for it and – of course – the owners.

     4.  How many O.A.R.S. adventures have you been on and which is your favorite?

A few. Grand Canyon, Peru, Middle Fork of the Salmon River, Cataract Canyon…I love them all for different reasons, obviously. The Chilko, the whitewater is amazing and I'm a whitewater freak. And the Middle Fork Salmon scenery is just spectacular and almost secluded, you feel like you're the only ones on the river because you're surrounded. It's a pretty creeky river too for Idaho. You're surrounded by trees and just amazing, big canyon walls at the same time; there's so many different ecosystems that you go through. And the Grand Canyon's a great trip, how can you not like the Grand Canyon? That was one of my favorites because of the hikes and actually getting to the places from the river.

     5.  What are some of your other favorite places to travel?

Borneo, I was out in the middle of the rainforest with a bunch of hunting and gathering tribes who had never really seen civilization – amazing experience. Greece because of the history, I loved the history when I was there. Indonesia is one of my favorites just because it was so damn fun, the nightlife was spectacular, they had beautiful beaches and it was super cheap. Thailand was pretty cool for rock climbing, that was my favorite rock climbing destination. Spain too. London was great to visit, but when I lived there not so much my favorite.

     6.  We hear you recently climbed Mt. Rainer. What prompted this challenge and how did you overcome it?

About three years ago I saw this advertisement for Climbing for Kids, where you support and raise money for kids and inter-city youth, and I gave it to our marketing manager Steve Markle a long time ago and said, "Hey we should do this!" when I was fit. This year he comes and says, "Yeah, let's do that!" when I was not fit. It was definitely entertaining and fun to get in shape to raise amazing amounts of money to inter-city youth to get them outdoors, which is kind of the whole point.

     7.  What do locals do for fun in your hometown of Angels Camp? Seriously…

Hiking. Skiing. There's a lot of outdoor activities. Wake boarding on New Melones is pretty fun, and I can go right after work since it's two miles away. It's not so fun to launch a boat by yourself, but it can be done [laughs]. [Sarcastically] There's also the raging nightlife, not so much.

     8.  What kind of pets do you have?

Dogs, 3. Chickens, 14. Cats, cows, goats and pigs (though we don't have pigs at the moment, they're in the freezer).

     9.  What is the craziest investment you’ve ever made?

Most annoying was a rental property because I don't get to travel anymore and it's really annoying. Craziest I guess would be cows from the FFA fair. It's good meat though, no hormones, no antibiotics.

    10.  If you could use one word to describe yourself, what would it be and why?

That's a tough one, but I'd have to say experience. Not that I'm experienced, but I try to no matter what I do experience life and chalk everything I do – bad or good – up to an experience. So I'd say experience.

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Although he's a minimalist and appreciates solitude, he's not one to  be constantly dirty and will bathe in the river regardless of the weather. Stevens also enjoys gardening, horseback riding and building things whether it be his deck or an extension of his house. Although many situations on the river inspire Scotty, he explains that "when the crew is really a team, and the folks see it, the energy is so good it's contagious."

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1. How long have you worked for OARS and how did you get your start?

I've been working for O.A.R.S. river company for 33 seasons, and most of the time in the Grand Canyon. It's been a wild day today, I gotta tell ya; we've seen hail, rain, sunshine, it's been hot, it's been cold – that's the Grand Canyon. How I got started was meeting other river guides. I met Steve & Marsha Dardon at an EMT class in the winter of 1977-1978, and they were good enough to come up and see where I lived. At the time, I lived on 80 acres with no gas or electricity. I had an outhouse that didn't stink and a small garden and they said, 'Man, you like to live like this?' and I said, 'Yeah, it's the coolest place I've ever lived.' They said, 'You're gonna be a river guide.' And they were right.

2. How many times have you been down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon?

Well I've been down the Grand Canyon over 200 times, I couldn't tell you for sure, but it's definitely I'm guessing closer to 220. I could go back and count them but I know I'm over 200 Grand Canyon trips and out of that, I bet I've got about less than 20 to a dozen motor trips, the rest of them are all rowing down the canyon. There's guys with a lot more: Brian Dierker has probably been down here around 600 times but probably 500 of those are motorized trips. As far as rowed trips, there's probably a few people that beat me but I'm right up there in the top 10.

3. What do you enjoy most about rafting the Colorado River?

For me, I've done it so many times it's really the passengers, 100%. I love what I do, I love turning people on to coming out here. When it's freezing cold and you've got to be out there, people just don't experience that, they really don't. They come down here, they've got no choice. Goddamn, when it rains, when it hails, you're right in the middle of it. You see more of nature in a two week Grand Canyon trip than most people see in their whole lives.

4. What are some of the wildest experiences you’ve had on the river?

I'll tell ya, I've had some pretty wild things, in my youth I was one of the wilder guides down here, but as I've matured I've tried to behave myself somewhat. It used to be if I had guys who wanted to go big, I went big. I was on a trip to where it just started pounding rain. It was an all-men trip, and I'm really not all that into an all-men trip, but these guys got the most outrageous sight you'll ever see, it rained so hard you couldn't even see for a while. Then waterfalls started pouring in from either side and these guys were bumming out and I said, 'If it just keeps pouring rain like this for 40 minutes, you're going to see something outrageous.'  We saw water flash flooding from either sides, it was so big it was blowing the boat from one side to the other. We had to stay in the middle of the river just so that we weren't hit from debris coming off of the rim.

5. What do you do when you're not on the river?

I'm usually gone for five or six weeks, and I have so many honey-do's when I get home it's unbelievable. I have gardening to do, I get little construction projects all over. Right now I'm building the last part of my wrap-around porch that's taken me ten years to do. I'm making fruit leather from all the fruit that came off the trees while I was gone. I'm dehydrating pears because all the pairs are coming off the trees.

6. What’s your favorite story to tell guests?

It's full of inaccuracies, but it's about how George Wendt started O.A.R.S. river company. He was a schoolteacher down in southern California at Paul Revere Charter Middle School in the nicer part of LA, and he talked his wife Pam into moving up to Angels Camp which is unbelievable because it was such a redneck little community. Pam's told me some cool things about how George promised her just the year before that it would strictly going to be a weekend business. I like to elaborate on that story, I'm sure it's full of inaccuracies, but I love to tell that one, it's my favorite.

7. What was the best car you’ve ever owned?

So for years I tried to talk George into selling me his '71 240Z, the first year they were made, and he wanted $2,500 dollars for it and I only wanted to pay $2,000 for it. Year after year I'd hit him up and say, 'George, sell me your car,'  we can negotiate the final price. I came in one day, I was going to have to drive to the Grand Canyon and I said, 'George man, please, sell me your car!' And at the time I was driving a motorcycle and he said, 'Scott. You better just get back on your motorcycle.' And finally the last year that I managed operations for O.A.R.S. on the Tuolumne River, I traded an entire season of managing for that Datsun 240Z and I totally restored it. I added two coats of blue, four coats of clear, it was the coolest car ever.

8. What is your favorite hobby other than rafting?

So my favorite hobby is gardening, I have a massive garden. I have flower gardens, and over fifteen fruit and nut trees.

9. You’ve lived in Angels Camp for a long time. What was it like living on the O.A.R.S. property before the New Melones dam was built on the Stanislaus River?

In the old days this place was so cool it was off the chart. On Highway 49 you may see 3-4 cars a day, maybe a dozen cars. Highway 49 was the take-out on a 2-day river trip so the location was perfect. You could take Red Hill Road, back roads, dirt roads, you could go into town to a bar with a pool table in the back and get a pitcher of beer for $2.75, go in the back room and play pool. Angels Camp was the perfect places…the guides were all broke, we bought our clothes from a second hand store in town, we didn't have hi-tech equipment. Guides were guides just because they wanted to be on the river. It was all about river rafting; we were so non-material it was off the chart.

But as far as the normal person, the normal person, you want to do something outrageous? Come run the Grand Canyon. Do the section where you run through Lava Falls and you will be scared in a safe way. It's like a roller coaster but it's not Disneyland, it's the real deal.

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He’s an Angels Camp local and is quite fond of the outdoor life in the foothills. Blanc works at Bear Valley Ski Resort in the winter and enjoys playing guitar and bass in his free time, and lives for the rush of never knowing what the next amazing experience will be or when it will come.

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1.    What is it that makes California rafting so special?

I think because of the variety of rivers that you can get. I mean, you can get anything from San Francisco, you can run the Tuolumne Class IV or the South Fork a really mellow Class III, you can have multi-days, you can have waterfalls, you can have big rivers, steep rivers, you can have anything you want in California so I think variety is what makes California rafting so special.

2.    What is your most memorable guiding experience?

One of my most memorable experiences happened to me up on the Rogue River in Oregon, and it was a gentleman who has spent most of his life outside, had done first ascents of mountains, and had contributed to the outdoor society a lot. His body had turned on him, he wasn’t in the best of shape, he had Alzheimer’s, but we got to the bottom of Mule Creek Canyon and he looked up at Pinnacle Peak. If any of the guides had said you can go climb that mountain, he would’ve gotten out of the boat and climbed it. It’s really inspiring to see that on some river trips.

3.    We hear you were born and raised in Angels Camp. What keeps you coming back after all these years?

The reason I come back to Angels Camp is because I like the people around here. They’re very, very nice, calm headed, they’ve seen a lot of things, been a lot of places so the reason I come back is for the people. Otherwise, I’d probably live somewhere colder [laughs].

4.    What’s the trick to successfully surf a rapid?

The trick to successfully surfing a rapid starts with convincing your crew that it’s a good idea. After that, I think a successful surf is when everyone is still in the boat at the bottom and they say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know you could do that with a raft!’ so that’s how you successfully surf a rapid. You gotta go in slow, and make the river take over most of the work.

5.    We understand you love to play guitar and bass, which is your favorite and why? Do you have a favorite song to perform?

My favorite is bass, I love playing the low end, I love playing with other people, but I also like guitar. I like guitar because I can take it on the river every so often. As far as my favorite song to play and perform, it would probably be…JAMES [James Rodger, California/Oregon Regional Manager, jumps across screen]…anything I get to play with Eli Helvey. Eli is really the talented guitar player around so anytime I get to play with Eli that’s my favorite time to perform, so he plays, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ and I think that’s my favorite song to play because I get to play with Eli.

6.    What do you enjoy most about your work?

The thing I enjoy most about whitewater rafting is whitewater. I love the white water, I love the big rivers, I love seeing the different fluctuations of different flows – that’s my personal favorite, the river. I also love the big, epic scenery, the granger of it all, the tradition, actually putting the raft on the river and going rafting. 

7.    What can’t you leave home without?

The thing I can leave home without – and this is more recent – is this necklace right here [shows necklace]. This is a Moire symbol, which symbolizes safe passage through water. Guides are incredibly superstitious so without this I’m not sure I could keep my boat upright anymore [laughs].

8.    What do you do when you’re not busy being a river guide?

I generally like to go to the mountains, I really like to go up to Bear Valley – it’s a place I work at in the wintertime, get to ski around all winter and in the summer I can get up and go hike. It’s nice to get out of the heat a little bit, it’s hot being a river guide so sometimes going up to Bear Valley is a great solution for us, or mountain biking or skiing.

9.    We hear you love to read non-fiction, what is your favorite book and why?

My favorite nonfiction book is written by a guy named Lawrence Gonzales and it’s called, "Deep Survival," reason being because he goes over why people do what they do when they go under a little bit of stress, especially in the outdoors. I’ve found it very, very useful in my rafting career to be able to figure out what is going on in some people’s heads as we start to get into some bigger water. So that’s my favorite book, "Deep Survival," I recommend it; Amazon it.

10.    Describe your ideal river trip.

Anytime we go out and we have a great, great time – whenever we go out and everybody gets outside for maybe the first time, or maybe goes camping for the first time, or are surprised at how great camping can be for the first time. I think that’s something that creates an ideal river trip, beyond that you can be anywhere in the world and so long as that happens it’s a great thing. It also has to have good food, if it doesn’t have good food, count it out, so that’s why I guide for O.A.R.S.

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