Kayak Adventures... in the beginning

MidAmerica Canoe Race on the Fox River, northern IL, 1989. Used to be 26 miles with five portages, and one year we came in third among mixed couples!

I'm the first to try a duckie [inflatable kayak] on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in 1991.

My first ever time in a "kayak"! I got swamped by a rapid shortly after this photo.

Paddling a cardboard craft in the annual Cardboard Regatta in Glen Ellyn in 1998.

We started paddling long before we bought our first kayaks. Our first canoe, bought in 1981, was a bit of a clunker, but we paddled in it as a family of four, and Don and I raced it until we bought a beatiful Wenonah racing canoe in 1988. We started whitewater rafting on the Colorado River near Steamboat Springs in 1981, replacing that gentle trip with big whitewater like the Grand Canyon in 1985, where I even tubed a big rapid. And we tried duckies [inflatable kayaks] for the first time when we rafted the Middle Fork of the Salmon in 1991. In 1998 we even paddled a friend's cardboard craft in the annual Cardboard Regatta, though we did sink our second time around!

Canoeing a culvert with our sons at the Mississippi headwaters in Itasca, M, in 1981.

Rafting Tanner Falls on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in 1991.

Don then tried the duckie. He, too, was swamped.

I tubed a Class 6 [out of 10] rapid in the Grand Canyon in 1985, the first to try it! I did go under but honored my promise not to lose the tube. A bit waterlogged after drinking the Colorado River!