A River Runs Through It

Comings&Goings

Western Rivers Professional Guide School

Several weeks ago I found my self touching down in Jackson, Wyoming en route to Victor, Idaho where I would be attending a comprehensive seven day professional river guide school under the auspices of World Cast Anglers. As the Teton range and its sublime beauty greeted me, I was trying to recall my motivation for pursuing this newest adventure beyond the fact that there might be another career chapter somewhere in the future. At the very least I was especially excited about learning to row guide boats in big, fast moving rivers, loaded with hungry cutthroat trout.

The guide course, offered three times a year, included two days of lectures and five days of river time, both fishing and working through rowing progressions. We also would experience one overnight at the river’s edge in the vast wilderness. The lecture material was outstanding in all respects, featuring an entomologist with a Phd from Berkeley who, over a four hour lecture with field work, brought the world of bugs and insects alive in a way that I never could have imagined. Mike Blais was also a master teacher and used some traditional and, at times, humorous law school teaching techniques that forced everyone to remain very alert and engaged. This guy definitely knows bugs and students.

Additional classroom work included units on river hydrology (very important for me since I had never rowed, ever!), white water river rescue strategies, geology, flora and fauna, and a broader understanding of the ecology within the Greater Yellowstone River Basin. We also heard from an individual who leads a non-profit overseeing the management of the Teton River, and I came to appreciate the complexities of a river system, ongoing protection and restoration, and the herculean efforts to steward an amazing natural resource.

And, of course, there was plenty of focus on knot tying, fishing strategies, rowing skills and an overall understanding of life on a river, especially if you are a guide. Our group of ten eager and fishy students, ranging in age from 16-58, and five guides, with a collective experience of almost a 100 years of river guiding, provided the perfect dynamic for lots of entertainment, a few laughs, and plenty of challenges as we all tried to master the skills for effective guide work. AJ, a top guide, rode me pretty hard during my day with him and his ongoing refrain of ” Scott, when you see a dangerous obstacle down river, you have to do something instead of just watching and doing nothing,” seemed to stick with me throughout the week. Having the opportunity to navigate/row/fish different sections of the Snake’s South Fork, under big western skies, was pretty close to nirvana, and our group caught plenty of beautiful fish. During the week I learned to love the feel of sliding into the river’s powerful current and descending into a pristine canyon with limitless possibilities.

Westminster Commencement

I wanted to give a quick shout out to our nephew Walker who recently graduated with Westminster’s class of 2019 following a wonderful four years of Grit&Grace. He plans to attend Middlebury College where he was recruited to play lacrosse and to study. By my count, Walker will be the the eighth Stevens to have enjoyed the privilege of a Westminster experience. The occasion was also made that much more enjoyable by having Jill Stevens, Walker’s grandmother, in attendance. Next up will be Nate, class of 2021!

Girls’ Golf

As luck would have it, and given the fact that I had planned to spend most of the spring in Simsbury, I was able to coach the Westminster Girls’ Golf team and spend my afternoons with a fun and talented group of up and coming players. While the weather may have been our greatest obstacle, the season enjoyed plenty of highlights as each player worked to improve her game. With appreciation and inevitable sadness, the team said goodbye to both Ishika Nathan ’19 and Elaina Comia ’19 who started with the “pioneer” team at its inception four years ago.

Worth the Read, Listen, View

Amy recently shared with me a podcast that remembers the iconic Warren Miller whose annual movies always ushered in the winter months and the much anticipated ski season ahead. One is either a Warren Miller disciple or not. He was an inimitable ski enthusiast who seemed just to get younger with age.

I have recently concluded Red Notice and Just Mercy, two great reads that I highly recommend. The former recounts the truly unbelievable story of Bill Browder who sees and capitalizes on investment opportunities in Russia in the early 1990s before his life’s work takes a dramatic turn. The non-fiction narrative reads, at times, like a John Grisham novel. At the suggestion of Rick Witmer, Just Mercy evoked for me a series of powerful emotions ranging from disbelief, anger, and ultimately inspiration as the author Bryan Stevenson offers an uncensored filter into politics, race, corruption, jurisprudence and our country’s history of unjust convictions and incarcerations of innocent black men, awaiting execution. Stevenson’s calling is a remarkable one to be sure.

Articles of Interest

With an increasing interest and fascination over the years in the genre of mountains in general and with Mt. Everest in particular, I was struck by a series of articles in May that highlighted the perennial high mountain disasters that continue to unfold in the “death zone.” In the past I have used John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air during a spring elective, and I find that students become transfixed on topics of human physiology at altitude, adventure risk, and the anatomy of a disaster. Sadly, the loss of life on Everest this spring is a deja vu, all over again.

‘It Was Like a Zoo’: Death on an Unruly, Overcrowded Everest

These Are the Victims of a Deadly Climbing Season on Mount Everest

As Everest Melts, Bodies Are Emerging From the Ice

She had Stage 4 Lung Cancer, and a Mountain to Climb

Peering Beneath a Source of El Capitan’s Deadly Rockfalls

And Finally

As the Snake River adventure recedes, I had a chance to reflect upon Norman Maclean’s classic coming of age novel, A River Runs Through It as well as the 1992 film adaptation, starring Brad Pitt. I recall that Maclean himself had a cameo at the film’s conclusion when he remembers his childhood, the impact of fishing and its rituals within his family, and how he remains haunted by the waters. As a much older man, Maclean concludes the film as he ties on a fly and begins casting into the water’s dark depths.