Location: Tappan Falls on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho.

DeRiemer Adventure Kayaking was listed by Outside Magazine as a Top Adventure School in the article: School’s In: The Best Places to Learn! The February 2008 issue which lists everything from hang gliding to dogsledding, DeReimer Adventure Kayaking was listed as the top Whitewater Kayaking School. Outside’s quote is: “Top American Canoe Association instructors take you from wet-exit newbie to Class IV stud.”

Phil & Mary DeRiemer lead kayaking trips in the United States, Ecuador, and Bhutan. ECHO has hosted their trips down the Middle Fork of the Salmon for the past eight seasons and both Phil & Mary have become a big part of the ECHO family.

Check out our spoof of “The Office” intro that we put together here at the ECHO World Headquarters in Hood River, Oregon.

The holidays are upon us and why not treat your friends and family to the gift of adventure this year! Memories of a river trip will last a lifetime and from bluegrass trips to wine tasting trips there is something for everyone! ECHO offers gift certificates for use on any of our trips. They are available in any dollar amount up to the entire cost of the trip of your choice and can be mailed to you or your loved one. Purchase before December 22 and receive 10% off the face value!

Gift certificates provide an excellent opportunity to gather your friends and family for a river adventure. ECHO trips are fabulous for special occasions, such as family reunions, bachelor parties, anniversaries or birthdays. Let them know of the adventures that await them this summer with an ECHO gift certificate!

Happy Holidays from the entire ECHO staff!

After running ECHO for 36 years, owners Dick Linford and Joe Daly are slowing down. Not disappearing, mind you. Just slowing down. Thanks to computers, phones, and instant messaging Joe will work from his home in Berkeley, California and Dick will work from his new home in Bend, Oregon. Sadly for all of us, Sue Kingsbury and Sadie (the brains behind the whole operation) are retiring. Sue will continue to work on a part time basis and promises to make a guest appearance at new office.

Zach Collier is our new general manager. Zach earned a degree in mechanical engineering from UC Davis in 1996 and an MS in the same from Stanford in 1998. He started guiding for ECHO in 1998. He managed our Tuolumne operation for four years, and ran a sweep rig in Idaho for four years. He spent most of his winters traveling in South America and Asia, and teaching high school math and community college engineering. He has worked in the ECHO office for the past three winters. Each year he has learned more about rafting and ECHO, and has convinced Dick, Joe and Sue that he can run the company. In fact, we know that he is bringing new energy and enthusiasm to the company.

Last year we had a trial run where Zach lived and worked in the town of Hood River, Oregon. It was a success. So we’re moving the ECHO World Headquarters there from Oakland where it’s been for the past 36 years.

Our new office will be in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge and is close to many nearby whitewater rivers including the Class IV White Salmon River. The new location is also geographically between both Rogue River and the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

So next month when you call us at (800) 652-3246, we’ll be answering your call in beautiful Hood River. If you’re ever in town, stop by and say hi!

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is turning 40 this year. Here at ECHO, we celebrate the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act because it provides unparalleled protection for both the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and the Rogue River. In fact, the Middle Fork and the Rogue were two of the original eight “charter” rivers designated by Congress when they signed the act on October 2, 1968. The Act declares:

“It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States that certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Congress declares that the established national policy of dams and other construction at appropriate sections of the rivers of the United States needs to be complemented by a policy that would preserve other selected rivers or sections thereof in their free-flowing condition to protect the water quality of such rivers and to fulfill other vital national conservation purposes.”

The original eight Wild and Scenic Rivers are Middle Fork of the Salmon and the Clearwater in Idaho, the Wolf in Wisconsin, the Eleven Point in Missouri, the Middle Fork of the Feather in California, the Rio Grande in New Mexico, the Rogue in Oregon, and the St Croix in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Today there are more than 165 rivers and over 11,000 river miles protected by the Act.

In order to be designated as a Wild and Scenic River, a section of the river needs to be “free flowing” and demonstrate “outstandingly remarkable values” such as scenery, geology, fish and wildlife, historic, or other similar value. Rivers can either be designated by an Act of Congress or by the Secretary of the Interior.

The main purpose of the Act is to protect the free flowing character of America’s rivers by protecting them from dams and water diversions that currently affect most rivers in our country. In addition, every river in the system is managed to protect the “outstandingly remarkable values” for which it was designated by a federal agency such as the Forest Service or BLM. The Act states:

“Each component of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System shall be administered in such manner as to protect and enhance the values which caused it to be included without . . . limiting other uses that do not substantially interfere with public use and enjoyment of these values.”

Basically the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act provides unwavering protection for the rivers we run. Thank you Senator Frank Church!

-Water Rat in Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

“What’s our river this summer,” Gabe asks. When my twin boys were seven we took our first family overnight float, a four-day journey down the class II Grand Ronde River in Oregon. What we remember is “Butterfly Camp,” where hundreds of monarchs visited us on the beach, and the way the boys and their step dad, John, lost themselves in the art of creating fire from a spindle and bow they made from a branch and some driftwood. In the end all that emerged was some smoke and a lot of shavings and we were glad we had remembered to bring a lighter so we could grill the steaks. That night we set up the tent, but slept outside, four across on a giant tarp, drifting off before nightfall. The next morning each of us commented on how we awoke at some point in the middle of the night to see the brilliant night sky.

My sons are twelve now and we’ve taken at least one, sometimes two river trips each summer. In recent years we’ve sometimes gone with an outfitter on what my sons’ call the “luxury line.” They are impressed with dessert every night and the fact that they don’t have to do the dishes. Usually they find themselves helping out anyway. That’s where the guides are and they are by far the most fun kids on the trip.

On rivers my sons learn to row a raft and paddle their own inflatable kayaks. They learn to read water: to know where the safe eddies are, and how to find the tongue of a rapid. They learn to notice hawks in the sky and trout in the current. They learn to entertain themselves on the flat stretches, by attempting kayak acrobatics or starting a water fight. We’ve endured many acts of piracy with everyone including the captain ending up overboard, and there are always plenty of stories to tell at camp. I have never heard Gabe and Dylan laugh harder than when we are on a river.

We go on other vacations, car camping, resorts, once the boys even talked me into an amusement park. But our river trips hold a special place in our summers. Maybe it is that odd relationship between the way time slows down but the current keeps moving. Each night there is a room with a new view and new beach to explore in search of rocks and swimming holes and wild denizens. Each day there is a new stretch of river with rapids or hot springs or pictographs along the way. There is no word for boredom in river speak, or if there is, in five years of river travel I have yet to hear it.

After one trip a woman, mother of three, asked a guide what he wanted people to get from the river trip. “It’s a vacation, but it’s more too,” he answered, “A river experience is a chance to tune into a place, and to your own wild roots.” I’d add to that list, and to each other.

© 2007 Laura Stavoe

Laura Stavoe writes essays for many national magazines including FamilyFun, Prevention, Paddler and Ladies Home Journal. She is currently writing a memoir about motherhood, relationships and the outdoors. You can read more of Laura’s work on her website www.laurastavoe.com.

It is with mixed feelings we announce the sale of our Tuolumne River business. We have operated on the Tuolumne since the very beginning of our company 35 years ago.

We have been involved in two colossal environmental battles to protect the river. Both fights centered around a series of elaborate dams that made no sense to anyone except dam builders. The battle in the early ‘80’s ended with the U.S. Congress protecting the Tuolumne under the Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. What a sweet victory.

The second fight was over damming the most pristine of the Tuolumne tributaries—the Clavey River. In 1994 those dams were stopped too, and the Clavey still runs free. But there is some unfinished business because the Clavey deserves the same quality of protection afforded the Tuolumne. With the new Congress and with a corps of dedicated fans of the Tuolumne watershed that could very well come to be.

Dick Linford and I were directly involved in both campaigns. Dick volunteering many hours and numerous trips to DC, and yours truly served for 12 years as president of the Tuolumne River Preservation Trust from 1985 until 1997. Those were hard fights, resulting in some wonderful memories.

But time marches on. The 1970’s, ‘80’s, and ‘90’s have given way to a new century, and we must give way to a younger generation. It has been a fantastic ride! We tip our hats to a great river.

But we are not done with river running. You can still find us heading down river on both the Middle Fork of the Salmon in Idaho and the Rogue River in Oregon. See you there.

Best wishes to all,

Joe Daly

We know there are many inspiring photographers on our trips. For those interested in having their photos displayed on our web site, we have started a formal submission process to enter the following categories of photos.

1. Rogue River scenery photo (for the Rogue River page)
2. Middle Fork of the Salmon scenery photo (for the Middle Fork page)
3. A family on the river photo (for the ECHO home page)
4. A fun ECHO camp photo

The photos selected in each category will be used on our web site next season complete with photo credit. At the end of the 2006 season, ECHO guest Lauren Kutzcher submitted a picture for consideration we and added it to our home page.

Guidelines for submission

1. Photos don’t need to have an ECHO boat or logo in them, but it is preferred.
2. For the Rogue and Middle Fork pictures we are looking for a picture that conveys the spirit of the river.
3. You must have taken the picture on an ECHO trip in 2007.
4. Submit your digital photographs by emailing them in full quality to photos@echotrips.com.
5. You are welcome to submit photos outside of the three categories above (i.e. specific guides, theme trips) and we will consider them for our site. We have special prizes for the photographers that submit the photos we use in the above categories.

We bring an “ECHO camera” on all of our trips and upload the pictures to the ECHO Photo Site. You can submit any photo you take with an ECHO camera by downloading it from the photo site and sending it to photos@echotrips.com.

by Penny Foster (ECHO guest since 1972)

Take 5 to 6 ECHO guides (absolutely no substitutes)

Add:

A half dozen or so rubber rafts and duckies
Some rigs
One truckload of paddles, PFDs, tents, dry bags, sleeping bags, oars, helmets, ice chests, and other equipment you’ll remember after put-in
2-6 gargantuan tarps
4-5 miles of duct tape (to be used for any medical or other emergency)
4-5 miles of hoopie
A stack of LUXURY edition thermarests

Fold in:

6 to 12 shopping carts of varied food items - roughly 33% of every aisle of the supermarket - include ample servings of steak, gorp, cold cuts, bacon, smoked oysters, and Snickers (figure 1-2 pounds of each per person per day)
Cooking instructions for 18 to 25 three to five star meals (depending on mood) plus helpful hints on how to feed two dozen for dinner when you don’t have the ingredients
Peet’s Coffee
Margarita mix
Two one gallon containers of tequilla (one for guides)

Mix together with:

Sunshine (if you don’t have this, don’t worry)
“Just enough” whitewater
A perch
Hot Springs
River booty
Plenty of guide gossip
A few otter and osprey
Some shooting stars
Laughter
Duckie wars
Great conversation
Trip tales
Being there

Cook at any temperature for 5 to 12 days

Feeds the heart and minds of 20
Satisfaction guaranteed.

Side notes: I got goose bumps while typing this in anticipation of the season.