Textbook River Guide Ingenuity on Bear Camp Road
by Hata Hill

This year we ran a couple of 5 day Rogue trips, which we love because they afford the option of a layover day and more time to enjoy the beauty of the Rogue. Our July 3rd launch was one of these, which meant that we took out on the same day as our July 4th 4 day trip. Our former guide and longtime river running friend Peter Fox had organized the July 3rd trip, and brought along three of his own catarafts. This meant that at Foster Bar we had 10 guides, 39 guests, and 25 boats including all the rafts and duckies! Suffice to say this required both of our trucks to bring all the gear back over Bear Camp Road.

Both trips reported good times had by all, but the shuttle drive was when things got interesting. Our trusty older truck, affectionately known as Charlie Brown to the guides, lost the alternator belt and stopped running once the battery wore down. Geoff and Billy identified the problem and 10 improvising minds set to work. The initial solution was a makeshift belt fabricated out of duct tape. They jump-started Charlie with Howie, our newer diesel flatbed, and got going again. It worked great for a few miles but eventually the friction proved to be too much for the duct tape and they broke down again. This time James suggested they use parachute cord, the stout nylon cordage we use for oar leashes and miscellaneous repairs. (This was appropriate as James’ nickname has been P-cord since guide school in ’06.) They jumped Charlie Brown again and made it home with an alternator belt made out of string.

ECHO Guides Set New Record For On-Time Performance!
by Dick Linford

ECHO is adamant that our guides be on time -or early- when they load their boats the first morning of a trip. Our guides for our August 22 Rogue River trip set a record for promptness that we think will stand for years to come. On Tuesday, August 21, the crew of Zach Byars, Billy Miller, Colleen Winters, Colleen McNally-Murphy and Allison Ahlert were up at 6 AM as usual, and on the road to put-in by 7. Retired Rogue manager Adam Farmer was filling in as manager for Hata Hill and Maggie Hodges, who were on a private Grand Canyon trip. He was making sure things ran like clockwork on his watch.

The crew whipped through getting the boats in the water and rigged. Zach, as lead guide, left at 8:30 to meet our guests at the Galice Lodge. He stopped on his way at the US Bureau of Land Management office to register the trip. The BLM officials informed Zach that ECHO didn’t have a trip starting that day. Our trip started on Wednesday. Zach drove back to put-in just in time to catch Colleen, who had set off in her raft to secure the first night’s camp. After a good laugh, the crew decided to keep the boats in the water and camp at put-in. Someone ran back to the house to get kayaks to play in on the upper river.

Here’s a glimpse into the lives of some of our river guides during the winter months. Over the years we’ve found that most guides travel, teach, ski patrol, or hole up in a shack in the San Juan Mountains during the Fall and Winter months.

Shawn White decided against going back to her real job and instead has been preparing her sailboat for her eventual sailing trip around the world. She’s planning to sail from San Francisco to Baja after the 2007 river season.

Adam Farmer and Zach Collier have been integrating into the Hood River, Oregon culture over the past few months. Adam’s been slowly working on his ping pong skills and hopes to soon be the Hood River ping pong champion. Zach is trying his hand at kayak water polo and is just trying to stay in his boat.

Geoff Phillips just returned from Nicaragua where he was doing electrical work for the past few months. He’s trying to avoid working until the river season so he can plan a rafting trip in Croatia.

Colleen Winters continues to ski patrol at Deer Valley in Park City, Utah where she is working on her poker skills.

Dewi Butler has structured is life to maximize his love of the outdoors. He and his girlfriend Lynn spent September mountain climbing in southern France. For the winter Dewi is living in Park city where he skis, manages some properties (including several that he owns) and bartends for a caterer. In the spring they will spend a month or more climbing in Oregon before Dewi guides and manages for us in Idaho.

Jim Toney has been skiing the mountains around Salmon, Idaho all winter. Every time we try and reach him his wife (and fellow ECHO guide) Kelly tells us he’s off in the woods. The last we heard he was headed to interior British Columbia for a ski trip.

Vladimir Gavrilov continues to share his passion for astronomy and physics with high school students in Sacramento. He’s planning several rafting trips in the Altai Mountains of Siberia this summer.

Megan Anderson is in her first year of law school at the University of Utah.

Maggie Hodges and Hata Hill, who have been sweehearts since grammar school, almost grew up and took serious jobs last year. But a rafting trip down the Tatshenshini River in Alaska convinced them that they still had some river running to do. They are currently living in California, where Maggie can be close to her first nephew and Hata works in “green” construction. They plan to move to Hood River, Oregon, so they can run rivers with Adam and Zach before the ECHO season begins. They have a private Grand Canyon trip planned for late summer.

Tessa Sibbet has been helping ECHO with the web site and writing for this blog since the river season ended. Next week she is headed to Argentina and Chile so that she can raft the world famous Futaleufu River and do some backpacking trips.

Rio Jose Hibarger has spent is winter in the typical Rio style. He tried to drive his van from Olympia, Washington to Boise, Idaho for a rafting convention and it broke down about half way. He’s spent the last two months rebuilding then entire thing and swears it won’t break down again. At least his sailboat didn’t burn down and sink this year.

Shay Mavis is spending his winter skiing six days a week and attempting to finish school in New York. He met Zach and Adam for some west coast skiing a few weeks ago during his winter break.

Mike Burke is teaching at Colby. He is also on an author’s book-reading circuit promoting his new book The Same River Twice, which is both a memoir and an adventure travel story. He has a sabbatical in the spring. He and his family will visit Greece and continue to South Africa, where Mike has a grant to study several game preserves.

Dan and Sonja are proud to announce Donovan Clavey Martin, the newest member of the ECHO family, who entered this world last Sunday, September 24, 2006 at 2:31 PM. Donovan came in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and 21 inches long. He has quite the geneology for river guiding as both of his parents are long time river guides with a passion for boating. In fact, Sonja spent the summer in the ECHO office while pregnant with Donovan.

Many of you may recognize his middle name. The Clavey River is a tributary to the Tuolumne River that we camp alongside and hike up on many of our trips. It is a special place for Dan and Sonja.

In celebration of Independence Day, ECHO Idaho guides joined the local Salmon community and showed off our new rafts in the annual Salmon River Days 4th of July Parade. We lined up behind the Salmon, Idaho girl’s softball team, the Salmon Rodeo princess truck, and the Whiskey Willie’s float with two of our beautiful new Avon boats stacked on the trailer. The two rafts were recently named after the “Shady Nook,” a local bar and restaurant, and “Marnie,” the owner of the Shady Nook. Marnie, a local celebrity here in Salmon, actually rode in the parade with us and nearly everyone in the crowd knew her.
After the parade, several guides attended the Demolition Derby, an old-fashioned, car smashin’ event that they said opened their eyes to a whole new side of Salmon. They claimed it was some of the best people watching they have ever done. The event was apparently quite entertaining.

Salmon River Days will continue through the 4th of July with events held each day. On Independence Day, they will hold a Dutch Oven cook-off. We decided not to enter, knowing that with all our practice making gourmet D.O. meals on the river, we would blow the competition away!

Happy 4th of July!!!

We know that ECHO guests and guides are well traveled people, and we have seen photographs of people wearing our T shirts in some of the most interesting and exotic places in the world. We have decided that it would be fun to have a place on our web site where you could send us photos of yourselves, friends and/or family wearing our T shirt in a famous or remote place. For an example, we have here a shot of ECHO guide Geoff Phillips and friend. Wearing ECHO shirts, at the Magnetic South Pole. Not exactly on everyone’s vacation list.

You don’t have to top -or even match- that!! Any fun or interesting location will be fine. The corner of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco? The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC? The Gold Mosque in Samarkand? Big Ben in London? Great! Disneyland? Probably not. Email your photos to us and find yourself or friends on our web site.

Many of our guests ask what our guides do in the off-season. Well, this season Jeremy Matlock and Adam Farmer spent their time working on a short film titled “In Search of Brokeback Mountain.” Jeremy sent a copy to ECHO World Headquarters here in Oakland a few weeks ago and we loved it. We are very proud of the many surprising talents of our guides. The following is a synopsis of the film:

A desire he couldn’t ignore.
A love they wouldn’t deny.

Jeremy Matlock stars as Yakley Tumbleweed, a young cowboy who’s finally come to grips with his deepest desires. In a bold and courageous move, Yakley sets out on a daring quest for Brokeback Mountain, the only place where he can fully satisfy his burning passion. But his journey becomes an unforgettable adventure, as Yakley encounters unforeseen obstacles, bizarre characters and one merciless mud puddle. With the odds stacked against him, follow Yakley as he refuses to let go of his dreams, and goes “In Search of… Brokeback Mountain.”

ECHO guides Adam, Tessa, Zach, and Robyn took a trip up to Northern California’s Smith River this past weekend to explore it for our upcoming guide school. They ran the Middle Fork and North Fork, as well as the famous Class IV-V Oregon Hole Gorge.

If the water conditions are right in March, they are hoping to do an overnight trip on the Class III-IV North Fork of the Smith pictured as the finale for our guide school. They felt that it would make a great training run even though Robyn had a wrap about half way down. They particularly liked the river for it’s many places to practice scouting rapids and opportunities to practice safety techniques near beautiful camps.

Adam Farmer, ECHO guide and Oregon River manager, is spending the winter at ECHO’s luxurious doublewide mobile home near the Rogue River. All was well until a very distinct smell told him that skunks had moved into the space below the trailer. Now Adam had a challenge that would put his degree in business from UC Davis to the test. How does one get rid of a skunk without hurting it or making it mad?

The first ploy, recommended by the local game warden, was to shine bright lights and play loud music under the house. No go. These skunks seemed to thrive on bright lights and loud rock. In fact, at least one more male skunk arrived, and in the struggle for dominance one or both of the males let fly with their most impressive sprays. The demonstration brought tears to Adam’s eyes, and he contemplated moving to town even if it meant paying RENT.

The second attempt at eviction was a wire trap, baited with meat. ECHO partner Dick Linford told Adam that skunks are peaceful when they are in tight dark spots, so Adam covered the wire trap with dark garbage bags. It seems that Dick was mistaken. The skunk loved the meat but hated the dark plastic, which he sprayed and shredded through the wire. So Adam finally covered himself with garbage bags, dragged the cage out, and very carefully transported it several miles away and next to the river. At this point, the skunk decided that he preferred the cage to life in the wild, and refused to leave. It took much careful prodding with a loooong stick to get him out.

And that’s only the first one. There are several more. Hopefully Adam will get better at this and doing so probably means not listening to Dick.

Zachary Collier, guide extraordinaire, ECHO web mister, and year-round employee, is recovering from a very broken wrist. Zach was roller boarding in the Oakland Hills when he found himself on a very steep, windy section and out of control. For those of you who know Oakland, he was flying down Skyline, just above where is meets Joaquin Miller. He didn’t make one turn and ended up at Kaiser getting his wrist rebuilt with titanium bolts and screws.

He is well onto his way to recovery, but has missed skiing, biking, and the other activities that attract adrenaline junkies. The good news is that he has had more time to put into our web site which, we think, just gets better and better.

Two of our veteran Rogue guides, Maggie and Hata, have recently moved closer to ECHO World Headquarters onto a houseboat in Sausalito. Maggie recently graduated from Humboldt State University with a degree in dance and they moved here while they are waiting for the river season to begin again. Hata is enrolled in classes to learn more about green building and is currently rebuilding the back steps here at the ECHO office.

One or both of them will be a part of our guide school this spring on the Rogue and Tuolumne. We expect them to spend the early part of the river season guiding on the Rogue and the later part of the season on the Salmon.