This trip was a last minute substitution for a planned trip in northern Wisconsin cancelled due to drought conditions. We paddled the entire length of the Jacks Fork and continued down the Current River to Van Buren, Mo. It was similar to and partially duplicative of our 2006 trip on the Current. The weather was great, but there were far too many human intrusions, particularly motor boats and ATVs, for our liking. These are Jim Brown's photos.

This album combines photos from the pre-trip party in the woods behind my house together with photos from the six-day trip down the Current River in Missouri. It was a pleasant and scenic trip on a beautiful spring-fed river.

Eight-Day trip on the Buffalo River in Arkansas, April, 2005, with Jim and Rob. Some of these pictures are a bit redundant because they are a combination of my photos and Jim's. We paddled nearly the entire length of the river from Ponca to the White River.

Trip on the Buffalo River in Arkansas with Rob. It rained for two days and the river rose 20 feet during the night nearly reaching our camp at 25 feet.

Return trip to the White River in Ontario, this time with my three sons. I wanted them to see this beautiful wilderness river before it was ruined by a new dam and increased clear-cut logging.

Canoe trip on the Sturgeon River in the Tamagami Region of Ontario during which Rob broke his wrist.

My son, Chris, was 12 years old when he accompanied me on this 5-day trip through the swamp. It was February and very cold. Most of the camps were on small wooden platforms raised above the water.

This 1998 trip in Norther Ontario featured some of the most challenging and beautiful rapids we have ever run.

The Steel is a beautiful loop canoe route with plenty of challenges, including the toughest portage I have experienced, the Diablo Portage. It was also the only trip on which we had to blaze a completely new portage trail through the woods around a huge displaced logjam.

This is a classic route of great historic significance, once serving as a major trade route for native peoples and the Hudson Bay Company. Also, a number of canoeists have lost their lives on this river, especially at Thunderhouse Falls. The most recent fatalities were two Ohio canoeists in 1993. We had paddled the Upper Missinaibi in 1994, and we completed the journey to James Bay with this trip two years later.

This was the first Canadian trip for my oldest son, Drew, and for his Uncle Steve. It featured plenty of rocky rapids, tough portages, and even some swimming opportunities. It ended in the hamlet of Elsas where we caught a train and rode in the boxcar back to civilization. What more could you ask for on a first trip?

Exceptional canoe trip down one of Canada's most famous Arctic watershed rivers. The frequent rapids were consistently challenging, the waterfalls breathtaking, the portages arduous, the insects intense, and the weather severe. Every day brought new challenges and dramatic scenery. Highlights included pictographs on Missinaibi Lake, multiple moose encounters; running huge haystacks at Wavy Rapids, boulder dodging at Albany Rapids, and thunderstorms and hail at Glassy Falls.

The Mississagi has a long history of use by man from the earliest hunting and fishing by native peoples through white traders and trappers of the 1700's and 1800's. Our trip was through the Mississagi Provincial Waterway Park, a portion of the route preserved for recreational use. The area remains quite beautiful and we enjoyed some excellent campsites and were able to run most of the rapids we encountered. However, for us, the experience was somewhat marred by the incurrsions of civilization: logging roads, clearcut logging, fishing boats, ATV tracks, and overused and abused campsites.

The Wakami was our first trip with a crew of five in two canoes. The trip was so rough, we needed a spare paddler; by the end of the trip we nearly needed a spare canoe. We experienced both snowfall and warm sunny days as we traversed beautiful lakes and rivers with numerous rapids and waterfalls and rugged portage trails. Moose encounters were frequent, human encounters rare, and the black flies and mosquitoes were relentless. Everyone endured some pain and discomfort, but no one would have wanted to miss this trip.

This early trip remains a favorite of mine. It was dramatically more challenging than our first trip, and the scenery, including Umbata Falls, was stunning. Our developing skills were severely tested by frequent boulder-strewn rapids, dangerous waterfalls, the cold waves of Lake Superior, and seemingly endless and precipitous portage trails.

This was our first trip together; our first true wilderness excursion; and it exceeded all of our expectations. We endured chronic car troubles, inadequate equipment, foul weather, and perpetual cold, wet feet as we paddled northward from Biscotasi Lake to Horwood Lake through marshlands and logging country. Everything from the northern lights to the sound of loons at dusk was vivid and exciting to us in a way that only a first-time experience can be.