Thanks Russ!

I admit I think too much, but I also can really appreciate the take on paddling you explained so well. One of the attractions in kayaking for me is just what you talked about. I do not want some Disney sanitized and phony version of life fed to me with a silver spoon. As much as civilization has encroached upon the wild it is most fortunate that we still do have many wild places to experience and I will always prefer to "take my chances" because that IS life and I don't want to miss it just because I may get hurt. Besides man is capable of facing these dangers and emerging the better for it. I remember as a youth how I had never read a real book and one day in English class the teacher gave us a short story to read. My full intention was just to bs it and not read, but the teacher seemed to check on me and MADE me read. The story was Jack London's "To Build a Fire". Don't know if you have read this one but it is one of his fine pieces of work, telling the tale of a "newbie" in the north who in ignorance set out on a trek to his friends camp in weather that is so cold that the veterans warn him against it. At first he makes good progress, but soon he has broken through the ice and is WET and freezing and dying. But he manages (barely) to light a fire and dry out and get dressed again and proceed on his way. But now he IS scared and it IS COLD. Before long he again breaks through the ice and is wet and in immediate danger…. Light a fire OR die!! He painfully tries again and again to light the fire but his hands are numb now and he cannot manipulate the matches to the kindling. Each try is more agonizing than the last and each ends in failure, with his shaking becoming more uncontrollable. And he realizes that he has only 2 matches left .. Then there was only one. On his last match he is desperate and holds it so closely that his very skin itself is burning (he smells his flesh burning, but cannot feel it). By a miracle this last match does catch the kindling alight and slowly he nurses the flame to grow and he adds to the fire larger and larger twigs. Finally the flame has grown stronger and he can actually put on some wood to make the fire large enough to give him warmth and he can feel his body come back from the brink, he can feel his life is saved and he can feel his hope return. Just as the fire is reaching higher into the sky and he feels he has survived and proved the veterans who warned him wrong, a torrent of snow falls on to the fire! In one moment the life saving flame is extinguished and out forever. He had not noticed his mistake before that he had built his fire under the large boughs of a large tree and his fire had cause the accumulated snow there to fall in one lump right on his fire. Slowly he realizes his fate and begins to freeze to death. But nature has him soon become very sleepy and soon all he wants is to go to sleep and just as he does this he feels very warm and comfortable. Can there be a better tale for kayakers? I often think of General Custer. He graduated last in his class at West Point, but in the Civil War he soon became (by his courage and daring) a general officer. In fact he remains today (at 23) the youngest EVER general officer in the army. General Sherman bought the table on which general Lee signed the surrender of the south on and personally gave it to him, saying later when he met Custer's wife that "Your husband did more to win the war then any other man." I think of him because right up until 30 minutes before he died he was on the offence. He was attacking as quickly as he could. Why shouldn't he, before his battle the Indians ALWAYS ran away (there was the exception of the "Fetterman" massacre, but that was a careful trap). His challenge was not to "fear" the Indians, but rather to bring them to battle on his terms and they always ran from his type of battle before. The ONLY fear in his mind was that they would get away!!! And in his mind was the need for a victory so he could rehabilitate his reputation (another story). IN fact in that moment his real thoughts were on this battle being what he needed to get elected president of the US. That is right until 30 minutes before he was dead Custer was thinking he would soon win the battle that would make him the president. He was going full tilt right until he tried entering the village and in retreat I am sure he only saw the need for a defensive position, but things went wrong quickly, one right after the other. He didn't have his pack horses and sent a runner with his orders to bring them on the double. He was in danger of running out of ammo, but worse his troopers rifles were jamming from the grease used on the cartridges and repeated fast firing only made this worse and was effectively "disarming" his command. He continued to retreat toward a low hill, thinking he could make a stand (not his last) there, But (although there is some disagreement about this) as he approached the top of this hill (his salvation, he thought) his gaze feel upon Crazy Horse who was there at the crest before him. And he saw that the Indians occupied all his rear and the high point as well as his front. From then it was as one Indian said after the battle when he was asked how long it lasted all together. He said it took about as long as it takes a man to eat his lunch (1/2 hour start to end). How quickly even the best Indian fighter has his fortunes change because he is prepared only for the battle in his head. And things happen too quickly from there to allow time for another plan to take effect. By the way although the Indians called Custer "Yellow hair" or "Long hair" he had cut his hair short for this campaign and the Indians never knew they were fighting him and never found him on the battlefield. He was anonymously stripped and cut and possibly dismembered by the squaws that regularly followed the battles of the Indians. The Indians themselves did not savor this "victory" long. This was their only victory and within 10 years they were on reservations or dead, with the Wounded Knee in '94 ending the Sioux for good. Lastly thought I would also mention this because of my earlier reference to general Sherman. This end of the Indians was mostly his policy. He understood that the buffalo was the source of the plains Indians strength. They provided the fuel for their free lifestyle. He issued orders to wipe them out. It was not as most history books relate that it was settlers killing the buffalo it was because of this "strategic" decision and understanding of Sherman to order a campaign to kill off the Indian way of life and the army deliberately wiped out the buffalo. This policy was an unqualified "success" with the Indians soon left with NO choice but to surrender (even though Siting Bull delayed the inevitable by going to Canada for about 10 years. He too came back and sought refuge on a government reservation.