charlie munsey
| courtesy john dondero
| charlie munsey
| courtesy john dondero
/ never turn back | photos clocklwise from top left: courtesy ron watters
consistent gradient, no dams and no portages, is so rare and it spoils us. But the first descents of some river sections date back earlier than the 1800s to the days of Native Americans in canoes and then Lewis and Clark.” While the very early inhabitants and explorers of Idaho did navigate some of its rivers, it wasn’t until the late 1950s that water-craft technology for whitewater kayaks and rafts developed to a caliber that allowed the men and women of the West to begin pioneering descents of rivers previously thought to be runnable only by those with death wishes. Rob Lesser, Walt Blackadar, John Dondero and many others began cascading down Idaho’s pristine river canyons in a heyday of exploration, some for the glory of being the first, but most solely fueled by the fun of the emerging sport. Sun Valley local Whiz McNeal started kayaking in the early '70s with
Top left: Legendary kayaker Walt Blackadar at home on the Salmon River in Idaho. He was the first kayaker in history to make a solo journey down Turnback Canyon on the Alsek River in Canada/Alaska at the age of 49, what biographer Ron Watters called, “the river equivalent of the first ascent of Everest.” He would eventually die in Idaho, on the South Fork of the Payette River. Top right: John Dondero doing a first descent of Alaska’s Susitna River during a 1976 trip with Blackadar and others for ABC’s “The American Sportsman.” Bottom left: Idaho paddlers Charlie Munsey, Rob Lesser, Doug Ammons, Reggie Crist, Gerry Moffatt, and Wink Jones at the put-in of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine in British Columbia, Canada, in 1998. Considered one of the most difficult white water rivers in the world, the section has been successfully navigated by fewer than 50 kayakers in history. Two images bottom right: Pioneering kayaker Rob Lesser (upper image) on the North Fork of the Payette in Idaho, and John Dondero getting helmet footage on the Susitna in Alaska for ABC’s “The American Sportsman” in 1974. Lesser was the first kayaker to paddle the “Triple Crown” of rivers—Devil’s Canyon of Alaska’s Susitna, Turnback Canyon on Canada’s Alsek, and the Grand Canyon of the Stikine.
summer 2016 | sunvalleymag.com 121