I’d already introduced myself to Emily. When you see another solo whitewater canoe on your street in an interior British Columbia ski town, you notice these things. It probably went something like, “Hey, is that your Dagger Quake leaning against the garage?”
The next time I saw Emily was in the local grocery store. She had a long list and two buggies full of carrots, zucchini, broccoli and steaks.
Emily said she was shopping for last-minute fresh stuff for six days on the Kootenay River. She is a canoe instructor and guide for Elements Adventure Company. Tell me more.
“You should write a story about Charles. You should join the 4 Rivers In 4 Days trip this fall,” she said.
And that’s how one minute I’m complaining about the price of eggs—this was before the price of eggs was a broken campaign promise—and the next I’m on my cell phone pitching a feature story about some guy and his unlikely adventure business creating a community of canoeists, in the Okanagan Valley of all places.
“There’s a whitewater canoeing scene in the Okanagan?” asked Kaydi Pyette, editor of this magazine.
“Apparently.”
Two months and two days later, I’m helping unload tandem and solo canoes out of the back of an enclosed trailer, setting them in the grass of a community park beside the Thompson River. It’s the first river on the first day of four.
How one guide built a whitewater scene from the ground up
Charles Ruechel is the owner of Elements, and he looks the part. Tall, fit, handsome, one day unshaven. Sweet Protection Strutter paddling helmet, sun-faded Astral GreenJacket, Werner Bandit paddle—the blade worn round at the tip as they get after hundreds of days. It was obvious to me this guy likes moving boats around and calculating shuttle logistics.
Elements’ 4 Rivers In 4 Days program follows the best flows. In spring, we would be unloading boats on the Coldwater, Tulameen, Similkameen, Upper Similkameen, Nicola and Shuswap rivers in B.C.’s southern region. In the summer, we’d be off on what they call the Great White Bull Adventure because they paddle the White and Bull Rivers. Clever.
We’re in the Central Interior on two sections of the Thompson and the Clearwater. If water levels were different, we had options. Every other fall, 4 Rivers In 4 Days bounces to the Cariboo/Chilcotin region and includes sections of the Horsefly, Chilcotin, Chilko or Cariboo rivers—whatever makes the most sense for the group at the time.
The popularity of this program makes sense. Who doesn’t want to improve their paddling skills with professional instruction on new rivers? Who doesn’t want the company of adventurous, dynamic people, all the while knowing at the end of the day, Emily will be preparing a steak stir-fry over an open fire?
In the beginning, Charles thought he would do longer river expeditions in remote places. Elements does run longer trips on the Upper and Lower Stikine, Jennings, Bonnet Plume and Turnagain rivers. This year, there are plans to add two more seldom-paddled rivers to the list: the Taku River Exploratory Canoeing Expedition and the Gataga River Exploratory Expedition. Never heard of the Taku or Gataga? I’m not surprised. Nobody else is running them commercially.
While exploring new northern routes is pretty cool, paddling four rivers in four days was easier for me to make work.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why it’s so popular,” says Charles. “Four Rivers In 4 Days fits into busy schedules and tighter budgets. We provide gear, or not, if our guests have their own.” I brought my gear but opted for the fully catered meal plan.
The other reason Four Rivers is so popular became very clear, very quickly, by the amount of chirping each other around the campfire.
If everyone in this group wasn’t already friends, they were friends of friends. I was the only one who hadn’t already done at least one course or trip with Elements. I listened as they told stories of rivers they’d paddled—sometimes together—with guides they all knew.
I’m sure everyone leaves these programs with improved skills from paddling new rivers, but around the campfire, in our little campground nestled between the rumble of freight trains on one side and the white noise of the Thompson, there were more stories of adventure than critiques of proper techniques.
Charles’ story is a good one.
In 2010, he decided to leave his family farm and the world of agricultural sciences. He gave himself a gap year to figure out what he was going to do next. He traveled with his wife to Nepal, India, Peru and Europe. In a hotel room in Rome, on the very last night before he was to fly home, he decided to apply to the NOLS outdoor instructor program, focusing on backpacking and whitewater canoeing. After three seasons at NOLS, in the fall of 2013, he ran his first Elements Adventure Company program, a community river cleanup.
“When I started the business, I thought I’d focus on trips and just do a few courses to get people prepared,” Charles remembers.
After his second season, he flew across the country for a week-long skills course with Andrew and Carol Westwood at the Madawaska Kanu Centre. “At first, I didn’t realize I’d have such a passion for teaching canoeing, not just the tripping. I also didn’t realize there’d be such an interest and need for canoeing skills and courses in the Okanagan and Shuswap regions.”
The flowchart on the Elements website reminds me of those Instagram memes beginning with “Should I go canoeing?” After a series of arrows and boxes, all paths, whether you initially answered yes or no, eventually lead back to “Yes.”
So much time is spent around boardroom tables at outdoor industry gatherings, asking each other how we should grow paddlesports best. Like there is one new, easy, magical way that’s going to get more people into canoes and kayaks. Sure, some good ideas get scribbled on whiteboards. But when we look back 50 years, it’s passionate people like Charles who do most of the heavy lifting.
Payson and Aurelia Kennedy bought a motel and gas station on the banks of the Nantahala River in western North Carolina, creating the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Canadian paddling champions Christa and Hermann Kerchhoff established a lodge and paddling center on the Madawaska River in the Ottawa Valley. Wally Schaber and Chris Harris created Black Feather as a sideline to their Ottawa-based outdoor retail store, Trailhead. These are just three examples of people and their companies building generations of paddling communities and professionals. Forty years later, Charles is doing the same on B.C.’s interior rivers.
By our last night together the friendly banter had gotten worse, or better, depending on how you look at it. We’d just paddled the lower section of the Clearwater River, our most technical of the trip so far and a run pushing the limits of open canoes. Spirits were high despite the cool fall rain pooling on the tarp above our circle of camp chairs.
Emily reeled us in with a round of Rose, Thorn and Bud. She asked us to reflect on our time together on the rivers and identify positives, challenges and opportunities for growth.
I’m thankful there are farm kids like Charles Ruechel who, when they grow up, are willing to roll up their sleeves and get the job done—the job of cleaning up rivers, teaching skills—beginner and advanced—and inspiring the sense of adventure and feeding enthusiasm to those of us who have been kicking around rivers even longer than he has. That’s how you grow paddlesports. Scribble this on the whiteboard: 1. Inspire new paddlers. 2. Keep giving paddling enthusiasts reasons to stay in their boats.
It’s not easy, but it works.
Scott MacGregor is the founder of Paddling Magazine.
This article was first published in Issue 73 of Paddling Magazine. Charles Ruechel… in his element. | Feature photo: Scott MacGregor
