| Otter Bar Kayak School |
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Page 4 of 5 
The days take on a comfortable routine: The short lecture on theory. The assemblage of sandwiches for lunch on the river. The delivery by vans to increasingly challenging sections of whitewater. Then back to the lodge. Beer, Jacuzzi, hors d’oeuvres, and laughter. Dinner. A card game or a book. Then sleep. The days are warm and the nights cool. One afternoon an otter surfaces just feet from the kayakers as they reach the confluence of the Salmon and Klamath rivers. It eyes them quizzically before disappearing downstream. Ospreys ply the thermals overhead. As the boaters settle into the seats of the van after a full day on the river, Paul sighs with exhaustion. “I love that feeling when you’re just totally wasted.” “Yeah,” Mark says. “The sun…” “It’s better than alcohol.” “…and the water all day.” “But not better than sex.”  The seclusion of Otter Bar allows for the growth of flesh-and- blood relationships, but the trouble with them is they are, by their nature, fraught with trouble. Midway through the week, Ted leaves to attend to a family emergency. Sean sulks after Paul vetoes his loose tie-down job on a pair of boats. Paul paces around nervously after they return to the lodge, and Sean stalks off. “Do you think I was too hard on him?” he asks Steve. There must be a chemical reaction in the bodies of young men that makes them push off from their fathers and strike out on their own around the age of 17. Fathers are stuck halfway between wanting to befriend their sons as equals and wanting to correct habits they know will lead to disaster down the road. Being at the lodge doesn’t change any of that for the friends. But it does, in its isolation, provide the space to allow parenting to happen. A little while later, Sean returns and wraps Paul in a hug.“I’m sorry, Dad,” he says. “My shit was messed up.” Paul beams as if he has just been knighted. “That,” he says, “just made my day.” Perhaps it’s the remoteness, the lack of distractions, or the sense of humility all the friends feel as they struggle to master new paddling skills—but whatever the reason, the boys have begun to pay attention to their fathers. In the evenings, Mark has been playing chess and poker with the boys. And it’s Kyle who asks Mark if he wants to play. “This never happens at home,” Mark marvels. |
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