Kayaker uses sport to commune with nature

By Stephen Hlawaty
Outdoors Writer

Livermore resident Susan Howe lovingly holds her wedding journal in which brother-in-law Peter Gilbert has included a quote written by Kenneth Grahame. The thought captures the essence of her relationship to kayaking, and in many ways, to life:

"There is nothing--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

And Howe has been messing about in boats all her life.

Growing up in upstate New York, Howe first took to watercrafts in the lakes of the High Peaks region of the Adirondack Mountains paddling canoes and water-skiing behind her father's boat. Except for the occasional rooster tail that Howe kicked up while water skiing, white water was nonexistent in her recreational resume until she moved out West.

Howe first became involved in kayaking while a graduate student at Colorado State University. A young 75-year-old Eleanora Martinelly would run laps with Howe on Terry Lake. But the whitewater would soon sing its siren song in the form of David Gilbert, a fellow graduate student. Gilbert offered to take Howe out on the Poudre River where Howe ran her first stretch of whitewater at peak stage in a kayak right below Mad Dog Rapid on the Filter Plant run.

Howe remembers the day fondly. "There was nothing to compare it to...so I didn't know better," she admitted. " Since that day, I was hooked on boating--and hooked on Dave."

That day proved to be the first of many days that Howe would be "taken out" by Gilbert, sometimes to boat and other times to dinner and a movie until eventually the two would marry. As one might expect from a couple of river rats, Howe and Gilbert held their wedding reception running the Poudre River's Filter Plant with a few close friends, who are also accomplished kayakers.

Among her kayaking adventures in the western United States; Pucon, Chile; and Patagonia in Argentina, Howe considers her wedding day run on the lower Poudre as the most fun she has ever had whitewater kayaking. The Summer Solstice--June 21, 2002--"was the perfect Zen float on our wedding day," she recalled. "We paddled off into the sunset...best day of my life."

No doubt the memory of that day resonates all the more for Howe when considering the untimely passing of Gilbert just over a year ago.

For Howe, she enjoys kayaking for the places seen only by boat. Howe recently shared one of those spots--the very spot where she began her first run with Gilbert--with this grateful writer.

With kayaking so much a part of Howe's experience with life and death, the sport has taken on its own kind of evolution. The focus is not so much on the challenge of the whitewater, as it had been in Howe's early years of kayaking, but on introducing her 4-year-old son Jensen to the sport in a competent and safe way.

"Since Dave's death and becoming a parent," Howe admits, "I've scaled down my boating. I'm not just interested in pushing it. It's as much about landscape, relaxation and communing with nature as it is a whitewater challenge."

Kayaking with this in mind, Howe said, allows her to "let go of the details of life... It's a matter of regaining perspective."

For the immediate future, Howe is focused on Jensen. "I want to carry on Dave's legacy as a boater and teach my son to be comfortable in water," she said.

With that in mind, Howe suggested that would-be kayakers seek out a competent and safe boater from whom to learn, as well as take a river safety course.

As a river hydrologist by profession, Howe considers kayaking as "applied professional studies" and sees no end to her continued "professional development." According to Howe, kayaking has informed her "understanding of how rivers work naturally and the importance of keeping them natural."