The River Radius Podcast

Kevin Fedarko’s book, the Emerald Mile, takes readers on the journey of the fastest ride through the Grand Canyon in a dory named the Emerald Mile. Fedarko’s book dives into the backstory of the dam, the characters, and even the record-breaking journey, and yet leaves one question remaining: what is the backstory of the dory’s namesake? In this 1st of 2 Emerald Mile episodes, the stories of Fedarko and Dave Van De Mark demonstrate the impact that words and imagery make when applied to places like the Emerald Mile in California’s Redwood National and State Parks.

SPONSORS

Down River Raftopia April 6
Down River Equipment
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Rocky Talkie
5 Watt Radio, Waterproof
Discount Code 10% off:  RIVERRADIUS10
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GUESTS

Kevin Fedarko
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Dave Van De Mark

Vicki Ozaki

Leonel Arguello

RESOURCES

The Emerald Mile

Outside Magazine Kevin Fedarko Archives

When & How The Emerald Mile Came To Be A Critical Part of the Original Redwood National Park

Local Photography Legend Who Helped Establish Redwood National and State Parks Sets Out to Complete His Life’s Work

Activist and photographer DaveVandeMark treks to the upper reaches of Redwood Creek to  document how its conservation has impacted its ecological condition

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Atmospheric Rivers are bands of water vapor in the sky, sometimes a few thousand miles long, bringing winter moisture to the west coast of North America and delivering it all the way to the Rocky Mountains. The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes flies research planes above these storms all winter tracking the details and forecasting the coming storm and this episode hosts their director to learn about Atmospheric Rivers.  

SPONSORS

Down River Equipment
Raftopia 2024 Sales Event
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Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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GUESTS

Marty Ralph
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California San Diego

AR short video (great graphic diagram)

Thumbnail pic credit:  Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes

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American Whitewater published their Top 10 List of Stewardship issues in January 2024.  This is a mix of dam removal projects, legislation and policy pushes, Wild and Scenic options, all encompassed in the work from American Whitewater to keep rivers clean and accessible.  This episode is an interview Kevin Colburn from American Whitewater learning about each river on this list and the positive end goals. 

SPONSORS

AED One Stop Shop

Over It Raft Covers
@overitraftcovers

GUESTS
American Whitewater Website
@americanwhitewater
Facebook
AW Membership
@kevincolburn42

 

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The river guiding and river running world are sometimes perceived as idyllic and welcoming.  When is it something different?  Our guest today is an openly gay man, and he share’s his story of working as a river guide and guide company manager for the past decade and how some of that is idyllic, and other parts are full of discrimination. 

SPONSORS
Denver Area Nissan Dealers
@nissanusa
www.nissanusa.com

AED ONE STOP SHOP
Volume and Outfitter Discounts

THE RIVER RADIUS

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The Mountain Hydrology Lab at West Virginia University has defined the density of whitewater river runs in the United States and cross referenced this data with how climate change will alter those flows, and how changes in river flows, to include low flows and floods, will impact the people living along those rivers. This episode talks at length with the Director of the Mountain Hydrology Lab, who is also a stout river kayaker, Associate Professor Nicolas Zegre about this work his students are doing, how West Virginia has the most dense collection of whitewater runs, and where students can gain excellent river based educations.  
 

EPISODE SPONSORS

AED One-Stop Shop

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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EPISODE GUESTS

Nicolas “Nico” Zegre, Associate Professor Forest Hydrology
Mountain Hydrology Lab
West Virginia University
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A note from Prof. Nico Zegre about the research work:  
“sincerest gratitude to whitewater boater and recent graduate student of the MHL, Melissa “Mel” Shafer, who conducted the future boatable days analysis for the lower 48 states”

ORGANIZATIONS FROM EPISODE

Friends of the Cheat
@cheatriverfriends

WV Rivers
@wvrivers

Highland Outdoors
Facebook   

River Management Society River Studies & Leadership Certificate
@rivermgtsociety

Climate Central    
@climatecentral

Center For Resilient Communities


EPISODE CO-HOST

Dylan Penick
River Company Outfitters
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In the first episode of 2024, a commercial river guide tells his story of having a massive heart attack while guiding a trip in May of 2023 on the South Fork of the American River in California. This episode is recorded with an audience of river guides and outfitters. Beyond the story is the question of the role of AEDs in commercial river guiding. 

SPONSORS
AED One-Stop Shop Bulk Order Discount

Covered With Carrie website
 

CONFERENCE
American Outdoors Association
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THE RIVER RADIUS

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There are numerous authors and media professionals doing work to explore river topics.  To close out the 2023 river and podcast year, this episode hosts two of the best.  Heather Hansman is an author writing books and magazine articles.  Teal Lehto, a.k.a., “Western Water Girl” is a social media content creator.  We talk through their respective crafts, leadership in river conservation and trending topics.  

SPONSORS
Covered with Carrie

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
Instagram

GUESTS
Heather Hansman
Website
Instagram
Link Tree

Teal Lehto
Instagram
Tik Tok

THE RIVER RADIUS

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The Klamath River 2nd episode. In the Spring of 2025, a group of teenagers from several Tribal Nations of the Klamath River Basin and greater region will descend the newly undammed Klamath River from source to sea. These teens began learning how to kayak in 2022 and 2023, began learning about river policy and fish science, and are bringing their family stories to the river with them. In the summer of 2023 The River Radius spent a week with these young paddlers on the water and on the microphone capturing their story. 

SPONSORS
NRS LEAD Program
NRS website
NRS Instagram
Mighty Arrow Foundation
Virga Foundation 
American Whitewater   @americanwhitewater

GUESTS
Students of PTW
Danielle Frank, aka Ducky, Instagram, Vogue Magazine interview
Rios To Rivers  Instagram
Paddle Tribal Waters
Klamath River Renewal Corporation, Ren Brownell

FURTHER CONTENT
Upper Klamath Lake
Klamath River
Klamath Dams
Fish Kill
Story Map: History of Klamath Irrigation
Klamath River Renewal
Dam Removal News
LA Times

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After 100 years of dams stagnating the flows of the Klamath River and killing the Salmon runs, a group of teenagers from the tribal nations of the Klamath Basin will paddle the Klamath from source to sea to usher in the post-dam Klamath.  In this 1st of 2 episodes on the topic, the founders of Rios to Rivers & Paddle Tribal Waters explain how their own paddle experiences and time travel, brought the inception of this powerful passage. 

SPONSORS
NRS  @nrsweb
Mighty Arrow Foundation
Virga Foundation 
American Whitewater   @americanwhitewater

GUESTS
Ashia Grae Wolf Wilson  Rios to River bio
Paul Robert Wolf Wilson  Instagram  Rios to River bio
Weston Boyles  Instagram  Instagram  Rios to River bio
Rios To Rivers  Instagram
Paddle Tribal Waters

FURTHER CONTENT
Upper Klamath Lake
Klamath River
Klamath Dams
Fish Kill
Story Map: History of Klamath Irrigation
Klamath River Renewal
Dam Removal News
LA Times

THE RIVER RADIUS

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Link Tree

Payson Kennedy at 39 was a career academic, and with his wife Aurelia had four kids, a house, and two cars in Atlanta.  After working on the stunt team for the film Deliverance in 1971 and a summer running a raft company, he and his wife decided to leave it all behind and with a good friend, started the Nantahala Outdoor Center.  Today, 50 years later, the Nantahala Outdoor Center is one of the most important and successful river guide operations and instruction schools in the river world. 

SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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Over it Raft Covers
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Promocode for free shipping:  riverradius

GUESTS
Payson Kennedy
Int'l Whitewater Hall of Fame
Books

Nantahala Outdoor Center, NOC
Instagram
Wikipedia
History of NOC
 

LINKS

Deliverance

The Flow State

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

THE RIVER RADIUS

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