Bill Brackin ~ Wilderness Paddler

 

Boy Scout to Sea Kayaker: Adventure in the Blood

by Bill Brackin

The Early Years

I grew up in an adventurous family.  My father was an inventor and a chemical engineer who liked to fix oil refineries that had problems.  We moved every three or four years, sometimes to exotic places.  My mother was an adventurous eater and chronic beachcomber who exposed us to many cultures through food, music, and art.  When I was in elementary school we lived in a neighborhood west of New Orleans that was surrounded by woods, large drainage ditches and creeks, and swamps.  The neighborhood gang built forts, had dirt clod wars, flew kites, climbed trees, bicycled everywhere, fished for alligator gar fish, and waded the drainage ditches collecting buckets full of crawfish.  A Cajun neighbor would boil them up for us.  I joined Cub Scouts and went on campouts and participated in survival weekends where we had to forage for our food.  My family loved fishing and crabbing, so I got to do a lot of that in Louisiana and Mississippi, sometimes from a boat.

At the age of 10 my father moved us to Ponce, Puerto Rico.  I decided to go to a Spanish-speaking Catholic school since the public schools were two years behind us when I got there.  I knew no Spanish, so I learned by osmosis.  My family spent about every other weekend at a beach where my mother painted and my father and I snorkeled and spearfished.  My father restored a sailboat, and I sometimes got to sail with him.  I became very comfortable in deep water.  I also joined the YMCA swimming team.  We would often take trips to San Juan or other communities to participate in swim meets.

I began backpacking for the first time with a 12-year-old friend when I was 10.  We would hike through the 8-foot-tall sugar cane and camp when we came out in the foothills of the mountains.  Our equipment was mostly Army Surplus.

My Boy Scout experience grew in Puerto Rico where we often went camping, hiking, cave exploring, sailing, and to summer camp in the mountains.  I made friends with a salesman in the sporting good department of a local department store.  He and I loved to fish, so we often went fishing in mountain lakes and rivers.

In 1960, when I was 13 years old, we moved to Baytown, Texas and then to Houston.  I joined the local Explorer Scout Troop, and continued to camp and have adventures around the state.  Summer Scout camp was in the hill country near San Marcos along the San Marcos River.  I was introduced to canoeing there.  My family always took a 2-week vacation every summer that usually involved camping, fishing, boating, and traveling around Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, while exploring many different activities.

In the summer before my senior year in high school, we moved again to a small farm town southwest of Chicago.  The next year I went to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.  I joined a cave exploring club and a mountaineering club.  I got to explore caves in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri.  I learned how to rock climb in Indiana and Wisconsin.  I majored in Geology and got to go on trips to the Smoky Mountains, Northern Michigan, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. And, I attended summer field camp in Sheridan, Wyoming.  I did my first serious backpacking while there, in the Bighorns, the Tetons, and Yellowstone National Park.

After college I worked as a Recreation Therapist working with Emotionally Disturbed and Autistic children 6-16 years old.  I took the children on hikes, camping trips, and cave exploring.  While working, I continued to be involved with the two campus clubs and realized that many people were having trouble getting good equipment.  I started a business in a room of my house that quickly turned into Bushwhacker Backpacking Supply, a 4,000 square foot store with 2 partners and 12 employees.  We sold about 350 canoes a year.  One of our manufacturers talked me into buying a kayak from them, and an employee of mine and I started teaching ourselves bracing and rolling from the Kayaking Handbook of the Ledyard Canoe Club at Dartmouth College.  We practiced in a flooded quarry near the Illinois-Indiana state line until we both had “bomb-proof” rolls.  We then started expanding into progressively more challenging rivers in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Missouri.

I also learned how to cross-country ski and winter camp and skied around Jackson Hole and Yellowstone National Park in the winter when I could.  I took a Winter Mountaineering course from Colorado Outward Bound and climbed a number of 14,000-foot peaks while on that course. One of my instructors was Jeff Lowe, a famous ice climber and equipment manufacturer, and I became friends with him.

The Whitewater Years (1972-1987)

While running my business I got to know Royal Robbins, a famous rock climber from California.  Royal’s latest passion was whitewater kayaking, and we became friends.  He invited me to California to kayak and rock climb.  I was hooked on the big water that I discovered there, and sold my business and moved to Modesto to work in Robbins Mountain Shop, and to kayak with Royal.  I also loved backpacking, cross-country skiing, and ski mountaineering.  I backpacked and skied 1,000s of miles in California, Arizona, and Utah.  My favorite places to go were places few others visited, so I often “bushwhacked” or went off-trail.

While working in Modesto I got to meet a number of Royal’s climbing buddies, including Yvon Chouinard, Galen Rowell, Ed Gilette, John Cleare, Doug Scott, John Jackson, Clyde Deal, and others.  I got to kayak with Royal, Yvon, Lito Tejada Flores, Doug Weins, and my new Modesto friend Robert DeWolf.  Royal, Doug, and I ran all three forks of the American River, the Mokelumne River, the Stanislas River (before the Melones Dam went in), and the Tuolumne River from just below Hetch Hetchy Dam. Royal, Doug and I also did a first descent of the South Fork of the Merced River while it was in flood stage.  I became a very good Class IV-V whitewater kayaker.

In 1976 I left Robbins and backpacked over a thousand miles in Arizona and Utah, and then backpacked a 250-mile circumnavigation of Yosemite National Park from Wawona to Hetch Hetchy Dam.  I moved to the Phoenix area for a few years, where continued to backpack and hike.  In 1979 I returned to California and began backpacking again.  While there I worked for Marmot Mountain Works in Berkeley.  In 1981 I moved to Bellevue, Washington and opened and managed the Marmot shop there.

I continued to backpack, ski, and whitewater kayak in Washington, but a low back injury eventually started causing me so much pain that I had to give up my whitewater kayaking.

I Discover Sea Kayaking (1987-2022)

I really missed kayaking, and my back pain was forcing me out of backpacking and skiing too.  I still needed my adventure fix.

A few months later a friend of mine who lived along the lower Stillaguamish River invited me to kayak with him from his home to Nanaimo, British Columbia.  He loaned me a kayak, paddle, spray skirt, and PFD.  I had backpacking equipment and a wetsuit.  I had no idea what I was getting into, but it sounded like an adventure!  We paddled through the cut at Stanwood, through La Conner, around Orcas Island, out to Stuart Island, crossed into Canada, and paddled the Gulf Islands to Nanaimo.  It was 8 days and 120 miles of fantastic adventures, including great campsites, lots of marine and bird life, and wonderful experiences.  And…my back didn’t hurt!  The kayak could carry three times as much gear and food as I could carry backpacking.  I was hooked.

My old California friend, Robert DeWolf, moved to Redmond, Washington from California, and I got him into sea kayaking.  He loved it too.  We started paddling from Issaquah, across Lake Sammamish, through the Sammamish Slough, down Lake Washington, and out through the Ship Canal to Golden Gardens Park in a number of day trips.  The idea of paddling the Inside Passage came up, but neither of us could afford to take off enough time to do the whole route at once.  We decided to do it anyway and connect the dots, and on 1-day, 2-day, or longer trips we started connecting our dots.  We could put together a 2-3 week vacation each summer.  Our first major trip in 1996 was from Mayne Island around Saturna Island, South and North Pender Islands, and Prevost Islands, and back to Mayne Island.  In 1997 we paddled from Powell River to Kelsey Bay, which set the standard for longer adventure trips.  In 1998 we paddled in British Columbia from Sechelt to Saltery Bay and from Kelsey Bay through the Broughton Archipelago, and back to Port McNeil. We then took a trip in 1999 from Bella Bella to Prince Rupert (19 days, 230 miles).

We decided that the full Inside Passage started in Olympia, Washington and ended in Skagway, Alaska, so we started backtracking and filling in the missing segments.  We paddled from Olympia to Golden Gardens, Nanaimo to Powell River, and then I got involved in the North Sound Sea Kayaking Association (NSSKA).  I started taking a lot of trips with them, and soon became the Trip Coordinator.  I led a lot of day and overnight trips and gained more experience.  In 2009 Robert and I circumnavigated Revillagegedo Island and camped in Misty Fjords National Monument (18 days, 190 miles).  In 2013 Robert & I led a group of NSSKA paddlers from Ketchikan to Wrangell on a great adventure trip.

Since then, Robert & I have completed the rest of the Inside Passage including, Port McNeil to Port Hardy, Port Hardy to Bella Bella, Wrangell to Juneau, and Juneau to Skagway.  I have also led expeditions to Kyuquot Sound (including the Bunsby Islands, Brooks Peninsula, Spring Island, and Rugged Point), Campbell River to Kelsey Bay by the back channels including five saltwater rapids, 165 miles of the Willamette River, 149 miles through the Upper Missouri River Breaks in Montana, The Black Canyon of the Colorado and Mojave Lake in Nevada, and the Green River through Canyonlands National Park in Utah…twice.  I have also participated in an expedition to the Exuma Islands in the Bahamas that was led by another NSSKA member.

Skills Development

I was mostly self-taught.  My whitewater experience prepared me pretty well for sea kayaking, and the rest I learned by experience.  I practiced as much as I could, Focusing on rolling, bracing, and paddling strokes. I did learn a lot from my paddling partners, NSSKA, and pushing myself a little each new trip.  Early on I took two Coast Guard Auxiliary courses, Fundamentals of Boating and Advanced Coastal Navigation, which helped me immensely. I read a lot!  Some of the books that helped me the most were Mountaineering Freedom of the Hills by The Mountaineers, Backpacking One Step at a Time by Harvey Manning, Sea Kayaking by John Dowd, Fundamentals of Kayak Navigation by David Burch, Sea Kayaking Navigation Simplified by Lee Moyer, and four Bear Encounter Survival Guides by James Gary Shelton (who lives in Bella Coola, British Columbia).  Videos on Bracing; Capsize, Recoveries and Rescues; and ABC’s of the Surf Zone from the University of Sea Kayaking also helped immensely.  I practiced surfing into shore and paddling out through surf until I got it figured out.

I used a wetsuit for many years until good Gore-Tex drysuits began to be available.  They were definitely more comfortable, warmer, and safer.  My camping experience also continued to develop over the years.  Water filtration systems, Hennessey Hammocks, food bear hangs, GPS, and other ideas crept into my kit.  I have always considered my best skill were in route planning, navigation, bear avoidance, camping, bracing to stay upright, and good common sense.

My mantras have been “paddle, paddle, paddle” and “when in doubt, don’t go out”.