Kathy Baker revealed in the April 24 issue of The Portager (“Meditations on Peace, Flow and Patience”) that “to find inner peace one needs to become like a river.” That thought led her to explore the teachings of the Mighty Mississippi. It inspired me to ponder my decades-long relationship with a different kind of waterway: whitewater rivers of the Appalachians. Paddling such rivers is exciting and carries an element of danger, but few pursuits are so fulfilling.