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ANYTHING WORTH DOING
and
THE ADVENTURER'S GUIDE TO A HAPPY LIFE
Book reviews by Lynn Rosen
HighOnAdventure.com   December 1, 2012

Anything Worth Doing (...is Worth Overdoing) by Jo Deurbrouck

 
  Salmon River, lower  
 
Idaho's Lower Salmon     Photo by Chad Case Photography
 

This white knuckle adventure classic by Jo Deurbrouck (pronounced doer-brock), a near-fifty-year-old healthy soul who looks to be in her thirties, white-water river guided in Idaho for 12 years. Ten years ago she looked at her life, decided that most white-water river guides didn’t guide much past the age of 50, choosing instead more security in the form of a roof over their heads and jobs with medical insurance. Deurbrouck did the same.

  Anything Worth Doing book cover   Jo Deurbrouck  
 
Book's cover
 Author Jo Deurbrouck  

“I realized that I wanted to live a life with the creature comforts and security of hot water, an income, health care insurance and a roof over my head," said Deurbrouck. She left the guiding to younger people and has, instead, written a riveting book about two courageous adventurers.

  Author Jo Deurbrouck says:

"Me guiding (in the purple helmet) on Idaho's Lochsa River at a rapid called Lochsa Falls, probaby but not certainly circa 1996, the year Clancy died. That's a highwater setup called a 'stern mount paddle assist.' At lower water we'd've been in a straight paddle boat so I would not have been using oars. The guests probably have paddles in the water that you can't see, because if they weren't paddling they'd've likely been knocked back into the boat. : )"
  Rafting Idaho's Lochsa River  
     
Photo courtesy of ROW Adventures
 
     
  Lochsa River guiding by Jo Deurbrouck   Grand Canyon rafting  
 
Idaho's Lochsa River (and the company Jo used to guide for called ROW Adventures) Photo courtesy of ROW Adventures

Watery rollercoaster: Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Photo by Jo Deurbrouck

 

As a white-water river guide on the wilderness rivers of Idaho—mostly on the Salmon, the Hells Canyon section of the Snake River, the Middle Fork and the Lochsa.—Deurbrouck heard the stories about a legendary guide, Clancy Reece. Reece was joined on his greatest adventure by another guide, Jon Barker. Barker was the source of a lot of her narrative. She paints a compassionate, intimate portrait of these two maverick adventurers who ran Reece's no-motor homemade dory from the headwaters of the Salmon in upcountry Idaho to the Pacific, 920 miles.

  Jon Barker   Clancy Reece  
 
Jon Barker
Clancy Reece
 

“I wanted to write about lives balanced between freedom and risk, lives founded on what at the time seemed to me a fantasy -- that childhood wouldn't end, that the bill would never come due,” said Deurbrouck. But as many extreme adventurers have learned, the bill does come due. These men’s final adventure: An attempt to set a 24-hour downriver speed record in extreme and dangerous big water.

Reece and Barker undertook this adventure as Reece was turning 51 with all the vagaries of a life of a river rat nomad—an aging body, poverty, no post-guiding life plans, no trust funds. This sport is a young person’s game. What happens when a committed adventurer runs out of youth?

Deurbrouck takes the reader deep into their experience and adventure and through her own personal struggle to balance the freedom of an outdoor life with its risks and costs.

http://thecurrentnews.net/salmon-river-story-wins-national-outdoor-book-award/

   
 
"What I fear..." Idaho's Lower Salmon, May of 2010. "That's me in my kayak, floating ahead of the rafts and pretending I'm alone. :)" Photo by Barry Rabin
 
 

 

     
 

 

Adventurer’s Guide to Living a Happy Life by Matt Mosteller

  Matt Mosteller and dog   Adventurers  
 
Author and friend
Cover of book
 

Matt Mosteller is first and foremost an awesome skier. Just try to keep up with his graceful, crazy and adventurous swerves and curves down a ski slope or into a crevasse. With “Adventurers’ Guide to Living a Happy Life”, Matt has translated his love of adventure on the mountains to a sweet book documenting his outdoor enthusiasms and love of the outdoors by embracing and sharing some 63 simple tips for living the good life.

  Adventurer's Guide Matt Mosteller Yukon Challenge   Adventurer's Guide Matt Mosteller Yukon Challenge  
  Adventurer's Guide Matt Mosteller Yukon Challenge   Adventurer's Guide Matt Mosteller Yukon Challenge  
     
  Matt Mosgeller with Olympic torch  

Mosteller’s inspiration for these 63 Life Lessons came from his 40 years of experience in the Ski/Outdoor industry and his intensive training to compete in the grueling outdoor event, The Yukon Challenge, which involves a multi-sport adventure race. Matt dog-sledded, snow shooed, ran, snowmobiled, ice drove and mountain climbed over 1,800 miles. Whew! And then he took a year off and wrote this book.

The book is packed with Matt’s inspirational tips and strategies that give the reader a shove towards positive changes and some big joy in life. “Your attitude and approach to life truly can move mountains, get you jobs, inspire friendships and pick you up during your darkest moments. It’s the key to having a wonderful life...Carpe Diem!”

 

 
  Matt carries the Olympic torch      
  Matt Mosteller with family  
     

Twitter–@powdermatt; facebook–PowderMatt Mosteller; Pinterest–PowderMatt

 
     
 
 
 
 
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