What was the first river you ever paddled?

The Raquette River in the Adirondacks at 18 years old. After that, the next one was the Owegatchie (many times).

Little Miami River in southwest Ohio in 1965 when I was 16. My cousin's family owned a Grumman and I had taken small boat lessons from my local Red Cross chapter in Delaware Ohio, which included rowboats, canoes, sailboats, and motor boats, but all on the local reservoir. I don't think I'd ever paddled a river. My uncle drove us from Yellow Springs, Oh. where they lived to Spring Valley and we paddled down to Ft. Ancient State Park, the site of ancient indigenous mounds and other earthworks where my aunt and uncle met us. Trip was about 17 miles. I remember it fondly. Later when I went to college in Yellow Springs, the PE department took classes out for trips on the Little Miami and the Mad River. Also on the Rock Castle River in southern Kentucky. All of these were day trips. Since then, I've done backcountry trips that were mostly lake and portage. My first multiday river trip was in the summer of 2017 on the Manistee in Michigan's lower penisula right after I retired.

Not sure of the name, but in union maine, started on Alford lake. Next was the raquette river from long lake to tupper lake, that was a boy scout trip. Great shenanigans on both trips , we learned a lot. For example throwing a few iodine pills up stream, wile collecting water does not constitute water purification. I still chuckle thinking of those times. The poor parents and counselors. although not the nicest use of vocabulary by today's standards. We always knew basically there feelings. Great people, remember them often, and am thank full.
Even if I reminded a few of them, of a box of rocks!

The first was an unnamed river, that ran from a lake I'd camped on as a child for a decade or so. For years, we camped at a private teacher's campground in Ontario (we still do - in fact, my mother is buried in that lake). We were around 14 years old when I and a cousin of mine got this idea in our heads to go down the river into Whitestone Lake, the next lake over, for a three or four day trip.

It was a lot of beaver dams and a lot of wading, and we got to the end of it after the better part of a day into a ferocious rainstorm. Soaking wet and padling against the wind in a $300 fibreglass canoe, bailing the boat, we sang and chanted old army songs to keep us going until the weather broke. On that trip I bellyflopped from a 30' cliff and we almost started a forest fire. Good memories.

The first "real" trip was a few years later on the Missinaibi. I traveled with someone I had met just a few weeks prior who wanted to come along after seeing my plans. We got along famously. We didn't take enough food and we starved, but we got through it, together and cohesively. Also good memories.

I don't remember how old I was - probably 10 or 12. We had a cottage in St Zenon, QC and the neighbour's son and I took his canoe out for a few hours on La Riviere Noire. No that one - I'd guess there about 50 rivers in QC that go by that name. Later, when I was 14, another friend and I took his "pool-grade" inflatable Seyvlor raft down that same river during the Spring thaw - that was stupid (and cold).

And speaking of college classes - being a freshman meant last choice for electives: Jazz Dance or Wilderness Survival. After teaching us a bunch of stuff that I already knew, the final "exam" was a 2 night stay, alone, without food and only a sleeping bag and plastic sheet, on some farmer's back 40. The funny thing is that the location, while being about 40 miles from campus, is only a few miles from my current home.

The upper Potomac River in 1961 with the Boy Scouts. I was hooked.

In 1968 I graduated high school and came up with the idea of the Senior Class Canoe Trip. We followed the same route up the C&O canal with 60 guys to a designated camp site. We had around 75 girls show up for the party. It was the 1960s so the girls left by midnight, but they came back to make us breakfast the next day . People still talk about it.

ppine said:

The upper Potomac River in 1961 with the Boy Scouts. I was hooked.

In 1968 I graduated high school and came up with the idea of the Senior Class Canoe Trip. We followed the same route up the C&O canal with 60 guys to a designated camp site. We had around 75 girls show up for the party. It was the 1960s so the girls left by midnight, but they came back to make us breakfast the next day . People still talk about it.

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Sounds like a good time was had by all!

My first river was the Youghiogheny near Dawson Pa. It was polluted from mine acid back then, but over the years the river was cleaned up and now is one of the best fisheries in the state.

I’ll call it “scout camp” because i don’t remember the name of the water. This was out of Sebring Florida in the mid 60’s. 12 man canoe races, how to empty and re-board swamped canoes, how to bring drowned folks back to the surface and a bunch of other “how to stuff” that’s not sticking with me!!
the most prevalent memories are the smell of pond water and emptying a swamped canoe! Great times and we practically lived in those canoes during our free time.

PacketFiend said:

The first was an unnamed river, that ran from a lake I'd camped on as a child for a decade or so. For years, we camped at a private teacher's campground in Ontario (we still do - in fact, my mother is buried in that lake). We were around 14 years old when I and a cousin of mine got this idea in our heads to go down the river into Whitestone Lake, the next lake over, for a three or four day trip.

It was a lot of beaver dams and a lot of wading, and we got to the end of it after the better part of a day into a ferocious rainstorm. Soaking wet and padling against the wind in a $300 fibreglass canoe, bailing the boat, we sang and chanted old army songs to keep us going until the weather broke. On that trip I bellyflopped from a 30' cliff and we almost started a forest fire. Good memories.

The first "real" trip was a few years later on the Missinaibi. I traveled with someone I had met just a few weeks prior who wanted to come along after seeing my plans. We got along famously. We didn't take enough food and we starved, but we got through it, together and cohesively. Also good memories.

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Small world. I paddled Whitestone whilst staying at a family cottage there. Went out solo for an explore and really enjoyed it.
Turned down several offers to take the powerboat out for a ride, been there and done that. The real fun for me is slowing down and living quietly, paddling. So that holiday I spent a lot of time swimming and paddling solo. But there was an afternoon when some crazy son-in-law insisted, he show us "the jumping off rock" or whatever the holiday hooligans called it. Feeling all brave and foolish I allowed myself to be conned into it, I clambered up the slope to the top. I remember the nice view from atop the cliff. I should remember the view because I stood rooted there long enough. I saw reason and decided jumping wasn't for me until a little 10-year-old girl jumped the queue and with child abandon fired herself off the edge. F me, now I had to go. So, I did. Despite my best efforts for a graceful manly Tarzan entry into Whitestone Lake I ended up doing an arse-flop leaving a sizeable wake. No amount of sarcastic applause could convince me to a repeat performance. But the view was really nice.
Our daughter and family were geared up this summer to do a simple overnighter paddle & camp on Whitestone with their two young boys, but a thunderstorm cancelled out that idea. Next summer.

As for my first river paddle, it was likely some river sections in Algonquin Park. There are any number of them besides the Pet, Nip, and Tim.

Eagle River in Wisconsin in a Grumman canoe at summer camp.

The first wilderness river was the Ausable R in Michigan on a road trip in rented Grummans.
In 1985 we paddled around 80 miles in the BWCA in rented al Grumman 17s.

My first was the Schoolcraft River, a tributary to the Mississippi here in Northern Minnesota. I first paddled it in about 1989, and have paddled some part of it almost every year since then. It was also the river I first tried canoe poling on a couple of years ago.

Will Derness said:

Upper Potomac River. In pursuit of the canoe 50 miler merit badge, as 12-13 yo Scouts we paddled Spring Gap to just short of Hancock. Multiple nights of camping on the river just added to the enjoyment. Made me a canoe enthusiast at a young age.

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Hi Will,
We paddled the Upper Potomac River above Great Falls starting in 1960. When I graduated high school in 1968 we had the Senior Class Canoe Trip up the C&O Canal and down the Potomac.

My final field project at the Univ of Maryland in geography was spending the day outside Hancock, Md and describing everything about it.

Miami Whitewater along the border of Ohio and Indiana.

The St Croix River, Maine, in 1995. I was 12 on a trip run by a boys summer camp, called Camp Kieve, in Nobleboro. My cousin Ben paddled bow and I was in the stern.

My first paddling experience was on (and in) a lake at Boy Scout camp, then on few other different lakes with my Scout troop.

My first river paddling was floating down the Nantahala River in a raft while on a 9th grade field trip.

My second time on a river was about 8 years later on a small class 1-2 stream named Jacob Fork River in Burke County, North Carolina, with the outdoor club at college. It was my first time in a canoe in quite a while. It was my first time paddling solo and also my first time in a C1 decked canoe, which I ended up buying a couple months later. That old Hahn C1 required a steep learning curve in boat handling and paddle control as I ended up spinning my way down the river trying to figure out how to make it go in a straight line. I did surf a small ledge in it without flipping, although I may have used the paddle to do a "bottom brace" a time or two. After that trip I was hooked on whitewater.

Ohhh... resuscitated thread. I missed the beginning of this.

My first was, I think, the Lower Wisconsin from Wauzeka (Where the Kickapoo joins the Wisconsin) down to Bridgeport. just before the bluff formations at Wyalusing and the confluence with the Mississippi. I was on my second home-built canoe at the time, but had only done lake paddling to that point. Friend of friends set up a big mutually supporting group - I think we had over a dozen canoes in the fleet, with varying levels of skill.

I tend to avoid the Wisconsin solo - it's a fast, powerful river deserving of respect. No rapids, but it has a reputation for some very weird eddys and for eating anything incautious.

Just had a thought for something that was earlier... does it count as river if you, your brother, and a buddy take a couple of kayaks up a little rill so shallow that we had to get out and tow a couple of times? We made it through a 36" culvert - back to floating at that point - and into a swamp. From thence to another small puddle lake just barely connected to the one we were vacationing on. Fun adventure for three boys in their early/mid teens.