Born and raised in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, I started fishing with my father before I could walk and learned to row a boat before I could ride a bike. I built my first drift boat in wood shop in high school, joined a boating club and started running all the wild and scenic rivers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, as the only boy in an all men's club. I started guiding in 1966 for a company that operated on the Rogue and Deschutes Rivers. In 1970 I started my own company, "Northwest River Outfitters," and worked many rivers in Oregon and Idaho: Deschutes, Rogue, Grand Ronde, Middle Fork of the Salmon, Snake River through Hells Canyon, Willamette, Santiam and Siletz just to name a few.

In 1986 I decided to turn all the trips over to my son, Craig and do only the Rogue River. I moved to Gold Beach and built a home over looking the Rogue River and the Pacific Ocean. Living in Gold Beach is like a dream come true. It is extremely beautiful and filled with friendly people. Gold Beach is the perfect place to be based for my canyon trips and offers endless opportunities for the day trips with many runs coming in.