Article August 6, 2012 Issue

Follow the ducks!

Richard G. Lee

“Follow the ducks!”

That was the command that came ringing loudly and clearly in my thought on a cold September day on the Yukon River in Canada. My two companions and I in rubber-hulled inflatable kayaks were being swept by a rapid current of icy clear water toward a river-spanning barrier of broken trees and other jagged debris.

The danger seemed real enough: Damage to our boats would leave us stranded over a hundred miles from the nearest civilization, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police post farther downstream. There were no GPS units or satellite phones in those days.