Kayaking couple
shares trip, book
■ Byron Ricks and Maren
van Nostrand show a Knight
Library audience the slides
that inspired their book
By Inge McMillen
for the Emerald
Byron Ricks and wife Maren
van Nostrand presented a slide
show Monday evening at Knight
Library depicting the trip that in
spired their recently released
book, “Homelands — Kayaking
the Inside Passage.”
The slide show shared a five
month voyage down the Inside
Passage from Glacier Bay, Alaska,
to Puget Sound, Wash., with about
120 students, ex-students and
community members.
Ricks wrote the book from trav
el logs that van Nostrand illustrat
ed.
The purpose of the voyage,
Ricks said, was to discover the
concept of home.
“Most people kayak from Seattle
and up,” he said. “We had a gut feel
ing that starting in the national park
and paddling back home would
have much more fneaning for us.”
The Inside Passage is about
1,600 miles, Ricks said. During a
summer with above average rain
fall, Ricks and van Nostrand spent
just one day in shorts and T-shirts.
Most days featured three-meter
waves and 25-knot winds or more,
he said.
While paddling the Inside Pas
sage required getting used to some
new equipment, the couple is ac
r
customed to adventuring togeth
er, Ricks said. The decision to
paddle two kayaks instead of a
double was a natural one, van
Nostrand said. It gave them a feel
ing of independence from each
other, she said.
“It’s probably why we are still to
gether today,” vanNostrand said.
The slides showed how the voy
age carried the couple through un
cut rain forests, jagged mountains,
small native villages and stony
beaches. The slides presented all as
pects of their travel — from shorts
so salty they would stand (and pos
sibly walk) on their own, to Velveeta
sandwiches, to carcasses of old, dis
integrating trucks on the beach.
Accompanied only by charts,
compasses and a VHF two-way ra
dio, the couple progressed south
averaging a fingernail’s breadth on
their map per day.
The definition ofabeach dropped,
van Nostrand said, from a flat, nice
landing to anywhere they could pos
sibly pull the kayak onto land.
Their definition of bear-safe
camp site changed as well. When
they started out, the couple care
fully scanned potential sites for
signs of bears. But as the trip pro
gressed, a bear-safe camp site be
came a camp site where no bears
were in sight, van Nostrand said.
“This is a trip I’ve thought about
and always wanted to do,” said
Ian Mackie, volunteer for the Uni
versity Outdoor Program.
The book reads less like Jon
Krakauer and more like a travel log,
Tom Gerald of the University Book
store said in introducing the authors.
Pesznecker
Continued from Page 7
have been the greatest squad of
the decade, giving former head
coach Gerry Gregory’s 15-14
1990 team a serious run for its
money.
The Civil War victory was a
statement that what happened
this season was a fluke. No team
with the ability to play that well
should lose 16 matches.
Those who were there know it.
For those who weren’t, the state
ment probably wasn’t loud
enough. On paper, a 1-13 confer
ence record just doesn’t look
very convincing.
Next year brings another sea
son, and almost the entire cast
returns for another chance to
make a statement. A new season
offers the chance to start out with
regained confidence and no los
ing record, plus a more experi
enced roster.
If the Ducks play even half as
well as they played against Ore
gon State on Friday, I’m sure
their statement will be heard.
Scott Pesznecker is a sports reporter for the
Emerald He can be reached via e-mail at
spesznec@gladstone. uoregon. edu.
Jeffrey Stockton Emerald
Amy Banducci led Oregon to a Civil War win Friday night with 21 kills and 17 digs.
Sports brief
Two Ducks still playing in
Seattle tournament
Two members of the Oregon
men’s tennis team advanced to
the quarterfinals of the consola
tion round of the ITA Regionals
in Seattle.
Leslie Eisinga and Joaquin
Hamdan both won their matches
Monday to advance to the quar
terfinals today.
Eisinga won both his matches,
defeating Sebastian Iff of Sacra
mento State 8-1 and beating Cali
fornia’s Scott Kintz 9-7. Earlier in
the day, Kintz defeated fellow
Duck Jason Menke 8-5.
Hamdan joined Eisinga in the
quarterfinals with a 9-8 win over
Mark Woolley of Washington.
Three other Oregon players
lost their matches Monday.
Cedric Vanhaver lost to Ryan
Livesay of Santa Clara. David
Becker lost 8-1 to another Santa
Clara player, Matt Cox, and Oded
Teig was eliminated 9-7 by Nick
Quatrochi of Washington.
Hamdan plays Cox this morn
ing, while Eisinga faces seventh
seeded David Martin of Stanford.
Matt O’Neill
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