We lost a good kid today

[raft3plus]

Next time I see you I'll have to kick Your Ass for leaving us for the rest of the boating seasons all alone. Damn you! Get out of this skin that easy? Most likely you'll be leading the way on the water in your next life as well. See you then and let's boat then too.

Why I ought to... ok, anger is not the Path.

First time I saw you on Gore - people were calling what sounded like my name and I thought - WTF over? How many Dirk/Derk/Durk/DirkaDirkaJihads are there on the river at any given time? JFC.. That's how we met laughing at each other with full belly laughs many moons ago at Gore saying oh, you're the other one I heard about...

Then MANY YEARS LATER you had the Main Salmon (cache bar) on down a couple of months ago, meanwhile some of us front rangers and west slopers had a ticket in hand for a six day ride down the MFS with Flowtorch, Yakrafter, DanRauer etc... and you extended our Dream into an amazing Dream-Come-True 12 day Idaho Salmon extravaganza. Thank you!

There you were at Cache Bar with two 30 packs of PBR an your mean red machine. Sorry you lost your Buckskin Bill's hat after your first roll with it - DUMBASS, what were you thinking?? I'll yell at you again now, because that was a cool hat and you Loved it! Ugh. Killin' me..

Was great to hug you on the takeout when saying goodbye at your car and realizing I had picked you up by about a foot off your feet. Then you got into that POS and made like a rally car driver.

So I am glad we had that talk about dying on the river. This is way better than the alternatives discussed and thank you.

Much love to a wise and greatly talented little brother. You would have been a great rafter

... sorry to miss your goodbye thingy-dingy. Was on the upper 5 of the North Fork Payette as we had talked about and thought about you as the warm water splashed all over us. You would have been there... so were the Pirhana dudes again and some of your other h2o homeys.

... and sorry I couldn't post until today.. just couldn't sack up to it and didn't know what to say. I'm going to miss you.

SYOTR

Dirk

[Count's Girl]

Annie wanted me to post this. She found in a basket with his graduation things and thought you all might like to read one of Derk's poems.

River-Thunder

As you approach, you hear the behemoth roar.
The canyon’s sweet serenity is no more.
Though you stand and search, you effort is futile,
The only help, the only clue- a deafening warning:
The River Thunders

Carefree relaxation, and peace,
The cool comfort of the water,
And it’s soft Assurance, of Home
Quickly fade in the moment,
As the River Thunders.

Your fleeting glances see much,
You see the soapy swirls of foam,
The ever-so-quickly retreating eddyline,
The sinuous lines of the flowing darkwater.
But your ears, they hear the River Thunder.

The warm sun sparkles on the hard water.
You grit your teeth and splash your face
You know where you must go
As the current pulls you over the lip.

The River Thunders.

D

[waterratNE]

I read this poem when I found this thread, and loved it. I thought it seemed silly to post it because I did not know him, and so many of you did. I just read it again, and it is a beautiful and perfect description of a the river. Thank you so much for sharing it with us, and I am still saddened by the loss.

-Alexis