Louis Norris

The Middle Fork of the Kings is one of the best overnight trips in the world. It is a diverse experience, with a 12 mile hike over a 12,000 foot pass, low volume slides, boulder gardens, and after the confluence, a section that feels close to big water. The portaging is generally easy-- thanks mostly to a very well maintained trail running along the majority of the river. It’s my favorite river trip in the world and a place I make an effort to return to as often as possible.  The dream to kayak the Middle Fork of the Kings river in a day was both a shared and deeply individual project. Carson and Coleman have been at the cutting edge of California kayaking together for nearly a decade. They had dreamed, talked and planned this mission for the same amount of time. I am several years younger, and was not nearly as strong or skilled until recently. My ambitions for Middle Kings were a largely private endeavor and, for a long time, much more of a dream than a goal.  I suppose here...

“Heyyyyy bear!” Ben slapped his paddle against the boat sitting on his shoulder. It was two in the morning and were making as much noise as possible as we walked down the trail in the dark, hoping to make any bears in the nearby vicinity aware of our presence and hopefully too intimidated by our boisterous voices to contemplate having a middle of the night snack of two very haggard kayakers. Still, our pace picked up in this theoretically bear infested section before Ben stopped suddenly and checked the downloaded map on his phone. “Shit, we’re somehow on the Continental Divide Trail, we’re gonna have to backtrack”. There wasn’t much to say at that point. We turned around and walked back through the bear den before reconnecting with the correct route that would take us over the pass and into Bull Lake Creek.  It is often hard for me to pinpoint when precisely a dream becomes a goal. The Bull Lake single push onsight was no exception, and inspiration for this mission was drawn from...

From Louis Norris: A couple of days ago I lost one of my closest friends, a phenomenal paddler, and an incredibly kind human being. Abel meant so much to me. As a friend. As a kayak partner, and as someone who’s well-being and success I cared deeply about. Johnny and I are so proud to be his friend, and to see the progress he made in the last year of his life was deeply inspiring and humbling. He was a student of life. He wanted so badly to do things the right way- on the river and off. The last time I saw him was when he picked me up from SFO when I flew back from Madagascar. He was always there for me, remarking that “I can’t believe I get to pick you up!” We talked of many of the usual things on the drive- paddling dreams for the future, eccentric stories from my time overseas. He articulated how excited he was to move forward and continue chasing a good life centered around rivers. I feel so grateful for all the small moments and joy we shared together. His love for kayaking was un...

It is easy to connect modern Madagascar to its history. The country is an ephemeral concoction of many things, all of which appear, as an outsider, to be constantly shifting and evolving. Similarly, the island has seen Arab traders, French colonizers, Asian settlers and African immigration, despite the fact that Madagascar was one of the last places on earth to be settled by humans. The capital has an air of desperate poverty; many people live on less than a dollar a day. They move in and out of vision, selling whatever they can. The informal economy serves many more people than the established stores and restaurants, who's high prices can only be met by the Malagasy elite and us-- the visiting fahaza. Outside the cities, much of the land seems to be rejecting the best efforts of the people to create stability. The wet season obliterates many of the roads. Getting around is not easy. Madagascar is constantly near the top of the UN’s famine watch list. To say that the people are liv...