Recently, I realized my site is gathering a bit of dust, while I have kept moving on the rivers, so figured an update was in the works. Thanks for reading!
In late July last year, I was informed I was going to be included in a round of layoffs at my corporate e-commerce Product role at a local St. Louis company. I wasn’t terribly surprised or upset, this was my second layoff in 3 years, and our stock prices had been down for a few quarters, and I was one of the newer employees with a lot less history at the company. During the meeting to let me know about my departure, my first thought was how I’d spend my time during unemployment and my mind naturally traveled to river trips. Before I left the room, I knew it’d be the Mississippi.
See previous posts for a detailed recap of my New Haven, MO to the Gulf trip of October 2025. It was everything I’d hoped it would be and more. Any grief or stress of leaving the coporate world not on my own circumstances quickly drifted away as I headed south. I have been very lucky to have a nearly 20 year career in technology, and my parents’ lessons of saving money and frugality (along with endlessly supportive friends and family) has allowed me some flexibility to pursue passions in my life that may not be quite as financially lucrative.
Upon returning to St. Louis after the Mississippi trip, I dove back into job searching, updating the resume, submitting it for various roles in tech, reaching out to contacts to see what’s out there. Had a couple bites but nothing came through. And honestly, my heart wasn’t really in it. I enjoyed the holidays with friends and family then looked ahead toward spring and summer. Enter Big Muddy Adventures.
For many years, I’ve admired our local big river guide and outfitting company. In the last few years, they’ve reformed under the umbrella of River City Outdoors (and Terrain Magazine), and their mission generally is to get people outdoors, and get people out on the big rivers. I’ve crossed paths with Big Muddy over the years, paddling by a flotilla of their canoes on the Missouri, watching them load their large voyageur canoes after a trip at the Arch, partying with their crew after the MR340 race, and chatting all things rivers with the legendary Big Muddy Mike Clark at various social events. And I’ve made friends with many of their river guides over the years. So in February, I reached out to Executive Director Matt Green to see if they’d be open to taking me on as a new river guide in 2026. I was delighted when he immediately replied that we’d love to have you.
I started at Big Muddy in March, with a few colder weather trips, but generally prepping gear for a long summer season and learning a ton about their business and systems. I was immediately impressed with the level of organization, systems and most importanly, safety. Fast forward a few months, and I’ve been on roughly 20 river trips with a lot of warehouse days in between, doing gear cleanup, repair, training and other prep work. The guides have been amazing, welcoming me into the family. I’ve been delighted to share my river knowledge with the crew, and it seems like they’ve relished having a relatively experienced river man on board vs. a greenhorn. Many times so far this year, I’ve found myself sitting in the back of a big canoe heading downriver, or feet buried in a sandbar, or looking up at a full moon in the middle of a river thinking, I cannot believe I am getting paid for this.
Our trips generally break down with half of trips taking kids or other non-profit groups out on the river, other half being paid public trips. Most trips involve serving lunch or dinner while on the river, so I’ve tried to help out with those logistics as much as possible, as food service tasks generally aren’t quite as fun for guides as the river/paddling stuff. I have delighted in seeing young kids out on the big boats, their eyes wide as they nervously and usually incorrectly dip their paddles in the water. I’ve had people remark several times that they didn’t know it was possible to paddle on these rivers before they heard of Big Muddy. I’ve tried to incorporate my passion for trash cleanup and recycling on the job as well, teaming up with a coworker to kick off a Green initiative at the company. I also always pack stream team trash bags on all the trips and spend a few spare minutes on every trip picking up trash at our put in, take out or out on the sandbars.
River guiding with Big Muddy will be pretty much a full time job through the summer into October or November, only to be interrupted by racing in my 8th MR340 in late July. After that, who knows? Much like a long paddling day, once the clock reaches that certain hour, I’ll take a look around, find an inviting sandbar to stop at, or look up around the bend to see what opportunities might be presenting themselves. Until then, I hope to see you on the river!
Check out our trips at https://www.2muddy.com
mf
Paddle St. Louis 