Trish Unruhe

by Trish Unruhe

“Our guide fell out of the boat! Our guide fell out of the boat!” I can hear the people on the raft screaming with looks of terror on their faces. The only problem is that I am the guide and that this is my boat. Now it is getting farther and farther away from me. I swim towards the shore and start running down the river bank shouting instructions as I hurdle over boulders and dodge rocks. One of the guys that I had invited on this trip down the South Fork of the American River has now jumped into the guide position. He uses his oar to steer the raft over to the side and pick me up. He reaches out a hand and smiles. He looks at me with his blue eyes and asks me, “Are you looking for a ride?”

It’s the summer of 1996 and I had just finished a guide school rafting course from Friends of the River. Now I am the “on river” summer intern living in a tent by the river and getting people to write postcards to their representatives to stop the building of Senator John Doolittle’s Auburn Dam Project. I had just met Drew, who worked for REI, at a F.O.R. Anti-Dam planning meeting. I decided to invite him to join me on a river trip the next weekend. What I had neglected to mention was that I hadn’t actually led a raft trip before.

I managed to stay in the raft for the rest of the trip. Drew then managed to stay around for the rest of the night. First he helped me put away all of the gear and then he helped me cook some dinner. After that we sat on the edge of the river at Camp Lotus and talked and laughed until the stars came out and the sky grew dark.

That was 24 years ago. Just as the river flows down towards the sea our lives flowed downstream to bring us to the ocean where we now live in Santa Cruz. We are married now and have a son named Noah. We both continue to work on the environment. Drew works for the parks taking care of West Cliff, our ocean park. Trish teaches science and engineering to middle school students. Stopping the dam is what brought us together and helping to make the world a better place is what keeps us together. I am proud to say that the North Fork of the American River still flows wild and free just like our love for each other continues to flow.

Trish Unruhe & Drew Jarvis now live in Santa Cruz, CA and have been married for 21 years.