April 20-22, 2018
The weekend of April 20, 2018, the Ledyard Canoe Club is hosting the tenth annual Riverfest. Please join us in celebrating the past, present and future of the Ledyard Canoe Club and the rivers that fuel its adventures, learning, and leadership.
Riverfest weekend will kick off on Friday, April 20 with a talk by James Zug ’91, author of The Life and Adventures of John Ledyard, the Man who Dreamed of Walking the World. Zug, whose work has been featured in The Daily Beast and Vanity Fair, will discuss John Ledyard, the “original American explorer,” who Thomas Jefferson called a “man of genius” and was the first American to see Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. The Friday events will also feature a display of historical artifacts and documents from the Rauner Archives regarding the club, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2020. These events will be followed by Conservation on Tap, including the premier screening of a new conservation-oriented film by the acclaimed filmmaker Ben Masters.
Events on Saturday, April 21 will begin at 8am with the Mascoma River Slalom Race, the oldest consecutively run whitewater slalom competition in the country. At 3pm, the Dartmouth Explorers Symposium will kick off in Dartmouth Hall 105. The event will feature Ledyard alumni who have been part of historic adventures from the 1972 Munich Olympics, which introduced the world to whitewater racing and saw the murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists, to the 1966 and 1985 National Geographic Sea of Japan and Korea expeditions, to a 1984 trip that was the first to kayak the Great Gorges of the Yangtze. These Dartmouth explorers will talk about how they’ve integrated their river experiences into a broad range of careers including politics, clean energy, medicine, business and film making. The Explorers Symposium will also feature a panel on hydropower vs. conservation — “Climate Solution and Conservation Challenge” — including Frank Magilligan, Dartmouth Professor of Geography; Amy Singler, Director of River Restoration with American Rivers; and Scott Hall of Great River Hydro.
Riverfest will end with a mass-start downriver race at the Wells River on Sunday morning at 9 AM. After the race, the Ledyard Club historian will offer a tour of the Olympic Boat Shed down by the river. Throughout the weekend, Collis 101 will serve as a central location where attendees can gather, view the club’s historical artifacts, and plan their next river adventure.
This event sponsored by the Dartmouth Club of the Upper Valley.
Schedule of Events
Friday, April 20
- 5–7pm — Rauner Archive Tour — Collis 101
- 7:30pm — Conservation on Tap — Sarner Underground
Saturday, April 21
- 9am — Mascoma Slalom — Mascoma River
- 3–6pm — Dartmouth Explorers Symposium — Dartmouth Hall 105
Sunday, April 22
- 9am — Wells River Rumble — Wells River
- 2pm — Tour of the Olympic Shed boats — Ledyard Clubhouse