A river is life. A river attracts life. Rivers are always changing — the water is changing, the wildlife is changing. It may be the same trees, but they will have grown.  Its movement, its life, its growth. The rivers are the arteries of the earth. They are what transfers life. Wildlife is attracted. People are attracted. Civilizations settle on the waterways. 

The river has many branches, many forks. Life is like that. There are many choices to be made travelling a river. And man who travels the length of a river learns something about himself. It is an experience everyone should have, at least once. Go the full length — starting from where it is nothing but a trickle, or several trickles that get together and form a creek. The creeks get together and become a river. The river comes from somewhere and it goes somewhere. Where does it go?  Can I go along? I cannot look at a river without wondering where the water is going. Ultimately it goes where all good waters go — to the great sea beyond.
- Verlen Kruger, river runner, canoe adventure extraordinaire. Heron Dance interview.

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Verlen Kruger paddled approximately 100,000 miles in his life, including up the Grand Canyon and up the Amazon River from sea mouth to source. He circumnavigated both Lake Superior and Lake Baikal in Russia. Although he held several world records, including time to paddle the length of the Mississippi River, he was motivated primarily by a sense of adventure, by wanderlust.