Volume CXXXIII, Number 16 February 15, 2002 f

Kayaker Bob Powell speaks at Bowdoin
LAUREN WHALEY
STAFF WRITER

His expectation was to have peaceful camping on the pristine Antarctic beaches-nothing but rocks, sand, sky, water. "We pull up, and it was penguins squawkin', Elephant Seals fartin' and burpin', and you've got to find a place to put your tent."

Bob Powell skims the surface in the South Atlantic Ocean. (Courtesy of Bob Powell)

Bob Powell, last Thursday's Bowdoin Outing Club speaker described the chronic lodging dilemma faced by himself and two companions on their 50-day sea kayaking expedition in 1996 to South Georgia Island, in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Inspired by Ernest Shackleton's 1914 odyssey on the boat, Endurance, the three raft guiding buddies embarked on their expedition to a place about which they had read few accounts. "We didn't know what huge meant. Strong winds? What does that mean?" Powell's slides showed the kayakers floating on steely blue water set against a background that looked like a postcard of the Teton wilderness. Snow-covered mountains behind the vast, freezing waters provided a daunting welcome to the modern adventurers with their plastic boats, dry suits, and 50 days worth of beef jerky.

When Powell checked in with authorities, they greeted him, saying, "We don't have a boat, we're not gonna be able to come get you." This sobering realization at the outset of their trip made the echo of Shackleton's journey as potent, exciting, and intimidating as the blue glaciers welling up behind the white-capped water. They began their journey by loading 500 pounds of gear into three sea kayaks and "paddling away like we knew what we were doing."

Six-foot-seven and sinewy, with legs dwarfing the Bowdoin podium and hands like my sea-faring grandfather, Powell addressed an audience thirsty for an adventure story. And, he seemed to have an infinite number of tales to tell. Between 1992 and 1996, Powell claimed many honors in the sport of kayaking. Paddling partner and friend, Mike Woodruff pitched Powell's adventure with enthusiasm, "1996: It was a good year in the paddling world and in the life of Bob Powell, the wanderer."

As a member of the U.S. National Team, Powell earned the number one spot as a C-1 (closed canoe) paddler in wild water competitions. He competed in the World Championships and World Cup, placing among the top ten boats of the Cup multiple years in a row. His whitewater accolades, however, were not part of the evening's program. From under his blondish mustache came the sounds of growls, burps, claps, farts, and roars as he coupled wildlife slides with homemade surround sound.

While the pictures told much of his experience surfing waves, sledding his kayak down an icy slope to the water's edge, and paddling in almost continual light, it was the words of the dungareed man that sent the giggling audience into awed whispers and back to hooting as he described going on a "SWAT mission" looking for campsites amid piles of mud-saturated seals claiming their spaces on the limited shoreline.

The men got what they sought on their of Shackletonesque voyage, as they put themselves at the mercy of the sunshine, wind, hail, waves, and fog in their small plastic vessels. One day of the trip, there were 100 mph winds on the beach where the three men were camped. Their tent exploded and they all lay down "spread eagle," on their gear. Powell makes a whizzing sound to describe the cat-sized object that zipped past his head. It was an "Antarctic bowling ball," he informs us. The audience waits for the explanation, smiling. "Adult Penguins make a run for the grass to get back to their babies in between gusts." When the wind comes again, they face plant their bills into the sand, flattening out on their bellies, only to be blown, tumbling past the heads of their fellow islanders, whizzing, back into the water.

Partway through the trip, the trio decided to re-route and traverse the land, Shackleton's Gap, deviating from their original plan to circumnavigate the whole of South Georgia Island. According to Powell, this "change of heart" forced the men to re-identify their trip goals. They wanted to "explore more, go into every fjord…learn a lot about South Georgia Island." They visited Shackleton's grave, stayed at scientific stations, explored the rusty ruins of old whaling operations, took time to hike the rocky coastal hills that flanked their campsites, learned about the history of the island, and observed its wild inhabitants. Anticipating an untouched wilderness, Powell regretfully informed his listeners that "every day I saw the impact of man: trash; rope, strangling fur seals." He reminded us that people are still affecting even the most isolated places, like this island, this "dot in the middle of the ocean." Powell also took this time to render an "artist's interpretation" of their experience through watercolors. "Our new goals made all the difference in the world to us," he explained thoughtfully. "We were getting more knowledgeable and more relaxed."

Despite its isolation, South Georgia Island is a vital breeding sanctuary for a heavy concentration of wildlife. Millions of southern fur and elephant seals come to the island to breed. An equal number of penguins make the island their home; sometimes entire hillsides are covered with their nests. And Powell's slides show this. He shows pictures of Gentoo, Adelie and Chinstrap penguins by the hundreds; Wandering Albatross, Grant's Petrels; leopard, elephant, and fur seals. On the rockier snow hills, he photographed members of the two remaining populations of reindeer brought in by early whalers.

Now a full time graduate student at Yale University, Powell plans to incorporate his recent studies and adventures into learning and teaching more about Antarctica. He hopes to conduct a study on how nature-based tourism impacts the values, behaviors, and knowledge of people. According to Powell, no one has ever tried to measure this. Powell ended his account explaining that an adventure was "something that pushes your abilities and the outcome isn't guaranteed. He proposed that anybody could do these types of trips. "The natural world offers an opportunity to test the self mentally and physically," pausing before adding, "and to connect aesthetically and spiritually."

Steady-eyed, with forearms tanned and muscled from years of boating, Powell tells me that there's something nice about expeditions, something different than just day trips. Serving as Director of Adventure Travel at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina for seven years, Powell has had experience leading trips to various parts of the world. His geographic guiding history claims venues in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Nepal, China, Fiji, Chile, Turkey, Greece, and Guadeloupe. "[Trip leading] teaches you leadership, trip planning, and coping with the fact that you can apply to all aspects of your life." And Powell certainly lives this doctrine, as he continues to delight us with his stories.