"My early family fishing trips to the remote areas of Quebec, where the rock has been scraped bare by glaciers to form a starkly beautiful landscape full of lakes, rivers and resistent outcroppings sloping to the water, definitely set me on a path to become a guide from an early age. From the age of seven on, I would ride in the bow and yell a warning at the sight of boulders looming below the surface. Boulders that could destroy our propeller and leave us stranded in the midst of an unpopulated wilderness. The movement of the water, the play of the

Chuck began running whitewater rivers 20 years ago, starting in open canoes. "It's a good place to start", says Chuck, "as they are demanding teachers. You don't want to make too many mistakes in a boat that fills up easily, so you spend time learning to read water carefully." Chuck moved to Portland earning a bachelor of science degree in biology from Lewis and Clark College. Once in the Northwest he switched to kayaking. He kayaked extensively in the Portland, Oregon area for six years. In Oregon he got his first taste for multi-day whitewater trips, which led to trips to Idaho, Arizona and British Columbia.

Chuck has worked 12 seasons as a commercial guide, every year making the migration to the rivers of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, where he's often found on the class V wilderness stretch, "The Forks of the Kern", and other California streams. Chuck's international guiding experience has allowed him to lead trips on famed class V rivers around the world. He has guided trips on the Zambezi in Africa and on various class IV and V rivers in Costa Rica. He has spent five seasons in Chile, working on both the Bio Bio and the Futaleufu. Chuck's talents earned him an invitation to work on the Sjoa river in Norway, where as safety manager for a growing company he helped develop the skills of beginning guides. He's been an instructor in guide schools in the Italian Dolomites, California and Norway, as well as teaching kayaking in Oregon and California. He is swift water rescue III certified. Chuck has also participated in an expedition to the Bashkaus in Siberia and worked the Gauley in West Virginia

Chuck lived for two years in Mexico City, where he graduated from high school. Life in Mexico gave him an excellent foundation in speaking Spanish and opened his interests to the joy of learning about and living within another culture. In addition to fulfilling his love for the river, guiding has been a wonderful match for him in providing a way to live in, work in and absorb a foreign culture for months at a time. When he's not guiding Chuck lives and enjoys the outdoors with his wife, Ann, in Bozeman, Montana