Pete led many week-long youth trips down the Upper James River, launching at Iron Gate and taking out five days later, just before the dam at Snowden (a great interactive map is available on the site). The river became familiar territory, but the real draw was never just the water. For Pete, these trips were a chance to carve out uninterrupted, special time with his daughter, Amy — days without distraction, just the two of them and the current. Amy grew up on those trips, and the lessons stuck. Years later, she became a canoe leader herself, carrying forward the same love of the river her father had given her.