 |
| Ben Digging Deep, Chetco River, Southwest Oregon |
Today is Ben's Birthday.
Happy birthday, Ben! He is, therefore, a fitting guide to feature in this week's installment of our ongoing "Where's Your Guide" series. This time, we thought we'd break things down by prompt.
First: Who's Ben?
 |
| Ben Making Breakfast at the Always Excellent South Fork Salmon Confluence Camp |
Ben is a-
-temporarily elsewhere, and Southern--Oregonian, a River Guide (R.G.), a former Division One pitcher and a current Duke Medical student. Also, he's also a top-notch individual.
(For those of you who joined us on the Main Salmon last season, you surely remember Ben--if not
by name, then
as the disproportionately large-and-in-charge-looking member of the crew.)
Second: Where's Ben?
Ben lives in Durham, North Carolina. (You're Welcome, Ben. Privacy is the past.)
View Larger Map
He relocated to there last August
--directly from Riggins, ID, in a truck loaded with all his wordily possessions, mere hours after coming off a 5-Day Main Salmon River Trip and on the tail-end of the Main Salmon season--to begin studies at the Duke School of Medicine. This is neat for two reasons:
Reason 1) Ben might well be the first person ever to go directly from (A) getting off the last trip in a month-of-trips river-guiding in Idaho to (B) getting in a pickup and driving across the USA, and once arrived (C) beginning medical school, and;
Reason 2) In this way, among others, Ben defies stereotypes both about M.D.s and R.G.s (River Guides)--not that we buy into that...Brother.
Claim to Fame? (i.e., What's the coolest thing Ben has done in the past week.)
Ben's most recent claim to fame involves, as Sehj Kashyap puts it, "ruining cerebellar motor theories." Kashyap, who posted the video evidence to Facebook (Facebook evidence being, as we all know, the most veracious evidence of all), explains what this means in the comments below:
"Basically, we tried throwing Ben's cerebellum for a loop with glasses that changed his perspective by 15 degrees--it didn't work. His cerebellum should have taken a while to adjust afterwards-- that didn't work either. He was hitting bullseye every time."
Ben: 1 Cerebral Motor Theories: 0
In Sum
- Ben is a River Guide (R.G.)
- Ben is a person.
- It is Ben's Birthday. Happy 26th Birthday, Ben!
- He currently resides in North Carolina.
- Ben defies stereotypes. For instance, he demonstrates that R.G.s can be M.D.s, too.
- Ben is all about breaking records (see above, The Ruination of Cerebellar Motor Theories).
- Remember to follow your guide.
