WVU Daily Atheneum
13 June 2007
By Rachael Brady, Opinion Editor
Website is http://www.da.wvu.edu
People, noise and traffic clutter the atmosphere of downtown Morgantown, but something quieter is happening downstream.
Just a couple miles south of West Virginia University's main campus, Tim Terman is paddling a kayak across the nearly still surface of the Monongahela River.
It's just after 5:30 p.m. - rush hour - and Terman has started his Blue Heron Sunset Tour, a guided historical journey along the river. Several customers paddle after him in their own kayaks, tentative but stable as they adjust to the kinetics of their individual boats.
Terman, who serves as director of public relations and communications for the WVU College of Business and Economics, has been running these folklore-based kayak tours since 1999. Having gotten into the sport just a few years earlier, he did some research at the library and compiled a set of stories about the Mon River and its history. He combined the local folklore with his love of the sport and started the part-time tour business, Adventures on Magic River.
Each year during the warmer months, he runs all-ages tours every day of the week, depending on his reservations. He also runs nighttime tours during periods of full moon, during which it's common to spot nocturnal beavers and hear them slap their tails on the water.
He takes as few as four or as many as a dozen customers at a time. The tours consist of leisurely stints of paddling broken up by a pause for each of Terman's historical lectures.
His tales range from tragic, such as the demise of the original settlers at Dorsey's Knob, to hilarious, such as the exposure of a prohibition-era moonshiner due to a herd of unruly drunken pigs - "a different kind than the drunken pigs you see in Morgantown today," Terman jokes,
There's even a spooky tale of a crotchety old river ghost - Terman contends local fishermen swear they have spotted him in the fog.
Terman prides himself on showing a different side of Morgantown with his kayak tours. Area students have a lot to gain, he said, and he offers a $5 student discount off the adult rate of $30. "Some people come to school here for years and leave without learning the area's history and culture," he said.
But local color isn't the only benefit of Terman's tours. The kayaking expeditions are the perfect marriage of meditation and education.
The serenity of the river and the sensation of floating in the current make for a relaxing atmosphere. Factor in the sunset and the area wildlife - herons, kingfishers and the occasional bass breaking the river's surface - and it's hard to believe the city is just around the bend.
Terman has something to offer for customers of any skill level, even first-timers, and he loves introducing people to a new side of the city, the heritage and the sport itself.
More than anything, Terman said, he hopes his business is advantageous to the river itself. Public perception of the Mon River needs improvement, he said, because the river has improved greatly over the years. He even takes youth cleanup groups out on his kayaks to collect litter. "If more people enjoy the river, more people will be good stewards of it," he said.
For more information about booking an historic kayak tour on the Monongahela, visit www.magicriverwv.com. Terman promises, "You will see Morgantown from a perspective you've never seen it from before."