Read some excerpts from Ken's Book!
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It is just out of reach. I go back to the shore and get a stick, and then I wade back out, snagging the fishing line pulling the branch down lower. I have to break the line by pulling as hard as I can. Snap! The lure is mine! It’s so colorful. The name imprinted in it side says, Crazy Crawler. As I am returning the fifteen feet or so to the shore, some bubbles start surfacing along side of me, approximately ten feet away. They are coming up like scuba diver’s air bubbles in a line moving out from the shore. I feel a new currant underwater as the vegetation below swirls and pushes against my legs. I can’t see into the murky water I’ve stirred up so it “creeps me out”. I try and fast-step out of the silt.

-------------Excerpt 1----------------     There’s a lot of lily pads in this large cove which is sub divided into a few crescent shaped mini-coves with the large swamp we visited yesterday bordering the far edge of the cove. This same swamp also encompasses the end side of the kidney shaped Glacier Lake.    I’m just meandering about just enjoying the fresh air. I notice there are fishing bobbers caught in the trees hanging over the water that borders the margins of the lake. Then I see a different looking lure suspended in some low hanging pine boughs. It’s half yellow and half orange similar to a jitterbug. I wade out into the water, sinking some into the muck below, hoping there aren’t any water snakes around and reach up for the lure. Rats!

There’s also a bizarre looking footprint that’s been clawed into the pebbly shore. “Hm-m-m”, I wonder aloud.

“Hm-m what?” Steve yells, startling the heck out of me. He’s laughing at me as he gets off his bike. He had silently coasted up, skidding the back tire a fraction of a second before speaking. “I was just wondering what kind of boat smashed this grass flat”. We gaze down at the trampled grass and follow its “flatness” down to the water and notice that the lily pads have a 4-foot wide space down the middle of them. He looks at me with protruding eyes and asks excitedly, “Did you see him?”  “See what?” I reply.  “The giant snapper!” he practically shouts.

That is, in addition to the real possibility of breaking an arm or leg during a high speed wreck.      The anticipation feels like Christmas morning when you sneak down to the living room and sort through the

-------------Excerpt 2---------------- I get back on my skateboard and prepare my mind for riding on the largest hills of my career. My objective is to hang on at all costs. Back home we use the “run off” method of bailing out whenever we go too fast, but that is for practice or training. This road is the “real deal” and it is newly paved. Hours, heck, years of preparation all lead to this moment. The new pavement is “cherry”, beckoning me to “go for it”! Even with my protective gear on, I have a healthy respect for the asphalt road because if I fall off and slide or tumble over it, the road will “eat” my pads, clothes and skin off me until I come to a stop.

I start getting high-speed wobble at the bottom of the hill. I drag the end of my walking stick onto the pavement, which either slows me down just enough or somehow stabilizes the craft. My knees are shaking and twitching from a combination of nervousness and stress as it takes all my strength to maintain stability. The wheels have an odd whirring sound to them as they roll faster than ever before. It’s a good thing this is a special downhill skateboard with wide axles and polyurethane wheels. My board is made of fiberglass overlaid laminate and the whole thing cost me a bundle.

presents to see which are yours before anyone else gets up and catches you. I take off down the first of a series of hills. I go so fast that the vibrations of the board beneath me cause my feet to move and slide fluidly on the fiberglass surface despite my having coarse “stick tape” applied to the board.   I go so fast that  I also roll 2/3 the way up the rise on the other side. I shocked that I survived that first stretch.  I do the swinging leg kick move to propel myself up and over the crest. Down this next hill I go which is even taller than the last. “Woo-o-o-hoo-o-o”, I yell not caring anymore who hears me.