BENTONVILLE — Ken Richards plans to row, row, row his boat 400 miles down the Arkansas River to raise money and awareness of Reel Recovery, a program for men with cancer.
Along the two-week solo rowing adventure, Richards, a Bentonville fishing guide who is a throat and tongue cancer survivor, will camp and do some fishing. Most importantly he wants to raise money to fund two Reel Recovery fly-fishing retreats in Arkansas scheduled for this spring and summer.
Richards plans to launch his drift-boat at the riverfront park in Fort Smith at noon on March 27 to begin the journey that will take him the full length of the Arkansas River in Arkansas. He plans to average 20 miles each day and finish in 11 or 12 days.
He’ll end the first leg of his trip near Dumas, close to the Mississippi River, where a friend, Kevin Calhoun of Fayetteville, will pick him up.
The two will drive directly to Tulsa, Okla., where Richards will row four more days to Fort Smith.
He hopes to raise $30,000 for Reel Recovery.
“I added the trip from Tulsa to Fort Smith because I wanted to go 400 miles,” Richards said on Saturday.
The Arkansas portion of the Arkansas River is “only” 305 miles, he noted.
At night he’ll camp along the river, mainly in parks along the way. His 14-foot drift boat is roomy enough that Richards can take all the food and supplies he needs for the entire rowing journey across Arkansas.
Nutrition milkshakes, backpack meals and military Meals Ready to Eat are on his menu.
A cellular telephone and e-mail will let him keep in touch with his wife, Carol, back in Bentonville. She said she’ll worry about her husband, but supports his journey.
“The river is God’s chapel to Ken,” she said. “He’s so at peace there and there’s no cancer. That’s just his spirit.”
Richards hopes to get someone to loan or donate a solar panel that will charge his cell phone and laptop when needed.
There’s a reason for the noon start time on March 27 in Fort Smith. He’s hoping for a good send-off with lots of media coverage. Richards hopes for more publicity about Reel Recovery during stops at Russellville and Little Rock.
In Richards’ view, there isn’t much awareness about men’s cancer compared to,say, breast cancer in women.
Events like Race For the Cure raise knowledge of women’s cancer and Richards hopes his river trips do the same for men.
Richards was diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and has been in remission since October of that year. He traveled to a Reel Recovery retreat in Indiana and vowed to bring a retreat to Arkansas.
One retreat was held last year on the White River below Bull Shoals Dam. Two retreats are planned this year, the first in April at a location that’s being negotiated and another in October on the White River below Bull Shoals Dam.
There’s no charge to men who attend the retreats.
That’s why Richards is trying to raise $30,000 for the cause.
He’s got a good start. His first donor ponied up with a $2,000 contribution.
He and Calhoun raised $10,000 for Reel Recovery last year by floating the entire length of the Buffalo River and Kings River for a total of about 200 miles.
This year he is doubling his river mileage and tripling the amount he hopes to raise.
Richards rows the boat in his fishing guide business, Just Fishin’ Guides, for trout and smallmouth bass on rivers. He won’t need to do endless curls or pull-ups so he’s fit to row 400 miles.
“When you’ve done it for so long you’ve got the muscle memory and you just go,” he said.
There won’t be muchcurrent to give Richards a gentle push. Locks and dams have tamed the mighty Arkansas River and turned it into a chain of slow-moving lakes. Richards will go through a dozen locks on the Arkansas portion of his trip.
One of the pools is vast Lake Dardanelle near Russellville, but the size of the waterway doesn’t concern him. In Oklahoma, Robert S. Kerr Lake near Sallisaw worries him a little.
“It’s big and wide open and the wind can really come howling through there,” he said.
Richards is going it alone, but hopes friends will join him for short legs of the trip - as long as they bring their own boat. He wants to do the whole thing in his boat by himself.
Supporters can donate to Richards’ trip on the Reel Recovery Web site, www.
reelrecovery.org. Donors should note that their contribution is for the Arkansas retreats.
Or donors can make out a check to Reel Recovery and mail it to Richards at 2309 S.E. 16th St., Bentonville, AR, 72712.
Donations can be made by calling Richards at 479-531-5741.
There’s no telling what expedition the rowing adventurer will tackle next year, if he goes. A 500-mile trip down the White River from Elkins to the Mississippi River is one he is pondering.
His eyes brighten at the thought.
Outdoor, Pages 10 on 02/11/2010