by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

Doug Cameron should give lessons in living what you love, and in a sense he has. “Moving a canoe around on water with a paddle feels like second nature to me,” Cameron said. What began as Boy Scout canoe trips on the Elk River to earn his merit badge led to white-water racing, authoring and editing books on outdoor sports, becoming a certified Wilderness EMT instructor, and along the way changing the lives of generations of young people, instilling in them a passion for the outdoors and outdoor sports. What is second-nature to a person often goes unnoticed, or at least by them. Cameron seemed a little surprised to learn on March 8 he will be inducted into the Southeastern Whitewater Hall of Fame at the Southern Appalachian Paddlesports Museum in Asheville, N.C. Cameron will join other Sewanee greats, 1972 white-water Olympian Carrie Ashton and Hugh Caldwell, the driving force behind the rebirth of Merrie-Woode, an internationally renowned summer camp for girls.

Two events standout when Cameron talks about his early life. A 1971 trip to the Hiwassee River with his wife Anne was Cameron’s “first white-water.” “I got deeply involved,” Cameron acknowledged, as though he were admitting falling in love. “I started going almost every weekend.”

Cameron’s life took another quirky turn following a month’s long camping trip with his brother Bobby and father Ben looping through Canada and down the west coast of the United States hauling their gear behind a trailer hitched to a Bronco. The adventurers’ conclusion: the two available guidebooks were inadequate. Ben Cameron, with New York City connections, persuaded the New York Times to finance a new guidebook, the New York Times Guide to Outdoors USA. A three-year gig traveling around the country, camping and writing narratives, living on advances came to an end when the Arab Oil Embargo curtailed unnecessary travel.

On a tip, Cameron returned to Sewanee to teach history at St. Andrew’s. He started an outing program there and soon the University snatched him up as the first director of the Outdoor Program. Along with Ashton, Caldwell, and Stephen Puckette, Cameron coached the Sewanee Canoe Team to 11 Southeastern Championships.

In the late 70s and early 80s Cameron and Puckette became familiar figures in white-water slalom racing, navigating a gated course in a decked canoe perched on their knees. Asked about the danger and close calls, Cameron said, “We built our skills based on getting out of stuff. We did several first ascents. We were the first people to paddle the Fiery Gizzard, going over those waterfalls.” Cameron and Puckette competed in the 1982 Nationals on the Ocoee River, and Cameron went on to become Chair of the National Slalom and Wildwater Committee.

Cameron followed Caldwell to Camp Merrie-Woode, where he spent his summers for the next 25 years. He was hired on as “the head of trips,” leading hiking, camping, and canoeing trips. Hearing Cameron talk about butt-sliding over moss covered creek boulders in cutoff jeans and sitting around the campfire singing and eating s’mores can make the listener envious of the fun.

Eventually Merrie-Woode hired specialists for the various outing activities, with Cameron assigned to paddling and sailing, a sport he took up when the Merrie-Woode program needed some TLC.

Sailing led Cameron down another unexplored road. In 2004, he and his sailing partner Michael Collins won a 300-mile race from Tampa, Fla., to Key Largo. “We got lucky weather,” Cameron said, lucky for the two experienced paddlers who surged ahead when the wind died down.

Cameron also began building canoes and small sailboats and writing articles about small watercraft trips and construction for Small Craft Advisor magazine.

Taking up another writing project, he edited the second edition of “Under the Sun at Sewanee,” updating the driving directions and advice about familiar area haunts. He laughed about an entry edited out of the first edition, “When a Sewanee gentleman has been bitten by a snake, the first thing you do is loosen his tie.”

Cameron has served 52 years as a volunteer firefighter and 43 years as an EMT. In 1990, the requirement to renew his EMT license every two years launched Cameron down yet another wilderness trail. “Most of those [EMT recertification] classes are really dull. You go to a conference room and sit there and listen to people drone on for a couple of days,” Cameron complained. Cameron found a better way, Wilderness EMT training taught by Wilderness Medical Associates. “The course was entirely hands on,” Cameron explained. “They’d teach something then you’d immediately go outside and have ‘made up’ victims. You’d solve the problems, critique it, then go inside and learn another topic.” His enthusiasm caught the attention of the instructors who invited him to train to be an instructor himself. Cameron has taught Wilderness First Aid and Wilderness Advanced Responder classes for the Sewanee Outing Program and at colleges and camps throughout the South.

Cameron maintains his favorite outdoors activity is “a days-long paddling and camping trip.” But Cameron is an unabashed Don Juan when it comes to his love of the outdoors. In talking with him about outdoors anything from whitewater rafting to teaching young people how to splint a broken arm on the trail, the same phrase comes up again and again, “I love it.”