I wrote this story to share my profound love of the wilderness and the great excitement of steering my own kayak down a wild river with a group of both friends and strangers. I admit I got carried away with flash floods, snake attacks and exciting romance, but what the heck, it’s fiction. When people travel to disparate environments, they almost always bring everything they are caught up with at home with them. So it is on the Middle Fork. The passions of Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” are religion, and the same intense feelings float down a swollen river in my story as politics. And, politics is the new religion for many people. Hot button topics are aired out in regular “speak” by normal Americans hell bent on championing their cause. Yes, the debate is interrupted by vicious rapids and pesky snakes, but it all weaves together to entertain and provide food for thought. Finally, this is an American story. No “old country” shtick or quaint references—just people like us in real-time thinking, talking and running the river.