On the east fork of the white river, Kabrew 1 was basically a colossal failure. It was a far cry from the trip we do today. The White river in south central Indiana was chosen based on its proximity to many of the attendees. Unfortunately nobody was familiar with the river and research was done online and via books. We ended up with a very low river due to dry conditions and a daily paddle of over 8 hours with little to no current. There was essentially nobody else on the river. Kabrew 1 had its moments and having survived it - I wouldn't replace the experience. It certainly makes for some good stories. Some highlights.

One of the funniest moments in Kabrew History: Night is coming, suitable sand-bars are nowhere to be found, and the banks are very uninhabitable. We luck out noticing a gentleman on his deck, in his trailer high on the cliff overlooking the river. I short conversation, and he offers us his "fish-camp" just up-stream for the night. We take him up on the offer, and the camp is more than suitable. Actually a major palace given the alternatives. K1 was a bit different than all subsequent Kabrews. For K1 we packed everything in the boats and camped along the way. As a result we packed fairly light to save space. Beer, extra tents... you get the priority. This lead to a pretty tight tent. I don't get to sleep real fast anyway, certainly not in a muggy tent crammed with ogres, a number of whom were snoring like power tools. So I decided to sleep under the stars next to the camp-fire. An enormous improvement btw. Then... at something o'clock in the morning. I can still hear the rumbling of grunts and snores from the crowded tent, but off in the distance I hear something else. It's a train! We had noticed while scavenging for wood, that there were tracks less than 15' from the camp. So the train rolled by, you could see it from the camp, hell you could spit on it if you wanted to, but more importantly you could hear it. The bored engineer must have seen the burning embers, and either out of concern, or due to a twisted sense of humor, he blasted that loud ass horn a few times as he rolled by. The grumbling snores turned to panicked yelps and a lot of movement by some larger than average guys. The tent shook, a lot of WTF! WTF! ... That was some funny shit (to me, only to me, at the moment anyway).

• Spare tire falls off KaTrailer on it's maiden voyage - this happens on I465 and it bounces across multiple lanes (I recovered it from the ditch it hit no cars). Multiple improvements were made prior to K2
• Great camp site for night 1 other than goose shit.
• Playing drunken CSI
• Fish camp night 2
• Thunder storm day 2
• Learning that Whitewater boats, are a source of great frustration for those not used to paddling them. (especially on flat water)
• Wade borrows boats and drives 9+ hours returning them and getting back home after the trip. Adjustments were in order.

The Meijer @ 8 mile and Haggerty in Northville, MI lost my waterproof disposable cameras on their overnight service. Pat "may" have some pictures of Kabrew 1 but nobody has ever seen them.

8 Brave souls pioneered the trip we now call Kabrew.