My name is Drew Barrere, and I’m 24 laps around the sun old. My Love for rivers came from back in the southeast, kayaking primarily. After kayaking for a while I decided to start Rafting and now I’ve been doing it for 5 years. Raft guiding has allowed me to share my passion for the river and the experiences it brings.
Hello! My name is Kevin Connolly and I began guiding in Jackson, Wyoming in the summer of 2017. After three years of working summers in Wyoming, I knew I wanted to improve my whitewater multi day rafting skills. I graduated from Oregon State, so the Rogue river was a no brainer for me.
After spending many hours on the river and some persuasion from friends, I decided to take guide course on the White Salmon in Washington in early 2021. From there, I started day guiding on the recreational section of the Rogue with Morrisons. In 2022, I returned to Morrison’s, where I split my time between day guiding and multi-day downriver trips. I’m excited to be back for another season in 2023 for some more whitewater fun! I love meeting new people and showing them the beauty of the river and the excitement of the whitewater! When you see me, ask me about my juggling skills!
I am a fun loving man child. I enjoy fostering a sense of community, teamwork, and synergy where groups of different individuals come together to have the most fun.
Ted began his rafting career on the New and Gauley rivers in West Virginia in the early 1990s. He moved west soon after. He’s been guiding for nearly 30 years, and 2019 will be his 27th year guiding on the Rogue River. In his regular life, Ted lives in Eugene and works as an economist. He is also the proud father of three beautiful girls.
Haley started guiding day raft trips for us at the age of 16, eventually guiding in the canyon and serving as trip leader. She’s an outdoor adventurer with a heart of gold and loves meeting new people, learning about the world through their eyes. An avid world traveler, she recently spent two months exploring Europe and can’t wait to return. Haley can’t imagine a better life than spending time on the river with fascinating people and has a feeling she will never give it up.
I am an energetic and fun-loving guy that knows how to make the most of life. I can also be serious and get work done when needed. I have been a guide for the past 4 summers out in Colorado. Most of my guiding experience is on the oars. I chose to be a river guide one summer, thinking that it would just be a cool job to have. After that first summer, though, I fell in love with being on the water and challenging myself with different more technical rapids. There is no place I would rather be during the summer.
One unique thing about me is that I have climbed the tallest points in 23 different states, and my goal is to reach all 50.
I started raft guiding at Morrisons in 2021, doing both day trips and multi-day trips. I have branched out into Multi-Day Steelhead fishing guide work in 2022. I have completed over 50 trips down the Wild and Scenic section of the Rogue River. I love showing people the beauty and wildness of the Rogue River, and you cannot beat the view from my office. I have lived or worked on six continents and spent over 30 years in the U.S. Army. I have a large amount of experience working in small group leadership that fits nicely at MRWAL.
I have been taking people downriver most of my life. I started young, bringing school friends with me, then graduated to taking more and more people. I’ve paddled most of the big stuff in North America; one of the benefits of living in Texas was not having a good “home” river to run, so it pushed us to run a wide variety of rivers. The largest white water had to be on the Futaleufú River in northern Patagonia.
My professional career has been mostly technical work since I got my mechanical engineering degree. For the past 10 years, I worked on large 3D printers for companies like Lockheed Martin and NASA. This was extremely detailed work, almost always completed under a time crunch. I found myself unfulfilled at the end of the day, the work was routine and always an emergency. I thought of the times in my life when I was happiest, and it was on the river showing people the beauty of mother nature. To that end, I shifted gears and started researching ways to make money doing what I love on rivers I have paddled before, and luckily, I found Morrisons was looking for river guides.
Situational awareness is key to having a good time on the river. Staying safe is the primary concern and making sure you are keeping track of all the things going on around you can mean the difference between a good time and a bad time. To that end I have a sixth sense for what’s going on around me.
I always get asked about my name and where it came from. I was named Rip after my father, who got the name from someone that saved my grandfather’s life during WWII. The funny part is I always use L. when asked my middle name because it’s even more ridiculous than my first name.
Hi, my name is Eric Maynard. Most people on the river call me “Maynard.”
I am an Oregon native. I was born right here in Merlin, Oregon! I have been guiding the Rogue River on and off for 20+ years now. I also guide on the Deschutes river from time to time. This is my 5th season with Morrison’s, and I feel blessed to be able to work with such a professional outfit. I love my job because I get to enjoy the beautiful “Wild and Scenic Rogue River” and I get a chance to connect with people, family, and friends on their vacation (no bad days on the river). I also get a chance to be a part of a life-changing experience for most people. What an amazing feeling I get every week! As an avid outdoorsman, I truly enjoy being outside. My hobbies include learning and practicing foraging skills, plant identification, and the medicinal uses of plants and mushrooms. My favorite part about guiding Morrison’s is our amazing staff. I have been lucky enough to become great friends with my coworkers and build an unbreakable bond with them. On my off-season, I am a musician. I have been playing the drums for over 25 years.
I am excited to see you on the river soon!
Born and raised in Eden Utah I started guiding on a whim as a way to beat the heat, but it rapidly became one of my favorite things. This will be my 6th season as a guide and my 2nd on the rouge. I am in my final year at Weber State University where I study mechanical engineering and work with their outdoor program. In the off season I enjoy adventuring in the mountains whether it is to climb, ski, hunt or fish, I feel most at home in the woods.
Dustin was born and raised in the Rogue Valley and has always been an outdoor enthusiast. He started rafting when he was 13 years old, right here on the Rogue River. Dustin thrives on the water. Whether it’s kayaking, surfing, rafting, or fishing, water is his happy place. He has many river trips under his belt, including expeditions down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, as well as various river trips throughout Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, and Colorado. This is Dustin’s fourth season at Morrison’s, and he is excited to share his extensive knowledge of the Rogue Valley with you. When he is not rafting or fishing, he is spending time outdoors with his wife, daughter, and Great Pyrenees.
I started guided commercially on the White Salmon river in Washington. It was a great opportunity to get more familiar with paddle rafting and highly technical white water, but even then, I knew that multi-day trips were my element. This will be my second season guiding on the Rogue for Morrisons, and I couldn’t be happier.
Growing up, water has always been part of my life. Swimming, sailing, kayaking, and rafting were all part of my childhood. Rafting, in particular, is something that my family continues to do yearly. Suffice it to say: I love rafting. Guiding, for me, is an extension of that love. Not only do I get to work on the river, but I also get to share my joy for the river with others.
I am quite skilled at a classic Hungarian card game called Ulti which almost no one in the country knows how to play.
I am definitely a morning person. Waking up has never been a challenge for me. This means I am always ready with hot water and coffee (the most important item on the trip) in the mornings.
My name is Marcus Robles; I am a big strong gear boater who loves running huge boats with stacks that can barely be seen over. Boating is one of my biggest passions though I have only been rafting for the last few years of my life but have been running power boats since a child. I graduated high school in 2019 and got straight to work as a plumber. So when I am not on the river, I am always doing some sort of odd side job. I spend November to May working as a field engineer for a semiconductor company traveling around the CA bay area fixing chemical cabinets, and the whole time I’m there, I’m just wishing I was on the river. So when I get back to the rogue, it’s like a 6-month summer camp vacation. Morrisons is an awesome organization and I look forward to spending many seasons guiding for them.
Although I don’t have any previous professional guiding history, I’ve been taking out friends and family fishing in ocean and river boats for the past 4 years. Last year while working for Lucas Lodge in Agness, Oregon, I had an older couple ask me to guide them down from Foster Bar to Lucas Bar in their kayaks while I lead the way in my pontoon raft. I assured them of their safety as they followed me through each section of the river stretch, offering them any tips, and they really appreciated my guidance through each little riffle/rapid. Arriving at the takeout, they told me they had thoroughly enjoyed my time and help down the river, I was proud to say it was my first little “unofficial” guiding trip. I choose to work as a river guide primarily because I believe in doing what you love in life, and I’ve always loved fishing and being on the water ever since I was a child. To think now I can do this full time as a career is a dream of mine I’ve had ever since I can remember. Something unique about myself is that I live to fish. I’ve loved fishing ever since I could pick up a rod and reel, and I could do it every day if I could. Completely diehard for it. One specific characteristic about myself that I know will help me do my job at MRWAL is that I don’t believe in doing jobs “halfway,” and I thoroughly enjoy providing quality customer service.