Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Tim Terman, 55, of Morgantown, W.Va., kayaks on the Monongahela River in Morgantown last week. Mr. Terman is kayaking 125 miles from Fairmont, W.Va., to Pittsburgh, expecting to arrive today.

By David Templeton
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette He chose spring's rainiest week for his big adventure, but Tim Terman remains on schedule to complete his 125-mile kayak marathon on the Monongahela River by noon today.

Mr. Terman, 55, of Morgantown, W.Va., launched his kayak early Monday in Fairmont, W.Va., and has been paddling downriver toward Pittsburgh all week, despite bad weather.

From Monday through Friday, the region received 1.5 inches of rain, with wind reaching 29 mph, often in his face. But a swifter river current is helping. The usual speed of 0.5 mph picked up to 1 mph by late week, said Lee Hendricks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

During a cell-phone update 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, Mr. Terman said nasty weather was taking its toll on his well-paddled psyche.

"I'm tired of being wet," he said. "I wish the sun would come out and the wind would quit hitting me in the face."

He plans to arrive midday at Riverfront Park, North Side, for the Venture Outdoors Festival, which features kayaking and other activities.

A public relations person for West Virginia University's College of Business and Economics in Morgantown, W.Va., Mr. Terman also operates "Adventures on Magic River," which conducts kayak tours of the Mon River in Morgantown.

Impressed by river vistas, rich history and water-quality improvements, he said, he undertook the 125-mile venture to promote the river as a regional asset, celebrate water-quality improvements since passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act and encourage litter cleanup.

The state Department of Environmental Protection agrees with his river assessment.

Mandatory discharge reductions on sewage treatment plants, tougher water quality standards for farming operations and investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in river restoration efforts have improved water quality since 1972, DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphreys said.

"Today the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers teem with recreational users, including the draw of the national Bassmasters Classic competition last summer," she said.

Challenges that remain include reducing discharges from abandoned coal mines, she said.

Mr. Terman said his adventure will help him decide whether to pursue plans to kayak the length of the Ohio River then the Gulf of Mexico to South America.

He said he worked on tow boats, mostly on the Ohio River, for 11 years before heading to WVU, where he earned a journalism degree. He's held his public relations post there for 19 years.

In 1996, he began kayaking after reading a book on the topic and opened his business in 1999 to conduct kayak tours along Morgantown's riverbanks. During tours, he tells histories of Native Americans, early settlers, boats that traveled the river, and legacies of coal mining and industry.

For his current trip, he loaded his kayak with a tent, dehydrated food and supplies. He has paddled 25 miles a day and slept on riverbanks far away from poison ivy.

Although his trek did not sit well with his wife, Maureen, he said she will meet him today in Pittsburgh to drive him home.

"You can't have an adventure without risk," he said, listing risks as high currents, thunderstorms, rain, wind, towboats and scheduling setbacks. "There's some risk of life and limb, but not a lot."

His biggest previous adventure was a three-mile island-to-island trip in North Carolina's Outer Banks. He's also done 10-mile trips on the Mon.

"I want to connect the dots on this river," he said, predicting that "someday people will go out and use this river for something" other than industrial purposes.