Michael Hughes is a 37-year-old river guide, training director, and year-round rafting company employee who’s built a stable yet unconventional life around whitewater. (@northwest.rafting.company)

His journey started at age 19 on a canoe float down the Rio Grande, where he realized that working on rivers could actually be a job. Michael spent his twenties chasing the guiding season between California and Oregon, stitching together odd jobs to keep returning to the water. He built chicken coops, worked wine harvests, lead students on a gap year program in India and Nepal, and never let a “real job” get in the way of summer river trips.

Now he manages a seasonal crew, runs guide training, and leads a handful of multi-day trips each summer. He lives in a camper during the rafting season in Southern Oregon and then returns north to Hood River, where he and his fiancée recently bought a house in White Salmon (technically, she’s the landlord). His role includes intense bouts of hiring and logistics, but also off-season flexibility: long trail runs on weekdays, powder days in the winter, a rafting trip in Bhutan each fall, and plenty of personal river time for kayaking.

We talk about Michael’s path to financial independence without family help, the tradeoffs of guiding life (like missing most summer weddings), and how he finds meaning in late-night Milky Way sightings, watching kids growing up on trips over the years, and seeing his mom jump into the river for the first time at age 60.

Michael also contributes to Whitewater Guidebook.

Full transcript: dirtbagrich.com/michael