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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Inverness resident Bob Sehlinger stands along a walking trail at the Cahaba River Trail and Canoe Drop in Irondale. Sehlinger was inducted into the Whitewater Rafting Hall of Fame in late 2021.
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Photos courtesy of Bob Sehlinger.
Sehlinger runs a rapid on the North Fork of the Cumberland River in Kentucky while his aqua class watches from the surrounding rocks in the late 1970s.
It has been several decades since Bob Sehlinger was involved in the river outfitting industry, so the Inverness resident was pretty surprised when he found out recently he was being inducted into the Southern Appalachian Whitewater Hall of Fame.
Sehlinger, now 76, was one of 62 individuals inducted into the inaugural class of the hall of fame in Asheville, North Carolina, in November.
“It felt great,” he said. “It’s really strange to be singled out for something you did in a previous life. It totally came out of the blue.”
The Southern Appalachian Whitewater Hall of Fame honors people who have been innovators, leaders and pioneers in the paddling sports in that region.
Sehlinger made a name for himself in the 1970s when he formed SAGE, a wilderness arts and expedition company that produced courses in kayaking, climbing, surviving and backpacking for high schools and universities in a seven-state area, as well as some courses for the general public.
Thousands of people went through those courses from 1974 to 1983. During that time, he was living in Kentucky and started river outfitter companies such as Cumberland Outdoor Adventures in Kentucky and Tennessee and Eastern River Outfitters in Maine. He also served as the third president of the Eastern Professional River Outfitters Association.
Sehlinger also was drafted to write guidebooks on canoeing and kayaking in Kentucky, Georgia and Tennessee by Thomas Press in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Thomas Press hired him to sign other authors for new types of books for five to six years, but he moved to the Birmingham area (Inverness) in 1983 and formed his own company called Menasha Ridge Press, specializing in books about the outdoors and travel.
His company now is known as AdventureKeen and includes Menasha Ridge Press, Wilderness Press, The Unofficial Guides, Clerisy Press and Adventure Publications. One of his bestsellers is The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, which has sold 4 million copies over 37 years and gets updated annually, he said.
Sehlinger said he has always loved the outdoors, from the time he was a little kid finding salamanders under rocks to being a Scout and serving in the U.S. Army.
When he was in the river outfitting business, he would be on the rivers three to four days a week.
He said he doesn’t really have a favorite river, but he is very familiar with Elkhorn Creek in Frankfort, Kentucky, the Hiwassee River in southern Kentucky and Nantahala River in western North Carolina, he said. “I know those like the back of my hand.”
After moving to Alabama, he spent less time on the rivers but still would canoe and kayak every year and periodically go rafting with friends, he said. But in the past couple of years, his time on the river has been more infrequent, he said.
“I can still paddle very well, but I have difficulty getting in and out of the boat,” he said.
He remains an avid runner and mountain biker.
Sehlinger also has been more focused on the publishing business in recent decades. He has authored 27 books himself and is a past president of the Publishers Association of the South and has served at the invitation of the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Information Service on educational missions for publishers in Hungary, Romania and Russia.
He loves the publishing industry, he said. “It’s a fun, creative field.”
He likes initiating ideas and coming up with concepts to serve people who need specific types of information, whether that be in business, the outdoors or sports, he said. In all, his companies have published an estimated 1,400 titles, about 1,000 of which are still being printed, he said. They are distributed throughout North America, other English-speaking countries and in some countries that speak other languages (primarily in Europe), he said.
He was honored to be selected for the Southern Appalachian Whitewater Hall of Fame, he said.
Others inducted into the hall of fame included Olympic paddlers, instructors, guidebook authors, river outfitter leaders, canoeing and paddling club leaders, watershed protectors and innovators in the design and manufacturing of watercraft and paddling gear.
The inaugural class included two well-known politicians: President Jimmy Carter, who as governor of Georgia championed the designation of 57 miles of the Chattooga River as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, protecting it from development; and former U.S. Senator and Education Secretary Lamar Alexander, who as governor of Tennessee championed protection of the Ocoee River and expanded the state’s protection of rivers and as a U.S. senator was the driving force behind the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020, which provided billions of dollars to conserve and maintain public lands and water.
Sehlinger said the recent induction ceremony allowed him to reconnect with old and very close friends he hadn’t seen in 15 to 20 years and he was grateful for the opportunity.
