Wolf Bauer logged 3,000 miles on this kayak during the time he lived on Vashon Island from 1985-2000, and this was the original kayak that started the Washington Kayak Club in 1962. The kayak's fabrication was innovative and unprecedented in its time and it was designed to be used in both river and sea kayaking. Born in 1912, Bauer came to Seattle at the age of 14. In the 1930s, he was well-known as a skiier, and Eddie Bauer (no relation to Wolf) used his fame to advertise Eddie Bauer skis. Wolf Bauer started the Washington Foldboating Club in 1946, and in the 1950s, he began a project to map the river systems of Washiington and British Columbia, Canada. Bauer published the first navigational map of Washington State for paddlers, identifying rivers and difficulty scales, which were later adopted by American Whitewater as the International Whitewater Scale of Difficulty. Bauer helped to establish Mountain Rescue, and began the climbing program for the Moutaineers (a group founded in 1906). He was an active proponent of water conservation, shoreline restoration, and the protection of scenic rivers.