Hailing from the Oregon Territory, K.M. Collins is a geologist-gone-marketing-strategist and writer. Discovering she was a freshwater mermaid late in life, she started paddling 10 years ago and has been upping the whitewater ante ever since. First as a paddleboarder, then kayaker and finally, recently, buying her first raft. Roller skating, snowboarding and cycling rank among her favorite land-based activities.