{"id":39322,"date":"2026-05-09T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/?p=39322"},"modified":"2026-05-04T20:16:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T03:16:36","slug":"patso-a-river-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2026\/05\/09\/patso-a-river-life\/","title":{"rendered":"PATSO &#8211; A River Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u201cYou know Elcid, and they tie him to the horse in the very last scene? They\u2019re just going to tie me into a raft and shoot me down the river.\u201d \u2013 Patricia \u201cPatso\u201d Stow <\/em><\/p>\n<p>In 1979, Patrica \u201cPatso\u201d Stow joined the (mostly-male) crew of guides on California\u2019s Stanislaus River. Her life\u2014and the northern California boating community\u2014would never be the same.<\/p>\n<p>From guiding on the Tuolumne to meeting her husband Tim, learning to kayak alongside her teenaged sons at age 58 to tackling the SF American with her \u201cposse,\u201d Patso is a force of nature as fierce and nurturing as the rivers that continue to shape her life.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  width=\"970\" height=\"546\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_hc_ngkvT5M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t miss the Digital Premier of \u201cPatso: A River Life\u201d &#8211; A portrait of California community legend, proud river mama and (retired) river guide Patricia Stow.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Live on YouTube Mother&#8217;s Day 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p>Directed by Greg Cairns | Featuring Patso Stow | With support from NRS &amp; Jack\u2019s Plastic Welding<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cYou know Elcid, and they tie him to the horse in the very last scene? They\u2019re just going to tie me into a raft and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":39325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[339],"tags":[376,828,95,507,827,32,120],"class_list":["post-39322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nrs-culture","tag-california","tag-every-body-design","tag-kayak","tag-nrs-films","tag-patso","tag-whitewater","tag-women-boaters","post-grid"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>PATSO - A River Life | Duct Tape Diaries | NRS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mother, river guide, teacher, friend: Patricia \u201cPatso\u201d Stow is a force of nature a fierce and nurturing as the rivers that shape her life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2026\/05\/09\/patso-a-river-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PATSO - A River Life | Duct Tape Diaries | NRS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mother, river guide, teacher, friend: Patricia \u201cPatso\u201d Stow is a force of nature a fierce and nurturing as the rivers that shape her life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2026\/05\/09\/patso-a-river-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Duct Tape Diaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nrsweb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-09T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2kl15j267vxtq.cloudfront.net\/duct-tape\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/02114126\/Still-2024-12-19-101128_1.32.1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"NRS Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@nrsweb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nrsweb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"NRS Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/community.nrs.com\\\/duct-tape\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/09\\\/patso-a-river-life\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/community.nrs.com\\\/duct-tape\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/09\\\/patso-a-river-life\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"NRS Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/community.nrs.com\\\/duct-tape\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/675a6b3093818733d2480ba16d61967b\"},\"headline\":\"PATSO &#8211; 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