“This week, as their fellow BHS Class of 2000 graduates trickle home from a first year away at college, Cooper Rooks and Andrew Keach began their own version of higher education.We’re going to the University of Planet Earth, said Rooks, as he and Keach departed on a kayak trip that may take them as far north as Alaska. Early Monday morning, the pair departed from Fay Bainbridge State Park as a dozen family members and friends gathered on the beach to wish them boy voyage.With the noses of the kayaks pulled up on the beach, Jan Keach, Andrew’s mother, sprinkled a few drops of wine over the bow of each boat. Moments later Rooks and Keach crawled inside, waved and began paddling toward their first landfall, the southern tip of Whidbey Island some 18 miles away. After spending the night there, they hoped to traverse the Swinomish Channel at LaConner and reach Guemes Island by Tuesday evening.Their planned route will continue through the San Juans and Canadian Gulf Islands, where marine parks for paddlers are fairly common.Eventually they’ll head for the Inside Passage, with the Strait of Georgia the first major obstacle, then reach Desolation Sound. Along the way they’ll pull up for the night on any hospitable beach without any angry neighbors, as Rooks put it.We’re really just paddling north on an open-ended trip, he said. We’re not necessarily going to Alaska. We wouldn’t feel at all disappointed if we just got as far as Desolation Sound and spent the summer there.It’s almost like a big hiking trip, where the kayaks are like extended backpacks to take us somewhere by water.BurnoutRooks conceived the idea during his final year at BHS.I was burned out my senior year, he said. I had a bad shoulder so I couldn’t swim as much as usual. I’ve always been active in sailing, hiking, kayaking. So the trip was an alternative to going to college, and as it became more exciting, it became more acceptable to our parents.He approached Keach, who had no plans apart from traveling for several months that fall in Europe and readily agreed to the plan. Don Rooks, Cooper’s father, believes that the idea may have been planted more than a decade earlier.Ever since Cooper read Dove in the third grade, I believe he’s been thinking about doing a major adventure, he said. That book details the adventures of Robin Lee Graham, who set off at age 16 on a five-year, around-the-world odyssey in a small sailboat.Coop’s done a lot of reading about the Inside Passage – 15 or 20 books – and spent time with Joe Upton, who’s done the Inside Passage in a fishing boat a number of times, the elder Rooks said.The pair made their mahogany kayaks by hand from kits, using what Rooks termed the stitch-and-glue method. Sections are copper-wired together, epoxy is applied to the joints, then the wire is removed. The interiors are also fiberglassed for extra strength and waterproofing.The building process – which took more than two months – culminated just a few days before the trip. Rooks made his first brief test voyage with a full load less than 24 hours before the trip began.But I feel I know the boat really well from building it, he said.The completed kayaks weigh about 50 pounds and can carry up to 200 pounds of gear, though Keach and Rooks departed with considerably less weight.Several small waterproof bags stowed fore and aft of the cockpit of each boat contain necessities such as charts, a tent, sleeping bags, spare clothing, gas stoves, a water purifier, and considerable amounts of dried food.But we hope to eat a lot of fish and other stuff from nature, Keach said.They plan on staying in touch with their families about once a week, whenever they find a place with a long-range radio or telephone.At one point, we were going to take a satellite phone, said Rooks, But then we decided that that was too technical. We want the trip to be simple.Not too simple, though, as they do have a GPS (global positioning system) device and each carries a handheld VHF (line of sight) radio.They plan on recording the trip via journals and a Pentax waterproof point-and-shoot camera.Just basic pictures, Rooks said. We don’t want to take up much space.The emphasis on packing light extends to expectations.Now it’s less important to go from Point A to Point B, Rooks said. It would be great to get all the way to Alaska, but this is a learning experience. If we get somewhere and decide we’re having fun, we may stay there. Whatever happens is what the trip is gong to be. We’re like the Merry Pranksters, where the trip itself is the destination.ExperienceWhile both anticipate an August return and entering college – most likely The Evergreen State College – as freshmen the following month, that isn’t necessarily a given.I have mixed emotions about college, Rooks said. It seems like it’s what everyone wants you do to do, and that puts a lot of pressure on it. Being in one place that long seems way too constricting. I took a road trip last fall and visited six friends in different colleges, and I’m not sure I found any place where I could spend an entire year. I could even see myself staying in Alaska or British Columbia for a year if I found a job I liked.But I do miss the actual learning part of college.Keach adds that College isn’t the only way to learn. Going on a trip like this while we’re young is a good idea. We’ll get a lot of skills we need in later life.He’s already gained some during his European trip last fall.I went almost everywhere, he said. And I’ve been working on my boat ever since I got back.Rooks used some of his time during the past year to climb all the major peaks in Washington – Rainier, Adams, Baker, St. Helens. He also gained a new perspective on island life.My friends come back from college and they’re bored within a couple of days, he said. But I can always find something to do here.While relatively familiar with kayaking, neither has undertaken a trip of this magnitude.I’ve done some short trips in the San Juans, Rooks said.Keach spent two weeks in a kayak camp on Vancouver Island at one point.This will definitely be a new experience, he said. We’ll learn a lot.One recent learning experience was a class in self-rescue.It was a lot less challenging than we thought, Keach said.Surprisingly, Rooks said, We’re not in paddling shape. We decided that we’ll start out slowly and build into it. That building process is aided by the fact that both have extensive fitness backgrounds, Rooks as a swimmer and Keach as a bicycle racer.Keach observed somewhat of a generation gap in the way that others viewed their trip.Most of the younger people thought it was pretty cool, he said, while our parents and other adults were more concerned.My parents were pretty supportive. They’re happy with what I’ve chosen to do.DepartureAs she watched her son load his kayak on Monday morning, Jan Keach reflected on the trip.It’s been an amazing process to see them build these kayaks and finish their plans, she said. It’s really wonderful and I’m proud of them for undertaking it. I think they have a lot of courage.She admits to one concern.Bears are an issue, and we’ve talked a lot about them, she said. I’ve been to Alaska, and one time came across a grizzly. We were playing soccer on the beach and didn’t hear it approach. It got to within 30 feet of us before someone scared it off.Don Rooks said he’s guardedly in favor of his son’s trip. I would have liked the boats to have been done earlier, he said, noting that there had been little time for in-water trials. And there are some big stretches of water to cross. I hope they’re safe.But I trust their judgment, that they won’t take on something they can’t handle.And I think it will be a heck of an education for them. “