DaytonDailyNews.com

To many of us, the Dayton region's rivers are mostly something to build bridges over.

Our perceptions of the Great Miami, Stillwater and Mad rivers are formed by how they look when we pass over a bridge — or when we get an occasional glimpse from Interstate 75 or Ohio Route 4.

I'm here to plead guilty to missing the picture, too. I've lived in the region most of my life, and until recently I had never been on one of the rivers. When you look at Dayton from the water, you see possibilities you just don't imagine when you're standing on a sidewalk or even the riverbank.

Courtesy of the Miami Conservancy District and Five Rivers MetroParks, I and several others from the newspaper took a kayak trip on the Mad River. The conservancy and MetroParks, along with the University of Dayton, are among the hard-chargers trying to get more people to use the river and to see its economic development potential.

Our trip started early on a Wednesday morning at Eastwood MetroPark Lake at a point that offers easy access to the Mad River. It's also near the spot where the park district wants to add a whitewater course.

Dusty Hall, program development manager for the conservancy district, gave a brief overview of the trip. He went over the basics of handling a kayak and gave us a few rules. Then we picked up our kayaks and carried the lightweight boats to the river and climbed in.

Don't think that this was a trip for experienced kayakers or physical-fitness nuts. I had been in a kayak exactly once before — and that was just a few weeks earlier while on vacation.

Anyone can do this — including you. Recreational kayaks aren't the kind that tip easily, and you'll have a life jacket. Kayaks are easy to maneuver. You can go as fast or as slow as you'd like. You can talk to the people with you, and just float along if you get tired. You can plan your trip to paddle with the currents.

We saw great blue herons, hawks and other wildlife. Hall pointed out a beaver dam on a small creek we passed.

Photographer Chris Stewart brought a video camera and produced a remarkable video of the ride. View it at DaytonDailyNews.com.

One highlight was paddling around near the fountains at RiverScape. I wondered what drivers on I-75 must have been thinking when they saw us riding through the downpour the fountains create. (And it is a downpour — think getting caught in a cold, driving rainstorm.)

The Great Miami River watershed is a stunning asset for our region. At the same time, the Miami Conservancy District, which was established to protect the region in the aftermath of the 1913 flood, gives us a powerful and creative political entity to develop the rivers and their banks. The district spans 14 counties and includes 4,000 square miles. It would cost millions — perhaps billions — of dollars to create its water management system if we had to do it today.

Hall, some elected officials, the University of Dayton and others who are trying to bring people back to the river have a vision for riverfront development that could change the face of downtown Dayton, while also creating primo real-estate development opportunities for all the communities along the Great Miami. Elsewhere across the country, cities have done so much more with much less attractive rivers. Riverfront recreation is big business, and so is siting restaurants and entertainment venues on the water.

In April, UD President Dan Curran held a River Summit to help talk up riverfront development and to publicize what's happening from Hamilton to Troy. The goal was to make sure communities that are building boathouses and parks and developing commercial sites understand that they are part of a river corridor that can leverage everyone's work.

UD also has established a River Institute, to bring its students to the river. A group of them took a two-day trip down the Great Miami last week.

"We want them to go beyond a kayak ride," Curran said of UD's students.

The rivers provide a unifying opportunity in a region that can sometimes be victimized by spats among its many political entities.

Already, Dayton's and Troy's mayors have "river floats," and Miamisburg and West Carrollton have renewed their canoe race.

Of the Great Miami River, Curran says: "It's such a resource — and we overlook it all the time."

Let me tell you, it's tough to miss when you're in a kayak.

Kevin Riley is the editor of the Dayton Daily News. Contact him at (937) 225-2161 or kriley@coxohio.com.