Taylor Hunt, son of Asheville City Councilman Marc Hunt, dies in paddling accident

Taylor Hunt, the son of outgoing Asheville City Councilman Marc Hunt, died in a paddling accident on Wednesday, according to an email and Facebook post by Marc. The family is grieving the tragedy. Here’s the note:

Yesterday, December 2nd, our son Taylor Hunt died on the Sardinas Grandes River near Baeza, Ecuador. Taylor was one of several expert paddlers together on the river. There had been rain and the river was up. At a large rapid the team had scouted, difficulties during his run separated Taylor from his boat. Fellow paddlers were working to get him to shore, but Taylor was swept downstream in what sounds like continuous challenging whitewater. The team did everything possible to rescue and then locate Taylor yesterday, working past dark. This morning, the search resumed by a much larger group, and his body was found. As you may know, Taylor was an experienced expert paddler, very familiar with risk and safety on the river, and his taking on the challenges of whitewater have all been calculated ones. As has our whole family, Taylor loved rivers and being on them with fellow adventurers as he was yesterday.

This is very difficult of course, and our hearts are broken. Taylor was a very special person, loved by all, and loving to all. We are going to miss him as I know you will.

We have arrangements to fly to Ecuador today, and our older son Colin will join us there. I suspect we’ll all return within the next 2-4 days or so. More details then from us. Your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated.

For the moment, though, please limit calls or text messages to our phones unless they are specific to logistics of the situation. Emails and other messages are appreciated. Our dear friends Gordon and Susan Grant will be current on details if you’d like to check in with them.

-Cat and Marc