Former Asheville councilman's son dies

Taylor Hunt, the son of former Asheville City Councilman Marc Hunt and his wife Cat Potts, died Wednesday in a whitewater paddling accident in Ecuador.

Marc Hunt and Potts posted about the tragedy on Hunt's Facebook page Thursday afternoon, saying Taylor Hunt died on the Sardinas Grandes River near Baeza, Ecuador.

"Taylor was one of several expert paddlers together on the river," Marc Hunt wrote. "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."

Hunt said Taylor, 22, 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," Hunt said. "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."

Taylor Hunt was an Asheville High School graduate and was living in Asheville. He had been attending Guilford College in Greensboro but had taken a break to travel and paddle.

Hunt and his wife planned to fly to Ecuador Thursday, and he said their older son, Colin, 26, will join them.

Marc Hunt, an avid paddler, skier and outdoorsman, served on Asheville City Council for four years, losing in the November election.

In a telephone interview, Hunt said Taylor grew up paddling and engaging in outdoor adventures every weekend. Taylor Hunt left for Ecuador Nov. 18 for a seven-week trip.

"One thing is I know the public is going to be curious about is, 'What was somebody doing on water that treacherous?'" Hunt said. "People do it a lot. Taylor's skill level was very, very high. You gain expertise through learning from others and by leading."

That sense of adventure and pushing himself was imbued in his son's DNA, Hunt said. Marc Hunt has been a whitewater instructor and outfitter, and his wife was one of the first people to kayak the Green River narrows, a high-skill river in Polk County known for its difficulty. Taylor competed there in early November, coming in 30th in the expert field, which included about 75 paddlers.

Hunt said two years ago on a weekend he learned that both his sons were planning on paddling the Green River together that day, so Hunt decided to join them.

"The three of us paddled it together," Hunt said. "It was just an awesome moment as a dad to share that kind of experience with both of my sons."

In life, people with an adventurous streak calculate the risks, Hunt said, and he knows in his heart that Taylor understood the dangers of the Ecuadorean river. The whole family knows the risks.

"It has always been represented to us that something like this might happen," Hunt said. "I think in life people calculate risks as they pursue adventure, and I'm confident that Taylor understood clearly the risk involved and the risk of being on that river on that day,"

Still, it is "incredibly sad," said Hunt, 59.

Gordon Grant, a family friend and the principal at Hall Fletcher Elementary School in Asheville, said Taylor was a great guy who loved all outdoors adventures and working with kids as a counselor at Camp Mondamin. Taylor Hunt had worked three summers at Mondamin, which is a premier paddling camp for children.

"Outgoing, and gregarious, very much a charming person, very friendly and open in all his dealings with kids," Grant said. "As a summer camp counselor he really took special care in dealing with kids."

While he was an expert competitive kayaker, Taylor Hunt loved all outdoors adventures, including snow boarding, hiking and mountain biking.

"The family shared those adventures; they did a lot of those things as a family," Grant said.

At Guilford, Taylor Hunt was captain of the Ultimate Frisbee team. A talented club lacrosse player during high school, Taylor Hunt got bitten by the whitewater kayaking bug around age 16..

"He was a very adventurous spirit, but more than that, he was a lovable person," Marc Hunt said. "He was embraced by everybody and he embraced them in return."

Hunt said services will be arranged when the family returns from Ecuador in a few days.