To help adults develop an awareness of midlife issues, to encourage personal acceptance of the transition, and to introduce appropriate coping skills, a speech communication course was designed that relied on river trip activities to develop insights about this passage. The vehicle for the seminar was a four-day raft trip down the Green River, sponsored by the Colorado Outward Bound School. Several months before the course, participants were informed about midlife transitions (changes in biological conditioning, the sequence of generations, and evolving careers) and given an annotated bibliography on midlife. During the course, group discussion drew attention to the analogies between the river passage and midlife transition: (1) the current of the river is like adult development which can be anticipated but never completely controlled, (2) submerged rocks below the surface of the river are like stressful periods in the transition that often present themselves first as smooth nonevents, and (3) the circular currents of water reflect the sense of limitless time when no progress appears possible. Specific attention was also given to the communication skills of listening, confrontation, and teamwork. One difficulty of the course, however, was that the timing and spacing of the seminar units were entirely dependent on the ability of the staff to predict and produce river activities that were meaningfully integrated with the seminar. Nevertheless, unsolicited letters from participants confirmed the value of the course. (HOD)