In the twilight of the day, the party was just beginning.

Busloads of rafters and kayakers returned to rafting company Mild to Wild on the north side of Durango a couple of hours after shoving off on a fun-filled float down the Animas River, the collective identifiable by the symbolic pink balloons tethered to their vessels as they laughed and splashed their way toward Santa Rita Park.

As the dinner, stories and laughter commenced, in the middle of the makeshift picnic area sat a reminder of why the crowd had assembled.

Lit softly by a couple of candles sat a poster-size photo of Leanne Jordan, smiling and radiant.

Jordan, a local obstetrician-gynecologist and outdoors buff, died after a seven-year battle with breast cancer March 13 at age 49. Four months later, and just nine days after what would have been her 50th birthday, more than 150 people showed up to honor her memory in the first "Float for Hope" event, with proceeds going to fund a future grief support camp for Durango children who are coping with the loss of a parent.

According to Jordan's 14-year-old son, Kelsey, it's an event his mother would have loved.

"This whole thing going on is in her name. She's probably looking down knowing that we're having a blast, which is what she would be doing," he said. "That was definitely all for her, being out on the river and enjoying the Southwest."

Outdoors activities were a strong part of Leanne Jordan's life dating back to her college days, when she rowed for the crew at Dartmouth as an undergraduate, and later for the University of Rhode Island and Brown University, where she received her doctorate in 1989.

"She was a national champion rower," her husband, Harald Jordan, said. "She loved all kinds of watersports. She loved rafting, canoeing, water skiing ... all kinds of watersports."

Her love of activities like rowing, cycling, and Nordic and alpine skiing translated to her family, which soon grew into four after her marriage to Harald in 1991. The two met through a mutual friend while Jordan completed her residency in Denver, and her future husband was enrolled at Colorado School of Mines in Golden. Both Kelsey and his older sister, Emily, were members of the Durango Freestyle Ski Team, a team for which Kelsey still skis.

"We did a bunch of stuff out in the woods, skiing up on to stuff as a family," Kelsey said. "We still continue to do that in her memory."

As for Emily, she'll be heading off to college in the fall. And, coincidentally, she'll be attending her mother's alma mater: Dartmouth.

When Jordan was diagnosed in 2003, her involvement in her favorite activities became not just an enjoyable part of the day but an occassional coping mechanism for when the going got rough. While running, cycling and the like provided a mental escape from the disease, physically it was hard to tell she had any setbacks at all, according to Four Corners OB-GYN coworker and friend Kim Priebe.

"I couldn't keep up with her on a bike," Priebe said with a chuckle. "Even when she was sick, I couldn't keep up with her on a bike."

Be it biking, skiing or whatever activity she chose, Harald Jordan said getting out and staying active helped both his wife and the family cope as they were told the cancer had returned not once but twice. Leanne Jordan was active until the end, which her husband surmised she knew was coming more than anyone else. She even rode a half-century road bicycle race with two college friends in San Diego in February, just a month before her death, followed by a ski trip to Switzerland while visiting Harald's family in Germany.

"That's Leanne," Harald Jordan said. "That's why we moved to southwestern Colorado 12 years ago, to enjoy the outdoors and the opportunities that it presents to everybody.

"She wasn't going to let (cancer) bog her down. She was just going to live life in spite of it."

Leanne Jordan often roped the family's black labrador, Champ, into running by her side. According to Amanda Saddler, whose husband, Mark, met Leanne Jordan through their mutual work as doctors, said the dog was as much a part of the family as a pet can be, adding that Leanne Jordan often brought the pup to work with her. Kelsey Jordan said Champ often made the rounds on family vacations.

"She took him to work since he was a puppy. ... She was out on the trails with him pretty much every day," Saddler said. "He was kind of an extension of her."

Alongside her work and her family obligations, Leanne Jordan was involved in several community projects, including work on behalf of Music in the Mountains, the Mercy Foundation, KSUT and Trails 2000, among others. Once diagnosed, the mother of two cut back on work instead of sacrificing time with her children or her community events.

Her volunteer spirit probably was manifested best through her work with Durango Freestyle. Coach Kirk Rawles said Leanne Jordan not only donated her time to aid her childrens' team in any way she could, but she also was quite the organizer in terms of recruiting others to help.

"She understood all the dynamics of whatever endeavor she supported, whether it was volunteering, sponsoring, being active in recruiting other people to do it. She got it," Rawles said.

Her work as an OB-GYN not only helped her maintain relationships with the patients that also were friends but also allowed her to meet new ones. Molly and Alex Mickel, owners of Mild to Wild and organizers of the event, met Leanne Jordan when she was the consulting OB-GYN for the birth of their four children, and they got to know her and her family better when their children began skiing together for Durango Freestyle.

"(She was) just wonderful, caring, supportive," Molly Mickel said.

Priebe said Leanne Jordan's patients were heartbroken upon hearing the news of her death, going on to add she often cried alongside Leanne Jordan's patients when seeing them for the first time since the news.

Priebe currently is dealing with breast cancer herself, and she said having a close friend going through the same ordeal had immesurable effects.

"She was like my big sister," Priebe said. "It's kind of just so much more than what I could say."

Her personal life carried over into her renowned professional life as well.

"She was so charismatic," Saddler said. "She made you feel like you were the only person on Earth."

Perhaps it was that charisma and bedside manner that drew people by the dozens to Float for Hope. Maybe it was the selfless way in which she donated her time to so many causes. More likely, people were touched by the life the doctor, mother and outdoorswoman lived, and folks just wanted to get together and reminisce.

Summer will soon give way to fall and later the snow-covered peaks of winter. And when that time comes is perhaps when Leanne Jordan will be missed most of all.

"It'll be extremely hard just to not have her there (watching me ski)," Kelsey Jordan said. "Even this summer if I go to a ski camp, it'll be hard to not have her there, watching me, helping me."

rowens@durangoherald.com