Livin on jacks and queens

Friday, May 7th was the last day of our rafting trip in Colorado and Utah, an uneventful day spent gliding down the Dolores River (which means river of sorrow) past its confluence with the Colorado River a short ways, which brought the third annual Bucket Trip to a close. On this trip I had undergone the most incredible day of my life on May 5th when two of our three boats got trapped in a rapids, with one overturning with almost deadly results. (Above: We're all still here. Trip's end. Photo by B.)

We had all survived, and become stronger for it. I brought home from the trip a gimcrack I picked up at the Denver airport, a magnet that has a Native-American saying on it.

The courage inside us is the strength that guides us. I put it on my refrigerator with magnet momentos from other trips because it reminds me of the minute that I spent underwater trying to escape from underneath the capsized boat.

The first BT was the trip of a lifetime, rafting on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. The second BT was a wonderful sailing trip through the Florida Keys, gliding through the Everglades some and venturing out into the Atlantic a short way.

The trip on the Dolores River was unbelievable, an adventure that I will never, ever forget. My heartfelt thanks and admiration go to Guy and Joe Vinyard of Colorado for keeping us all alive, and to my other Sewell Hall friends, Amy, Barry, Carolyn, Harrie, Jimmy, Julia and Todd, with whom I shared this difficult and very intense personal experience.

Grand Canyon, Day Eight of eight.

The Grand Canyon trip is over. Eight days in THE natural wonder of the world, with friends from 35 years ago. Incredible experiences. I am a terrible picture-snapper. So I have given you eight posts of photos snapped by my friends, much better picture-takers than me. If you don't take your own trip down the Canyon, shame on you! My freshman college roommate Jimmy (he's the one acting like a sumo wrestler in the photo below) was the glue that held the Sewell Hall Rafters together. He bridged all the differences. He said wisely at the onset, "Everyone is the same, only more so." Brilliant. In the photo below, I can see every person's personality shine forth for the camera--it's uncanny--but maybe you hadda be there and get to know these folks. Trip of a lifetime? Oh yeah. The company is the Arizona River Runners. The American heroes are Travis, Lindsay, Julie and Kelly, in the second picture below.

Photo credit Dennis.

Scotty, beam us up! Photo credit Jimmy.

Barry. Photo credit Jimmy.

Giving Birth. Photo credit Dennis.

Lake Mead. Photo credit John.

Thanks, Travis, Lindsay & Julie. Any one of you could share a foxhole with me. Photo credit Barry.

Grand Canyon, Day Seven

Photo credit Jimmy.

Photo credit Barry.

Photo credit Barry.

Stairway to Heaven. Photo credit Barry.

Photo credit Barry.

Photo credit Dennis.






Photo credit Dennis.

Photo credit Harrie.

Grand Canyon, Day Six

Day Six in the Grand Canyon: Running one of North America's most ferocious rapids, Lava Falls, waving goodbye to eight party members, a boat-to-boat running water fight, leaping off a cliff into the Colorado River and...

Vulcan's Anvil, the neck of an ancient volcano thrusting up into the river. Photo credit Barry.









Am I ever going to blog about running again? Photo credit Harrie.

A willow grows out of a crevice in a boulder in the river. Photo credit Barry.

We are not the first. Photo credit Dennis.

Andy, the musical prodigy. He & Barry played 60s river and traveling songs every night. A twenty-something that actually liked hanging with fifty-somethings, he was there with his Dad, CJ, over whom he kept a watchful, loving eye. In the background is Diamond Peak. Photo credit Harrie.






Dennis. Photo credit Dennis.

Evening comes to the Canyon. Photo credit Dennis.

Grand Canyon, Day Five

On Day Five in the Grand Canyon, our party was down to thirty due to the tragic emergency that happened on the fourth evening. We would spend the fifth day on a long ride down the Colorado River to a campsite where we could get to a commercial helicopter landing pad the next morning by 8:30. There eight more passengers would leave. We would finish the eight-day trip with eighteen passengers plus four boatmen on the two rafts.

Travis reads a somber pre-launch invocation. Look at that sky. Photo credit Harrie.



Lindsay lets a waterfall cascade over her. Photo credit Dennis.

Harrie. In his late 50s with two hip replacements, he did everything us much younger folks did. Photo credit Barry.

Where magma once flowed into the Grand Canyon. Photo credit Barry.

Pondering the inexorable nature of life. Photo credit Dennis.

Grand Canyon, Day Three

Grand Canyon, Day 3.

My friends shot lots of pictures of us rafting for eight days through the Grand Canyon. I have located those of Barry, Dennis and Harrie. I intend to post some of those incredible photos here. Four more days yet to come.

No, it's not Thelma & Louise. It's B and H. Did you have your coffee this morning with that backdrop? Photo credit Dennis.

We had a challenging hike to start off Day 3. Photo credit Barry.

The Utah company's boat went through the same rough water that we did. Photo credit Harrie.

Dennis merely labelled this photo "Wow." When that man speaks, I listen. Photo credit Dennis.

Approaching Day 3's campsite. This would be the last night on the river for two in our group of 32. Photo credit Barry.

Grand Canyon, Day Two

Grand Canyon, Day Two. Morning coffee call, 5:30 A.M. I thought that the busy water behind me & Joe could be deadly. Speaking on the subject of death in the Canyon, which apparently is omnipresent, it would play a big role in our trip. (Photo credit Harrie.)

A natural amphitheatre we came across. The place was swarming with tourists brought by the Mormons. See those blue blobs in the center? Those are rafts which could hold 16 people or more. That's why John Wesley Powell, the one-armed Civil War hero (and perhaps murderer) said this cavern could hold 50,000 people in it. Lindsay termed him "J Dub" when she read from his excellent writing of his account of his expedition's first trip through the Canyon shortly after the Civil War. (Photo credit Dennis.)

Oh yeah, we saw natural life in the Canyon. Here's a buck at the waterfront that would make a lifetime NRA member with a full magazine of silicon bullets loaded into his (I won't bother with the obligatory "or her") rapid firing assault rifle ecstatic. (Photo credit Dennis.)

Does this look like a castle on a hill in Medieval Europe? We lay on the boats and imagined so. Do you know, BTW, that a third of the population of Europe died in the first visitation of the Black Plague around 1350? No wonder they were paranoid. Where was the TSA when you really needed them? (Photo credit Dennis.)

So the water on the Colorado could get calm too and make you think that all was right with the world. (Photo credit Barry.)



I think this was the view from the beach we slept on the second night. If not, I know it was a view from the Grand Canyon. And if not for the Sierra Club stopping all those plans to dam up the entire Canyon back in the 60s, well, you wouldn't be seeing these spectacular photographs shot by my friends. (Photo credit Harrie.)