Like Water for Water - the Over-Forty Trip Down the Colorado a More Serious, Hardcore, and Reflective Trip Compared to That at Thirty-Two…
Like Water for Water - The Over-Forty Trip Down the Colorado A more serious, hardcore, and reflective trip compared to that at thirty-two… Left to Right: (top) views from South Rim, Nankoweap; (middle) Little Colorado, Unkar Delta sunset, 75-mile slot canyon; (bottom) edgy trail to Thunder River/Falls, first epiphany in Kanab Canyon, muddy and wet creek-slogging boots Introduction While traveling through Norway in too much style but with insufficient action this June, I knowingly longed for this trip - albeit with the equally knowing sense that I anticipated I would need to remind myself how much I wanted a more authentic wilderness experience when things - no doubt - became difficult or uncomfortable. Indeed, revisiting the Colorado almost ten years after my first trip was more challenging - although I did intentionally choose a longer and more difficult format trip. Ever since my first rafting trip down the Colorado, I knew I would repeat it; in fact, it remains a personal goal of mine to go down the Colorado at least once during every decade of my life - largely because I do appreciate how humbling the experience is at all levels (i.e. I don't think I would like myself as a person if I found myself unwilling to sustain this kind of serious camping). Given what was some unsatisfying stuff my first time (some of which I mildly alluded to in that report), I knew my second time had to be different. Said first trip, booked with OARS two years in advance, was supposed to have been a longer trip with a stronger hiking emphasis; unfortunately, OARS' permit situation evolved over the course of those two years - to the point that the ultimate, corresponding permit dates OARS received represented only a thirteen-day trip.
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