Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Fourth of July 2009: 11 mile hike for 14 mile fun

Alright, so this just in: Iris and I, Sachi, have just hit the booth after 11 miles of hard-core hiking. OK, well maybe it wasn't that hard-core. A few switchbacks here and there, maybe a steep hill, but when you leave behind 14 river miles of Needleton to Tacoma magic for a five hour stint of....well, work, you get a tug at the heart strings that only a mother leaving her young has endured. Yeah, I know I might be going over the top a little but come on...

Have you ever done the Upper Animas?

If you have than you know what an amazing adventure it can be.

I have to say for a private trip we had a bit of a struggle in terms of motivation. But when all was finally said and done we managed to get six members of the Mountain Waters Team, and two of our most faithful supporters, up the mountain and down the river.

The water was not as high as it had been in the last few weeks but we made it work with a cataraft, a raft and a mini-prototype boat that "looks like we bought it at walmart." Yeah, and I'm sure Iris will concurr with me when I say: "This looked like a really bright idea."

So there we were at the Silverton put-in, saying our good-byes, and rigging some boats --all in preparation for only ONE day of mountain water rafting. I know that one day trips are fairly common in this business but let's put it all in perspective. Iris and I were going down the river in a boat -- that all but had the Fisher-Price logo on it -- through all the major rapids and hike out ELEVEN MILES all for the sake of boatin', campin' and hanging out with our friends.

That's love.

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