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| There once was a Raven who told Eagle about how the world really began. |
Editors’ note: the
sublimity life is a blog (and we always use lower case). It is in no way attached to The Sublimity
Life Foundation, which is a nonprofit run out of Las Vegas and a possible money-laundering
site. Google it if you don’t believe
us. We thought of the name first.
“Turning all this over in my mind, I started to imagine
another me somewhere, sitting in a bar, nursing a whiskey, without a care in
the world. The more I thought about it,
the more that other me became the real me, making this me here not real at
all.” Haruki Murakami
There is something peaceful about sitting in a port city bar
and watching boats arrive and sail towards different adventures. Small fishing boats venturing on a day trip,
large fishing boats heading on extended work trips, small water taxis ferrying
people to different destinations, summer sailboats slowly touring the local
waters, large container ships on the move, and ferries taking passengers and
cars to vacations and homes. Everyone
knows how some days seem long and others seem to pass by before we notice. Days seem to sometimes defy the physics of
time. Short days seem like an eternity and some month long trips seem to pass
in the blink of an eye. Near the
midpoint of last summer, I sat in just such a peaceful bar in Prince Rupert
thinking about the relativity of adventure time as I prepped for a 16-day sea
kayak adventure that seemed to only last days.
The boats leaving on adventures from a single port,
although varying in distance and length, seemed to represent the unknowns of an
upcoming adventure. Now as I write this,
I sit in Northern California for Spring Break 2017 reading the recent plethora
of news online and thinking about the snail’s pace time traveled over the last month.
Editors’ note: This
blog is in no way political, journalistic, a money laundering scheme, associated
with any known campaign financiers, or fake.
“Before you build a chicken run, get to know all you can
about chickens and foxes. Find out about
the instincts of chickens and the stories of the fox.” Sasa Stanisic
 |
| Haida Gwaii--Photo: David Brigg |
Our first overnight trip of the water year was the Lower
Owyhee River for spring break 2016. This
section was on a list of areas that conservation groups were pushing Obama to
designate as a national monument. It
didn’t happen, but instead a lot of other areas received national monument
status. As usual on the Lower Owyhee,
the scenery and the petroglyphs are the highlights. The weather was surprisingly good for a
spring break trip and only dropped to freezing on the last day. On the drive home from Birch Creek the Land
Cruiser got a flat tire and we found its spare was also flat. Luckily we found a local rancher with an air
compressor. After the recent and annoying
Bundy Family invasion of Eastern Oregon it was nice to see the sparsely
populated high dessert again and see how nice the local ranchers are. They simply pointed us to the barn, trusting
us to turn on the air compressor, fill up the tire, and leave without
disturbing the farm.
“Which was well and good until you considered how extremely
limited are the opportunities for a commercial ear model, how abysmal the
status and pay.” Haruki Murakami
Somewhere during Spring Term we did a practice sea-kayaking
trip for South African Dave’s birthday, which was some multiple of ten. The old school boat crew showed up, in sea
kayaks this time, and it was a blast.
Once school was out, Lacey and I took a week to meet her
family for a beach trip on the coast of North Carolina. We went on a few nice sea-kayaking trips in
the bay and the house that her family had rented was in walking distance of the
kayak rental shop. It certainly helped
that the local watering hole was half way between the two. After this brief trip, Lacey had to return to summer school for her final term of education to reach her second bachelors degree.
 |
Lacey has some admirers. The observant observer will notice that this picture is not from North Carolina. Instead it is a trip taken after Lacey finished her final summer term of school and we boated down the San Juan River. Likely the observant observer will have noticed this detail when they saw the carefree manner that the recently graduated Lacey is holding her paddle after "more than four years" worth of school. Congratulations on the degree Lacey!
|
Editors’ note: An
excellent story about riding in a Humvee down the sandy shores to witness “wild
horses on the beach” in the middle of an epic thunder and wind storm has been
eliminated due to word count restrictions.
“I can’t believe I’m pretend bowling with a dog on
drugs.” Chris Griffin
Next, a small group of us got lucky enough to join Laura Sol
on a warm and relaxing trip down the Selway River at low boatable flows. “Remember that trip where we accidentally set
the fire proof blanket on fire?” It is
true, but a long story and yes, they can actually burn. This trip had the least number of cameras and
photos of any Selway trip I had ever been on. It was a very experienced crew. We just got to float and experience this great river and the water was
actually warm enough for a bit of swimming.
Four of us headed home and the rest of the crew headed to an epic trip
down the South Fork of the Salmon.
 |
| No pictures from the Selway so her is a typical Middle Fork Salmon scene. Photo: Jerod Bartholomew |
Next was a week-long Middle Fork Salmon adventure. It just happened to coincide with my
brother’s family trip to Yellowstone, so we camped together with his family for
two nights on the drive to the river/yellowstone. It was fun to show my young niece and nephew
the roadside hot springs in Idaho and the put in for the Middle Fork of the
Salmon. Someday soon they will be old
enough to join us on some Idaho river adventures. I’m sure one day that will also include the
Middle Fork. It was great to again have
my mom join us on the Middle Fork; if I remember correctly she has now been
down the river four times. Zach and
Riley Duffens have been boating with our crew for years and joined us as
teenagers for their first Middle Fork trip.
It was great to see how they have grown into excellent river rats. The competition for campsites at the ranger
center was very busy this particular time of the season. We ended up choosing a short first day and
stayed at Trail Hot Springs. This hot springs sits underwater at high flows but
is exposed for late July flows. It ended
up being an awesome campsite with a hot springs right near our kitchen and we
highly recommend it. Another highlight
was watching my sister and Michael Glass run the river in inner tubes for a
short 3-mile day in the lower canyon.
Author’s Note: The
editors of the sublimity life are very excited to see that I have efficiently
transcribed an entire four month period into five short paragraphs. The editors of this blog always strive for
efficiency and hence some really important and entertaining details are
forgotten and dropped due to word count, timelines, and the ever-looming
beginning of the next season of adventure.
“If I were a magician who could make things possible, then
pictures could talk while we painted them.
If I were a magician who could make things possible, then
houses could keep their promises. And
they would have to promise not to lose their roofs or go up in flames. If I were a magician who could make things
possible, the scars made in them by bullets holes would close up again over the
years.” Sasa Stanisic
On his flight up to BC last year, David Brigg saw The Jade
Canoe in the Vancouver Airport, a giant sculpture created by Bill Reid that
once adorned the Canadian currency. Part
of last year’s adventure was running the Nass River, and it scared S.A.Dave and
I enough that this year our plan was to try our hand at sea kayaking and in the
process we would learn more about the Haida people and the origins of the Jade
Canoe’s story.
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| Spirit of Haida Gwaii. A sculpture by Bill Reid at Vancouver International Airport. |
Near the end of July I drove the truck up to Prince Rupert
with sea kayaks on the roof. I then caught a 6-hour ferry to The Islands
Formerly Know as Queen Charlotte, to begin an adventure on Haida Gwaii. The islands sit just south of the southern
edge of the Alaskan Islands, and like many things in the area the maps now
represent the correct names given by the Haida People. Dave flew into meet me and we spent a few
days getting a ranger talk, stopping at a local music festival, buying any last
minute food supplies, and touring many of the drivable parts of the
island. In the process we visited the
site of a large cedar tree that had been fallen by hand and hallowed out into a
canoe by the Haida. The canoe was
abandoned part way through the process, likely because the tree split. This canoe sits on top of a hill a long way
from the nearest water source. If it hadn’t
split, after it was carved, it would have been drug through the forest by a
large crew with ropes to the nearest water source. The age of the canoe wasn’t clear, but it
looked very old and demonstrated the important role that the cedar tree played
for the people of the island and the BC coast.
A good book to read that includes some of this history is The Golden
Spruce, which is a universally recognized classic in Canada.
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| It is hard to imagine the size of this tree. You are looking at what would have been the tail of the boat. Near where my arm is seems to be where the tree split and the boat failed. Haida Gwaii--Photo: David Brigg |
After a few days our adventure began. The shuttle and guide company Moresby Explorers
gave us a ride south to a campsite directly across from Rose Harbor on a Zodiak
with a kayak rack. Other kayakers joined
us on the boat shuttle and got dropped off at different points for adventures
that varied in difficulty and length.
I’ll say this now and I’m sure I’ll repeat it, all kayakers should spend
some time kayaking in Haida Gwaii, flat water boaters can pick a level of
adventure appropriate to their skills and even seasoned boaters will love the endless
exploration possibilities.
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| On our shuttle from Moresby Explorers we were treated to a show of at least three Orca babies showing off and playing. Even the two guide/drivers of the boat were a bit surprised that we only saw a single adult female. Haida Gwaii--Photo: David Brig |
From our drop off point, our first day’s adventure would be the most difficult paddle and one of the most rewarding of the trip. We visited a UNESCO World Heritage Site that has the last standing historically relevant totem poles. The paddle involved an open crossing of a few miles to Ninstints (which has many other local and European names if you google it). The crossing is known to be foreboding. It was very manageable on our way to the island, but bordered on the unnerving side on the way back to our camp as the wind and waves had picked up during our tour. It was completely safe for us, but sea kayaking in open waters offers little room for error and is a mental challenge. South African Dave will happily show you a video of me looking much more nervous that I should be in class two waves.
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| Mortuary Poles. Ninstints --Photo: David Brigg |
Ninstints is the perfect place to explain the backdrop to this
sea kayaking adventure. The history of
habitation of Haida Gwaii goes back so far that it is unclear if the Haida story
involving a very cunning Raven is the actual creation story or if the Western
Explanation of an ice bridge is correct.
The small island of Ninstints has a cave with some of the earliest
recorded signs of human habitation in the area and somewhat nearby Triquet
Island has recently found some very ancient evidence of occupation. In addition
Ninstints is a Watchman Site. To visit
it you need a permit from the Canadian Government for the Gwaii Haanas National
Park Reserve and then you also need to radio into the site about an hour before
landing to meet a First Nation representative and guide called a Watchman. The Watchmen serve as guides and are found
at five of the old village sites in the park.
They derive their name from the three figures at the top of many of the
totem poles that watch in three of the cardinal directions. A group of guided
tourists from a motorized adventure joined us on our tour of the village. Before we saw the village we received a quick
history lesson from our watchman guide, Lance.
I really wish I had a video recording because he quickly and eloquently
explained all the important details of colonization and the Haida experience. But here is a summary: The park was created when the local Haida
people stood up to the logging companies.
The logging companies had logged all of the most accessible logs and
where in the process of working their way south. The last straw was some massive old growth on
Lyell Island near an old village site that was logged in 1985. The tribe elders blockaded the logging roads
and where arrested creating a national news story. It was mostly the elders who where arrested. They had wanted to stand up to the government
for years with its programs that took children to “residential” boarding
schools, stole land, and outlawed the tribe’s ability to get together and
celebrate with the potlatch. On my
journey I saw a lot of correlations with the recent protests at the Dakota
Access Pipeline and the Haida’s stand.
Unlike Dakota, the Haida people won the battle and a national park was
created that is run by the Haida in cooperation with the parks. The stand against the logging companies gave
the Haida a renewed sense of strength and unity that had previously been lost. Next, Lance told us about the history of the
totem poles and the site. The Haida have
a long history of carving cedar to create tools, canoes, houses, masks, totem
poles, and a long list of other things.
These carvings and society changed when trading for furs with sailboats
brought change and small pieces of iron.
The main furs where quickly wiped out, especially sea otters. This lack of trade, small pox, and other factors
lead to migration away from the southern village sites, especially at exposed
sites such as Ninstints. At one point
the University of British Columbia came in and “saved” the totem poles by
cutting many of the house frontal and totem poles into pieces with a chainsaw
and shipping them back to Vancouver. According
to our guide the tradition would have been to allow the poles to naturally
succumb to nature instead of “saving” them in a climate controlled storage at
the University. The mortuary poles that
would have had a bent wood box at the top with the remains of an important
elder where left. For the most part what
you see at the village site is still standing mortuary poles and the massive
beams of long houses that have had the main front pole cut down and shipped
back the Vancouver. The university’s
collection is very controversial with the tribe. As a visitor, I both appreciated the
wonderful collections I’ve seen in places such as Portland’s Art Museum and
Prince Rupert’s Museum (which houses an excellent carved frog from a mortuary
pole) as well as understand the desire of the tribe to have their history back
on the island.
Quote from watchman Lance: “They tried to beat the Indian
out of us, but it didn’t work.”
My journal notes for the trip are very detailed and for the
purposes of this blog, I think a short description will suit the general reader
best. If you are interested in more
details please email us and we’ll give you more details.
Day 1: Rode the
Zodiak south and stayed across from Rose Harbor.
Day 2: Paddled to
Ninstints.
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Ninstints--Photo: David Brigg
|
Day 3: Perfect calm
day paddling around Benjamin Point into Carpenter Bay and visited a
bird-nesting island. We also visited a
site that also had a village but few remains can be seen. Stayed at an awesome spot called Koyla Beach.
Day 4: Long day and
some big chop paddling to a location near Burnaby Narrows called Bag
Harbor. Saw lots of sea lions and some
amazing sea life at the edges of the points and islands.
Day 5: Didn’t move
the tent, but did a six-mile excursion paddled through the Burnaby Narrows at
high tide and low tide on the return.
This site is said to have the largest biodiversity out of any area in
the world. It was amazing and quite
surprising that one of the coolest things is the crazy amount of crabs.
Day 6: Paddled back
through Burnaby Narrows one more time on the way to a camp in Juan Perez
Sound. Saw some crazy kelp beds and
starfish on the sides of the Juan Perez Island.
Since the sea otters haven’t returned to the island yet, the sea urchins
are crazy in places and are really wrecking havoc on the kelp beds that they
eat. Hopefully the sea otters will
return soon.
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| Haida Gwaii |
Day 7: Paddled
through Juan Perez sound to Bishop Island and had excellent calm water. Bishop Island is a great campsite.
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| This photo is from somewhere on our trip. Honestly I don't remember where. I feel like this is an example of how crazily photogenic this area is. Perfect picture and I have only a few ideas where it was taken. Haida Gwaii--Photo: David Brigg |
Day 8: Stopped off at
our second watchman site, Hotsprings Island, and enjoyed a warm soak. The hot water hasn’t fully returned after an
earthquake disrupted the flow, but we enjoyed the soak and setting. Then we headed to Windy Bay, a nearby watchman
site that allowed us to camp in a long house.
The long house was created during the standoff with the logging
company. The house is near Gale Creek,
where the original logging controversy started.
When you see the approximately 800 year-old giant spruce tree at Windy Bay,
you understand why the Haida had such a strong desire to create the park. Windy Bay also has an amazing totem pole
carved by Bill Reid that commemorates the protesters. Justin Trudeau even helped by pulling a rope
during its raising.
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| One of Windy Bay's star attractions: a giant Spruce tree that adorns the cover of the park's guidebook. I have read research that the sites of the first nation villages have the largest trees because of the extra fertilizer loads from things such as composted salmon remains. Haida Gwaii--Photo: David Brigg |
Day 9: In the morning
the waves were too big to head north to the outside of the island so we headed
back south to pass the inside of the island and camp at Bischoff Island
again. The waves were annoying breaking
at our backs. As usual they were just
class two but the consequences always seem like more. We stopped to refill our water jugs at Gale
Creek, the site of the logging stand off that created the park. The trees are gone, but the area is
rebuilding. We saw more eagles and bears
than anywhere else on the trip. Did I
mention that we saw at least one bear and bald eagle each day of our adventure,
some of them so close that we talked to them to create awareness of our
location? It calmed down to no swell
when we rounded the corner into the bay where something big nudged the back of
my boat. Still no idea what that was,
but it scared me enough to make me giggle a lot and paddle really fast.
Day 10: Toured back
into De la Beche Sound which has some awesome glacially carved scenery on some
of the higher peaks of our trip. Saw a
large group of dolphins with the binoculars swimming out of Darwin Sound.
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Waterfall in De La Beche. Dave is trying hard to make the water look warm. Haida Gwaii
|
Day 11: Made it about
half way up Darwin Sound on a lazy paddle.
Saw another large pod, this time it seemed to be porpoises jumping out
of the water, but we couldn’t totally identify them. Saw a couple of good breaches in the
distance.
Day 12: Paddled to
our fourth watchman site, Tanu. Bill
Reid traced some of his roots back to Tanu and is buried nearby. Some of the larger beams from the fallen long
houses had nails in them speaking to the history of trade with Westerners. Tanu is by far the largest village that we visited. The islanders didn’t have much cultivation
and are often considered the most sophisticated society to ever establish
itself without farming. There is an area in the village where stinging needles
were cultivated because they made the best fishing line. It even had an area that had been used as an
octopus trap during tidal changes. This
was our final watchman site; we decide to skip the last watchman site, Skedans, since it can be a long exposed
paddle. We camped around the corner at a
very picturesque site looking across Hecate Straight.
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Tanu Haida Gwaii--Photo: David Brigg
|
Day 13: We woke up to
wind in the wrong direction and decided to take a layover day.
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| Not a bad layover location. Haida Gwaii--Photo: David Brigg |
Day 14: Left camp in
much better wind conditions and paddled around Helmet Island, which is a large
piece of glacially carved granite. Then
we headed up Dana Inlet, which is knee deep in starfish.
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| Haida Gwaii--Photo: David Brigg |
Day 15: We had a nice
paddle and decided to stop 5 miles short of the waiting car. We could have paddled out and the scenery had
definitely declined in the last stretch, but we had no good reason to end the
trip a day early. Louise Narrows is
awesome and had some crazy varieties of sea anemones.
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| Nearing the end. Decorative garden float in tow. Haida Gwaii |
Day 16: The last day
actually had the worst wind. Thankfully
we had missed this sort of windstorm until now.
Bad weather is what this trip is known for and we really had perfect
weather, the secret of August in British Columbia. I had always meant to practice rolling a sea
kayak, but I never really got it done before our trip. I declined to try a practice roll on the
first day of our trip. If I had missed,
it would be very psychologically destructive to the rest of the trip. Instead we tried practice rolls at the take
out and the sea kayaks flipped up easily.
Fish and chips and cold beer tasted very good back at the hotel.
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| Seriously, we waited till the end to try our rolls. From years of whitewater experience we knew we could; but it was nice to see that we were correct. Haida Gwaii |
Editors’ note: Though
our author spends massive amounts of time in boats created from plastic this
blog is in no way funded by or influenced by the oil industry. In particular no grants for trips have yet
been funded by the Koch Brothers.
Author’s note:
Funding by the Koch Brothers for trips will certainly be accepted for
future trips, but don’t plan on getting your money’s worth out of said funding.
 |
| Some spooky pictographs near Moab |
Near the end of summer, Lacey finally finished OHSU earning
her second bachelors degree. To
celebrate we did a road trip to Moab. In
the morning and the afternoon we would go on some very nice hikes. In the heat of the day we hung out at the
hotel pool.
For one activity out of Moab we booked a one-day trip with a
local rafting company down West Water Canyon on the Colorado River. There are only 3 places in the world where
the world’s oldest rock is exposed, the Grand Canyon, the Zambezi, and West
Water Canyon. The river was flowing 4000
cfs and apparently that is the optimal flow for the whitewater as we dropped
into the deep old canyon. The rapids are
very similar to many of the enjoyable rapids in the Grand Canyon. They contain big waves and some holes to
skirt. Skull is the largest rapid and
requires a strong right to left move avoiding a gigantic hole. Our guided paddle raft was on line and hardly
got a splash. After the canyon the winds
picked up. The guides spent a very long
time getting the motor to start, but eventually we zoomed down to the take
out. Without the motor, West Water would
be a very long day trip, but luckily it has some nice campsites that would be
fun to enjoy in the future on a private trip.
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| Lacey is posing in front of the oldest exposed rock in the world on West Water Canyon. |
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| Dinosaur Tracks. Moab. |
After a few more days in Moab visiting arches, canyons, and pictographs, we headed to the San Juan River and floated 27 miles from Sand Hills to Mexican Hat. The river was unusually low at about 300 cfs but this stretch is doable year round. We had an IK and a hard shell kayak, which were perfect for the low water. Some of the other trips we saw had rafts and struggled some with the low water. We spent 3 nights on the river and avoided the afternoon winds by launching early. The canyon is quite scenic, but the Native American cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, and moki steps are the real highlight of a trip down the canyon. The moki steps are ancient toeholds carved into the sandstone. Our last night had the largest windstorm. From our camp we literally saw a commercial crew walking their boats downstream in the shallow waters since it was more efficient than rowing against the wind. We had extra space at the nice campsite and invited the last group of boaters to go by in to share with us and take refuge from the night’s windstorm.
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| San Juan River. The best panel I have ever seen. |
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| San Juan River. Notice the decorations on the roof. |
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| Our heavy boats on the San Juan River. The guide books recommend you carry water instead of filtering. Who know that my kayak could hold food, a tent, about 4 gallons of water and a 6-pack and still float down class 2. The bottle of tequila did tend to make it sink, but I brought it anyway. |
From the San Juan we headed straight to the Rogue River to
meet my family for one last trip before the school year began. The Rogue has been pretty low at the end of
summer the last few years making the fish ladder at Rainey Falls and the move
at Blossom Bar difficult, but it is still worth a trip down the river.
Something happened in early November that we now refer to as
The Event. This was somehow related to
our decision to make another drive over winter break to Big Bend National Park and
run the Rio Grande river which forms a large part of the border between the US
and Mexico. If you’re bored, type
directions into Google maps in the following order: Portland to Rome Oregon and back, Portland to
Selway River and back, Portland to Middle Fork Salmon and back, Portland to
Prince Rupert and back, Portland to Moab to Grants Pass and back, and finally
Portland to Terlingua Texas to Death Valley and back. The spider web map that you have created will
overrun the number of locations you can type into Google, add to about 150
continuous hours of driving approximately 9,500 miles, and will cover the
year’s biggest road trips for the sublimity life crew. We were on a final mission to save the
federal government some tax money and help out with some free surveying for The
Wall.
“The ferryman is dead, and the other dead people are
surprised: what’s a ferryman doing underground?
He ought to have stayed in the lake as a ferryman should.” Sasa Stanisic
Like the start to any good road trip, the Ford Astrovan we
were using was in the shop for a lot longer than we expected getting last
minute repairs before the trip. It was
about to embark on a long adventure that would include rain, sun, snow, and ice. As soon as the van was out of the shop and
our final grades were entered for Fall Term, Niki and I drove for about two
days to El Paso Texas, eating some damn good food along the way. There we picked Lacey, Allen, Mike Ross, and
Cecilia up at the airport and started driving 5 more hours to the edge of the
park. In the morning we picked the shuttle
driver and drove 3 more hours including some fun dirt roads to the put in. If you haven’t figured it out yet, it is a
long ways from Portland Oregon to the Talley launch in Big Bend National Park,
but the weather was 80 degrees while Portland and the nation were experiencing
colder than average temperatures. The river
was flowing at about 500 cfs, which is actually a pretty good flow for the
river. Much of the water from upstream
is captured and used for irrigation and the flow through the lower canyon
usually comes from springs and local rain events.
We did 60 miles of the Rio Grande starting at the end of a
dirt Road called Talley and getting picked up at the end of another lonely road
in a place on the border called La Linda.
The river passed through 4 very unique limestone canyons in this stretch
and they are called Mariscal Canyon, San Viciente Canyon, Hot Springs Canyon,
and Boquillas Canyon. The canyons are
the highlights of the trip as the river cuts through deep vertical walls. Between the canyons the walls recede but
sometimes the river will give of distant views of Big Bend National Park and
the large mountains across the border in Mexico.
After we drove to the river and inflated the cataraft, 3
inflatable kayaks, and one 2-man canoe we paddled the 5 miles to camp for our
Christmas Eve celebration. The only real
rapids on the run happened in these first 5 miles. They were fairly straightforward class two
rapids in the inflatable kayaks and cataraft, but proved a good challenge for
the canoe. That night we spent Christmas
Eve in at a wonderful camp in Mariscal Canyon.
The next day was near the entrance to San Viciente Canyon and the
following day we stayed before the entrance to Hot Springs Canyon. From there we floated to part of the National
Park with road access called Rio Grande Village. It was full of tourists and RVs which is a
strange site coming out of the middle of nowhere. We were able to fill our water jugs, grab
some beer, and take a shower before continuing the second half of our
trip. Rio Grande Village is were Niki
and I had launched 5 years earlier for a different Big Bend trip. Then we headed into Boquillas Canyon stayed
at the same campsite for two days. The
first day was on purpose giving us some needed rest. The second day we loaded our boats to head
downstream but the wind was too strong and we ended up only making it about 100
yards before calling it quits and staying another day. The windy day forced a very long 20-mile day
to ensure we rendezvoused with our shuttle driver on New Year’s Eve. Don’t go do the Rio Grande for the rapids, do
it for the amazing scenery and solitude when the rest of the country is cold
and dark. Do it to understand the scenery. Do it as a secret undercover mission for the
US government to survey a bigly wall.
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| Here is the lead up to the only rapid in Mariscal Canyon. For our secret wall surveying mission, we decided that The Wall will need to be built at river level through this section. River left will allow boaters to still scout the rapid. |
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| Niki surveys the possible location of the wall and admires the entrance to Boquilles Canyon. From this vantage point we decided the wall should crawl straight up the distant cliff on the left. It would be an optimal location to add solar panels to the wall. Just think, it would be the first wall in a national park that generated electricity. |
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| Obviously the wall should be on the left so it doesn't ruin this great campsite. This picture has accidentally been transposed. We are not camping on river right. |
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| The secret survey mission hit a road bump with a day of epic wind. Notice the drifts on the boats. |
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| Hiding from the wind and resting from our tiresome work as Wall Building Surveyors. |
Editors’ note: The
author of this blog has never accepted any cash contributions for the suggested
location of the wall. No member of the
trip ever accepted contributions or free gear.
All details and receipts are transparently available by Goggling The
Sublimity Life Foundation. All pictures
and suggestions for the location of the wall are simply designed to save
surveyors time and the hardworking taxpayer’s money.
Author’s note: We are
in no way trying to suggest who will pay for the wall. Our secret survey mission was just as
successful if it saved Mexico some money.
The ghost town of Terlingua near the exit to the park makes
for a very fun New Year’s Eve. None of
us made it to midnight, but we did manage to hide a bottle of the local drink
(Sotal) in someone’s mailbox and retrieve it later. Then we visited the art community Martha on
the way back to El Paso. It turns out
that the town of Martha pretty much closes for New Years, but lacey managed to
sneak us into someone’s art gallery/house in exchange for a jig of tequila. Next, Lacey and Cecilia flew home but we
somehow convinced Mike Ross and Allen to join us on the very long drive home
with stops in the Petrified Forest National Park and Death Valley National
Park. These parks are also good visits
in the middle of a cold winter. The
January storm of 2017 started on our drive back home through California and Oregon.
It was a long slow drive, but luckily I would only end up working one day the
following week as Portland schools closed a total of six days due to the snow
and ice.
Goodbye for now. I appreciated
our adventures along the Rio Grande’s deep canyons where theoretically a wall
will someday be built. Similarly I enjoyed
the conversations I had with the First Nation Watchmen on Haida Gwaii learning
about their revolt where the continued logging of the island acted as the final straw and generated the creation
of the national park. As always, travel
gives you a much better understanding of the world we live in. It is a privilege to travel, not a right, and
we here at the sublimity life hope to continue our adventure and someday see all
people out traveling the road of their free will and privilege.
"Only to discover: no one sitting at the opposite side of the table. Staring at that chair where no one sat, I felt like a tiny child in a De Chirico painting, left behind all alone in a foreign country. Of course, a tiny child I was not." Haruki Murakami
"Only to discover: no one sitting at the opposite side of the table. Staring at that chair where no one sat, I felt like a tiny child in a De Chirico painting, left behind all alone in a foreign country. Of course, a tiny child I was not." Haruki Murakami
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| Want to know more? Here is the top of the once great Golden Spruce. It stands no more. It was brought down by a man with a chainsaw. It might have been a protest against the footsteps of Colonialism, or it might have been the work of a man with no plan. You to can find out by just googling and reading the classic: The Golden Spruce, A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed. Haida Gwaii--Photo: David Brigg |
