Paddling into the labyrinth

One of the many delightful parts of where we live is the easy access to so-called “EPIC!!!!” trips.

What’s a bucket list trip for many ends up as a last-minute long weekend for us where, because we know the area, lets us get into places that loom large in many publications and social media with a generous dollop of hyperbole.

For us, it’s a stunning place with much history and solitude.

Epic? Maybe.

But I think it’s a word that corporatists use much too much to capitalize on people’s  (e.g., the upper-middle-class user base) desires to do something over the top—or perceived that way, in any case.

But everything gets commoditized in our society. And experiences in public lands are no different.

This diatribe is my long and opinionated way of saying Joan and I had an enjoyable trip recently.

We did not set any FKTs; we did not make any trips that needed a multi-person Q&A session, and, instead, we went on a paddling and hiking trip that we rather enjoyed.

I may have packed in extra chocolate.

We rambled, ambled, meandered, and sauntered over the landscape.

Faint remnants of the many people who also sauntered over the landscape.

We walk and see what we see.

By floating and hiking, we experience the canyon walls from below and then see where we traveled from above.

We connect the landscape in a way that doing one activity by itself does not in many ways.

From Joan

We walk to points that interest us from a distance and make a circuitous route that maybe does not travel efficiently over the landscape but certainly lets us experience the nooks and crannies of the desert.

We pack up the following day, walk out, and paddle away so we can land and then walk to our waiting vehicle.

A land we get to know better with each trip.

It makes us realize how much there is to see, walk, paddle, and experience even more.