Who:
Tom Martin
National Recreation Issues Committee member, Grand Canyon Chapter Recreation Issues Committee Chair, Plateau Group Executive Committee member
Where:
Flagstaff, AZ
Today we are packing for the Grand! Just after the Sierra Summit we will spend eighteen days of muscle-powered rafting with friends and family on a self-guided river trip on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. I work on Grand Canyon protection issues daily with other great folks in the Club like Roxane George, Jim McCarthy, Sharon Galbreth and others. This last greatest American wilderness is at risk from National Park Service-sanctioned river concessionaire motorized tour boats flaunting wilderness character and blocking public do-it-yourself access. Our permit holder has been waiting for her permit for 15 years! Imagine that. What's on your day planner for 2020?
Meanwhile, the river concessionaires are trying to sell their empty motorized tour boat trips on Costco.com and eBay. Clearly, we have a lot of work to do, but today we are packing! Why spend two and a half weeks in wilderness? Ed Abbey said it best:
"One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am -- a reluctant enthusiast . . . a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half for yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely mysterious and awesome space."
