Lessons learned on the Pecos River

The post about the Grand Adventure reminded me of the time Gerald Hunter and I went whitewater canoeing down the Pecos River, close to Del Rio, Texas. We were five days on the river, seeing another group only once the entire trip. It is a beautiful part of the world – wild flowers galore, rock paintings, and natural caves. There was even a nature shower – a bromeliad growing in a groove of a rock, and in the middle of a small stream of water. The bromeliad separated the stream of water like a shower-head, and it was just the right height to stand under. We didn't come across it until about the 3rd day, and it was a glorious find – even though the water was cold.

There were many life lessons learned on this trip. The one that most stands out happened on the last day.
We had successfully negotiated many rapids, the last one being a class 1 – easy, peasy. So I relaxed, figuring to breeze through this last little elevation drop. As life would have it, and I still don't know how it happened, the back of the canoe got stuck under the fall of water, rapidly filling the canoe.

Images of our supplies floating downstream and being stranded before we could get to our scheduled pick-up flashed immediately to my mind. I jumped out of the front of the canoe and started bailing water with a small pail, getting more and more frantic as water started filling the canoe, faster than I could bail. I redoubled my efforts, panic-stricken by how quickly the water was rising. I heard Gerald laugh, and I got even more driven, because obviously he hadn't snapped to the imminent danger we were facing. If we were going to be saved, I was clearly going to have to be the one to do it.

Just as I started to wear out, the canoe lurched to the side. I hazarded a quick glance back at Gerald to make sure he was OK, and he was grinning inanely. While I was frenetically trying to save us, focusing on bailing water, he had looked at the whole situation and calmly worked the back of the canoe out from under the fall of water, thereby really saving us. I could still be there bailing.

Life Lesson: As soon as I find myself being driven by scary images, I will stop focusing on the little picture, get my head up and look at the bigger picture. Three conscious breaths are the fastest way to do that.      (See post Sept 3 – 3 CB's, Quick Transition to Reality)