I’m a reasonably outdoorsy person, but… I don’t surf. I don’t chase tornadoes. I don’t fight forest fires. I don’t really do anything where I am in the presence of some awesome force of nature that is completely out of my control and completely unpredictable to the uninitiated and uneducated casual observer. On Tuesday I took the day off. A friend had invited me to come down and go rafting. She’s a guide on the Arkansas… the part that goes through the Royal Gorge. I got on an afternoon ride on a section of the river above the Gorge. The sun was hot, the water was cold, the river was high and fast. I had a great time. We were the last trip of the day, so we stowed the customers’ gear, and my friend went inside for a meeting with the other guides. When she came back out she said, “We’re gonna go do the Gorge. Here’s a helmet.” We put in at the spot where the last trip had ended, and I piled into a boat with 5 guides. The man running the boat was the sage of the Arkansas River. He has known that river for 20 years, and probably knows her better than he knows most people.

With a guide and a crew that good it doesn’t take long to feel like you’re not battling the river. This does not fall in the literary Man vs. Nature scenario. You’re with it. This is a force beyond comprehension; one that will kill you as soon as splash you in the face. Fighting against it would be a lesson in futility. But you can’t let it take you either. This is how scared you should be. This is how hard you must work if you are to be with something so ferocious in her beauty.

I don't pretend to understand the river. But I spent one fantastic day surrounded by people who think and speak and move in her particular dialect. I am humbled and comforted and terrified.... And I want to go back for more.