More Grand Canyon Pictures

Doug admires a free-standing rock

Karl and Wallapak take a break on a side canyon hike

Doug allowed us to take a turn in his smaller boat

Doug's 14 footer was much more maneuverable but also more tippy

Perhaps some thirsty hikers made it down to the river here?

Reflection in a canyon pool

Striking rock formation in a side canyon

I rowed some of the rapids backwards especially early in the trip as this gives you more power to maneuver

Unpacking

Anasazi grain storage site

Jen and the Little Colorado

Little Colorado 'painting'

 More Little Colorado River pics:

We saw some fine cloud formations

The side canyons provided some great scrambling opportunities

This walk took us to a good overview of the rapids we would run the next day

A bird's eye view of the rapids

Scouting rapids

 The next sequence of 4 pics shows Kevin and Jen as they run a rapid

This is Karl running the same rapids shot from below:

Cactus flowers were glorious

Rani and Kurt go on a scramble from camp

Accidental panorama shot produced an interesting camp life overview - the two scenes should be left to right...

We saw a few lizards, snakes, and  toads

Rafting the Grand Canyon

Last month, Rani and I spent 24 days on the Colorado River rafting 280+ miles from Lees Ferry to Pearce Ferry. We were provided this amazing opportunity by Kevin Burke who is a good friend and fellow adventurer of my brother, Mike. There were 10 of us all told, with 2 leaving at Phantom Ranch about a week into the trip and 2 joining at the same place (8 people at a time on 5 rafts). John, a veteran of 12 descents of the Colorado was our leader with Doug and Karl, joining him as experienced rafters on their own rafts. The remaining people shared 2 larger (18 foot) rental rafts.

Rani has written a brief summary of the trip:

One of my brother-in-law's friends in the USA, Kevin,invited us on a whitewater rafting adventure on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It was all privately organized and therefore less expensive than the commercial tours. You have to enter a Grand Canyon National Parks lottery each year for a permit to run the river and it took 10 years for Kevin to get his permit. We rented the rafts and ordered the food from an outfitter, Ceiba Adventures. The whole trip was 286 miles in 24 days, of which we rowed 246 miles and motored the last 40, which is flat water anyway.We launched from Lees Ferry, close to Marble Canyon, in Arizona and took out at Pearce Ferry, on the boundary of the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead, Arizona.

It was hard work but amazing. We had to be up at 5.30am on most days, pack the tent by the light of our head lamps, cook breakfast (we took turns at this as there were 8 of us), pack the kitchen, load everything on the rafts, row for 12-14 miles, unload everything again and set up at a different campsite. Most of the campsites were steep sandy banks and it was hard work carrying all the gear up and down the soft sand.

John, our team leader, rowed the "kitchen boat", a 16 foot catamaran raft. He owns all the equipment, tables, grill, camp stove, heavy duty pots, frying pans, and bowls, plates and utensils for 16 settings. Most of these are stowed in his custom built aluminium trunks, lashed onto the frame of the raft. The trunks reminded me of the classic cars with their carriage trunks. It was hard labour, unloading and loading those trunks on slippery shores and carrying them up the dunes.

The food was spread between 4 rafts, dry goods stored in surplus metal ammunition (ammo) cans, which have excellent water-proof seals, and meat, fish, dairy, fresh fruit and vegetables in coolers packed with blocks of ice. We ate very well but that also meant we had a lot of solid waste to carry out - you must pack out EVRYTHING to preserve the park. So each day we had to set up "the groover", an ammo can with a toilet seat placed on top. In the old days, there was no seat, so bum cheeks would be imprinted with a groove from the metal can edges, hence "the groover".

For 4-5 hours each day, we rafted down the river through some calms and rapids, some rated up to 8 (by the Colorado River rating system) and one rated 10 (Lava Falls) near the end of the trip. We could hear the roar of the rapids well before we reached them. Some were "read and run", i.e. we could see the flow of the water, the overfalls, holes and rocks with time to adjust our course, while others we scouted from a vantage point just before their approach.I had a go at the 4's but did not feel I had the strength to get through the huge lateral waves and avoid the holes and obstacles in the higher rated rapids. Chris did very well, following closely in the wake of one of our leaders and we did not flip or damage the raft. Learning to read the river takes a lot of experience and we were thankful to have John, Doug and Karl with us to share their knowledge along the way.

Some sections of the river were very narrow with the canyon walls rising steeply on both sides while other sections were wide enough to split around tiny islands of volcanic rock or sandy shoals.  We stared in wonder at the pink, orange and red colours of the walls, seeing castles,forts, pyramids, temples, theatres, totems and towers shaped by water coursing down over billions of years. In some sections shiny black basalt columns rose up from the river, and huge boulders of "coal" stood ready to tumble from the hillside. There were pink and grey granite sculptures, curvaceous urns, twisted candles and arches that would make Henry Moore take note. All this created by nature!

These photos cannot do justice as our own eyes see depth that the camera lens cannot capture.

Chris, Rani, and Kurt in some big water - photo by Kevin Burke

Side canyons like Blacktail exposed some amazing geology

Rani in Redwall Amphitheatre 

Camp kitchen scene - hand washing and making tea - Wallapak, Chris and Doug

Rani near Thunder River - we hiked a through hike here from Tapeats to Deer Creek

Where is Waldo? Chris dwarfed by the canyon walls

Gondoliera Rani with Kurt in the bow

Karl having fun 

These tiny canyon frogs entertained us in Blacktail Canyon with their drill-like mating calls - trrrrrrr!

Rani using her sarong as a sand shield while reading at the mouth of Blacktail Canyon

Chris leaping in front of Travertine Falls

Rani and Chris at Thunder River Falls, Grand Canyon

Rani and Wallapak enjoying a giggling fit

White Point Webs

Most of the following were shot on a small bridge that spans a tidal channel near the White Point resort on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Rani noticed the webs - there were hundreds of them - spun from every span of the bridge. The heavy fog had beaded them into the rarest jewelry.

This shot was taken beside our parking spot in the grass.

And a few foggy shots from the surrounding area:

Cormorants drying their wings - White Point beach is over the distant berm.

Silhouettes in Nova Scotia

Moose Island framed by the volcanic rock that runs from the mainland to the 'Old Wife' rock. Rani provides scale.

Moose Island and the Old Wife rock.

Chris and Moose Island near low tide.

Rani on the beach.

A couple stroll the beach by the Five Islands campground

The above snaps were taken at Five Islands near Economy in Nova Scotia. Rani and I returned from the UK a few weeks ago for my parent's 50th anniversary and are touring around the province. 

Zealot - Fascinating Reading

Zealot is an attempt to find the non-Christian Jesus. The author admits that the historical man is impossible to pin down with any degree of accuracy, but makes the attempt through careful analysis of the context in which Jesus of Nazareth lived and an equally careful interpretation of the writings about him and the early Christians.

I was brought up as a Catholic, so my picture of Jesus is primarily the religious, mythological one. This changed a little when I played trumpet in a production of Webber's rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar when I was 18. I can remember attending bible study classes at the university and discussing the merits of this modern take on Jesus with a Lutheran pastor, who felt that the opera was a good way of bringing Jesus to life. Aslan, too, believes that the two versions of Jesus can co-exist - one based on faith and the other on historical research and a large dose of guesswork.

A brief summary from this review: 

Zealot, as the title hints, attempts to portray an angry, somewhat self-righteous young nationalist revolutionary, descended from a lineage of ornery Galilean hillbillies, who was not above a degree of ass-kicking and name-taking when he thought it necessary. Aslan chooses as his epigraph Matthew 10:34 (“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on Earth. I have not come to bring peace, but the sword.”)

Another tidbit I found interesting was a discussion of the influence of St. Paul on Christian doctrine. Paul who never actually met Jesus, claimed the place of first apostle through divine revelation. His views were frequently at odds with the other Apostles and with the teachings of Jesus's brother James, who continued Jesus's teaching after the crucifixion. Aslan also points out that much or what is written undergoes a clear metamorphosis during the early years of the church as the movement evolves from a Jewish sect expecting the immediate return of an earthly leader to the more mystical Christian beliefs with which we are more familiar.

The book has received much attention in the US due to an interview of the author on Fox television as described in this review. Some Christian commentators are understandably unhappy with the book and there are a few legitimate criticisms including the fact that Aslan appears to cherry pick the selections from the Gospels that support his thesis. He has also been accused of getting dates and facts wrong.

The Swerve : How the World Became Modern

 "The Swerve : How the World Became Modern", by Stephen Greenblatt, investigates the rediscovery and impact on our world of a Latin poem that was written 100 years before Christ. The ancient work, De rerum natura or "On the Nature of Things" by Lucretius was found in a monastery by a 15th century book hunter and secretary to various popes, Poggio the Florentine. This article from the New Yorker does a much better job than I can do of reviewing this book. Highly recommended reading. For further reading, here is a link to an epub of a translation of "On the Nature of Things".

How Much is Enough - Review

I just finished an excellent book that blends economics with philosophy in an attempt to make a case for the 'Good Life' over the pursuit of money for its own sake. The authors (Robert and Edward Skidelsky) argue that economics and social policy should be geared not towards pursuit of growth (increasing GDP) for its own sake, but toward enabling all people in a given society to achieve their needs (or basic goods). They make an assumption that in many countries, the conditions of scarcity that underlie classical economics are no longer true at least in the long term, pointing out that we have incredible wealth that, since the early 1970's in particular, is becoming increasingly skewed in its distribution between the very wealthy and the rest of society.

The book is scathing in its condemnation of modern liberal social and political thought that claims a sort of neutral justice for all, but takes no moral stand. The authors believe that as a species we are innately competitive and acquisitive and that current policies that encourage an unrestrained free market economy are harmful in the long run, leading only to endless growth. They spend the first few chapters laying out a convincing argument that we have lost sight of the basis for a good life, exploring the ideas of great thinkers from Aristotle to Keynes and beyond and showing how recent attempts to define a framework for living based on sustainability and theories of happiness fall short of the mark.

Later in the book, the authors describe what they see as the requirements for a good life. The 7 basic goods are: health, friendship (this includes family ties), respect, security, personality (or autonomy),  harmony with nature, and leisure. Leisure is defined not just as time to relax, but as time to pursue things that interest and engage us without the pressure to make them pay. They give the example of an artist creating a sculpture or a gardener in their garden.

In the last chapter, the authors discuss the disappearance of moral and ethical traditions and look at possible ways to regain these. They go on to look at social policies that can help redistribute wealth to allow all people to have access to the basic goods. They propose a consumption tax (in place of an income tax), a basic income, and limits on advertising (intended to curb our innate competitive and acquisitive desires).

I hope that this book comes to the notice of a few of our politicians and policy makers.

How Much is Enough and The Autobiography of a Supertramp

In the Library of Birmingham, I came across what looks to be a very good book on economics and philosophy titled, "How Much is Enough - The Love of Money, and the Case for the Good Life." The book examines our drive for money as a means in itself, suggesting an alternative definition that instead puts increased leisure as the central goal. The authors stress that this is not a pursuit of idleness but leisure as the Romans and Greeks would have known it - time to pursue what is really worthwhile. I will report back here after I finish the book.

The other book I read a week ago is called "The Autobiography of a Supertamp" by Welsh poet, tramp, and writer W.H. Davies. Written in an unadorned style, this tells Davies' story of his unorthodox life as a beggar and paints portraits of the people he comes across in his journeys in North America, Britain, and criss-crossing the Atlantic. The group Supertramp apparently got the name of their rock band from this book.

The two books are related as this poem reveals:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare. 

William Henry Davies