RIO GRANDE
I had first wanted to run the Rio Grande through Big Bend National Park
and the Lower Canyons back in 1979 or 1980.  That trip never came off
but when Stephen Loring asked if I'd like to run it in 2004 I told him I still
had the maps.  

As it turned out, we ran it in 2006/2007... and he had new maps; a good
thing since my USGS topo maps inconveniently omitted anything on "River
Right".  I guess it was considered a waste of taxpayer money to print any
part of Mexico on a US Government map (maybe they forgot that half of
the river is in Mexico).  Only a bureaucrat could think to mess up perfectly
good maps like that, making them virtually useless in the field.

We ran Santa Elena Canyon on the 24th and 25th of December, spending a
spellbinding Christmas Eve deep in the canyon.  Our crew initially had five
members: In addition to myself there were:

Dr. Joan Gero, anthropologist at American University, Washington DC
Bob Guild, environmental attorney, Columbia, SC
Dr. Stephen Loring, anthropologist at the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies
Center
Nena Price, anthropologist at the University of South Carolina

Nena and Bob could only paddle with us through Santa Elena and returned
east on the 26th.  Joan, Stephen and I continued for another eight days
through the entire Big Bend National Park, whereupon Stephen and Joan
returned to Washington.  I continued alone for another nine days the
remaining 150  miles to the Pecos River through the famed "Lower
Canyons" where I accidentally swam the Grade IV "Hot Springs Rapid".
December 22, 2006 - January 12, 2007

275 miles from Lajitas, TX to the Pecos River
Santa Elena Canyon, the morning of December 24th,
2006
My Mad River Freedom Solo canoe
heading into Santa Elena Canyon
Christmas Eve.  Photo by Stephen Loring.
Stephen and Joan ahead of me in Mariscal
Canyon
Our second camp at the upstream end of Santa Elena Canyon where I
hiked up to the top of the canyon wall in the upper part of this image.
Mariscal Canyon as the sunset broke
through storm clouds.  This was a
difficult hike Stephen and I took up
into the desert on the Mexican side.