Christopher Robin and Me: River Guide Days

This seems like years ago, yet some days it only seems like yesterday. Well it was years ago, I'm just getting old! My sister is now a river guide at the same camp I was, and the other day she called me. I was at a fair with my family, so I couldn't hear her very well. I discovered she was asking me what the name of my boat was. I told her, and there was a pause. I assumed she was disappointed because what she thought was my boat, wasn't. I mean, I was there 15 years ago and the scouts beat up those boats pretty good. Then she said, "its here. Your boat. There are a few letters missing but I could tell it said 'Canned Corn.'" [Corn was my nickname in college...on the other side of my boat, I had written "Invictus" for a favorite poem] Whoa. I had a little moment, right there. I think she did too. She told me before she left that being a river guide where I had been meant something to her, that somehow she felt closer to me by being somewhere I had been, since we never went to the same school (incidentally, my dad also guided there as a youth).

Of course this has brought back a flood of great memories.

When I was 20, I signed up to be a river guide for the Boy Scouts on the Snake River. I had just finished my sophomore year in college and was recovering from a bad break-up. :) (funny to think of now) I also had just discovered I had an ulcer and acid reflux disease. I had spent three quarters of a year training my guts out so I could realize my dream of succeeding in college track, but I damaged my hamstring during training (twice, once before indoor season and once before outdoor) and had to redshirt.

I was kind of in a bad way when I got there, emotionally and physically. The first few days were bleepety bleep bleep hard. :) I had bruises the size of dinner plates. The water was freezing cold and fast and scary (and I was in it a lot because I was falling out of my boat a lot). I wanted to go home something fierce. But I stuck it out, and it was the most fun summer I've ever had. It turned out to be hugely therapeutic for me, being in gorgeous untamed country, learning to love the river, and being crazy and bonding with some crazy great people.

Here are some of the things we did that summer:

Jumped out of a tree at night from 50 feet up into an ice cold river, only the moon to light the night (yes, that was thrilling, I'm also glad now I can still walk); tied a board to a bridge with a rope and "surfed,"; had the craziest food fights ever-- chasing eachother with ketchup and mustard, grabbing globs of mayonnaise with our fingers on our way through bewildered eating campers (then we threw dirt at eachother, it stuck great to all the condiments); drove to the top of a beatiful mountain on a crazy scary road, it rained all night and we had to hike out, leaving the cars; took trips to Jackson together; did "guide runs"-- where we just went down the river together, usually degenerating into water fights, pulling eachother out of boats, etc.; went for hikes; practiced eskimo roll in kayaks at a local hot springs; went to church together (I ended up in the MTC with 3 guides); made up crazy names for things-- when we had to use the bathroom we'd say "I need to go fight for America." (pardon the immature irreverence, we didn't think about this then) We went down the river one day with ugly dresses we bought at Salvation Army.

But the healing that I needed most came when I was alone, floating through pines and past swirling eddies. It reinforced a love of nature, strengthened my relationship with God, and changed my view of life, in the sense that I realized I didn't just have to choose the standard choices I had always thought I'd choose.

I dug out some old pictures and took some pictures of the pictures.

I'm the second from the right, next to the guy with the paddle.

I'm third from left.

Crazy people!~ I'm the one wearing the red shorts.

This guy is sticking his whole head in a bowl of either whipped cream of mashed potatoes, can't remember which. We had some great food fights in this kitchen. These days we also cleaned the bathrooms with a garden hose (one of our off day jobs). At the time, I thought, some day I'm going to have a kitchen that can withstand huge food fights and bathrooms I can clean with a hose. Ha ha.