Colorado Outward Bound
A few summers ago, I had the experience of a lifetime.
Although my life has not been that long, 18 years to be exact, this was something I will never forget. I was fourteen at the time, and always looking for some sort of adventure. That's when I found out about Outward Bound - a highly respected wilderness survival school with programs all over the world. The object of this course was to convince us that we can do more than we think we can, at any given moment. I enrolled in the 14-day, Green River-Desolation Canyon, white-water rafting, hiking and rapelling trip. I had the feeling that I was about to embark on a most unprecedented expedition. Green River and Desolation Canyon are both located within Utah and Wyoming, which is a beautiful part of the country.
The school sent a list of required equipment and clothes, and my parents and I went to Albuquerque to purchase everything that was necessary. Apart from equipment not supplied by the school, I was allowed only two sets of clothes for two weeks, and there would be absolutely nothing that would remotely resemble a shower during all that time. Once geared up and ready to go, I took a plane to Salt Lake City, which was where my trip began.
When the plane touched down in Salt Lake City, I didn't know what to feel, or what to expect; my mind was totally blank. At the baggage claim, I saw several people with the same dumb look on their faces as I had. They were up to their ears in camping gear and that's why I thought that they were here for the same reason as I.
I introduced myself, and became quite friendly with them. After a while, we met our course director and he sent us on our way. It took us about five hours by bus to reach our starting point. By that time it was getting dark. We set up camp and prepared ourselves for the next day.
First light became a nightmare. We were required to run AT LEAST one mile before our despicable breakfast (the breakfast consisted of canned bread, some sort of berries, something that looked like eggs, and coffee, all of which had one and the same taste). I am not a morning person, and apparently neither was anyone else, so the breakfast scene became quite nasty. The food supply was rationed as it was precisely calculated to last us the whole trip, so I was hungry all the time, and so was everyone else. This made mealtime a boxing match. If even the slightest amount of nourishment hit the ground, we would all do everything we could to get at it: push, punch, trip and even kick. Nevertheless, we all got along very well.
Answering nature's call was another challenge. There was an ancient army can called the "groover", lined with a plastic bag, where everybody had to relieve themselves. After every visit, this contraption would leave grooves in your butt which is how it got its name.
Of course, all this is just background for the real thing.
For me, the highlight of the trip was a specific white-water rafting experience. Seven of us had set out on a rapid which was graded five, meaning that it was one of the more dangerous rapids and contained invisible obstacles. About an our or so after we left, I noticed that the raft had picked up quite a lot of speed. The waves also seemed a lot higher and we were being tossed about considerably. To me, the waters hissed disaster and I braced for whatever was to come. We had had a lot of instruction so we thought we were prepared for any eventuality.
In the meantime though, our straightforward progress had changed, and wallowing in the grip of a powerful cross-current, our raft veered from the middle of the river and headed straight for some very visible rocks. Upon impact, a member of the crew flew overboard and landed right in front of the raft. As he tried to swim away, the momentum of the raft was too quick and ran him over. He popped up right after we went over him, screaming bloody murder. He was not hurt though, and we pulled him back into the raft without any problems.
As we proceeded downstream, we could see in the distance a series of large waves that would overtake anything in their path. Upon approaching these waves, I noticed that there were huge smooth rocks underneath them. I called for the captain, but it was too late; the raft smashed through the wave, causing everyone
to shift forward. The raft came to a dead stop on its front end.
As this happened, the raft's rear end came upward and threw various members of the crew overboard. A guy named Larry, who was sitting in the back of the raft, was thrown violently forward and went catapulting into the river. I saw him flying over everybody before he hit the water and it was such a comical sight that I could barely hold on because I was laughing so much. However, after all this, only the captain, Joel, and I were still on the raft, hanging on for dear life. Larry was swimming like a butterfly, sort of sitting in the water with his legs up making small fluttering movements just as he had been taught. This made us laugh hysterically (probably from relief that it wasn't us in the water). The captain made his way toward the rear of the raft, thus making it come down. As he did this, the raft began to move, and before I knew what was happening, we were through the last wave. Everybody that was thrown overboard was now lying on one of the beaches along the river, exhausted from all the effort made to get to shore.
The experiences that followed were not as exciting as this one, although we all learned a lot and had a great deal of fun in the process. This trip showed me that the inner human spirit can conquer all, and that one has to maintain his strength in order to overcome any adversities. I also made some great friends. The people on my trip were of all ages, and of all types, but by the end of the trip, everyone was very much alike. I saw how people act differently in the same situation: some panic, some stay calm, some laugh and some cry; but we all learned what to do, and what not to do in a dangerous situation and to what degree we could rely on one another. No amount of reading can ever take the place of first-hand experience which is the ultimate learning tool.
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