11/21

La Vantana

Laying here in my bivy on a desert island in the Gulf of California, I take in my surroundings; surf crashing outside, wind gusts, and blowing sand. So much sand that I totally zip up the bivy and hide inside. My quarters are cramped and cluttered. In one corner, a copy of the backcountry classroom, hardly nighttime reading material, and in the other I have Francisco’s copy of the Swiss Family Robinson, that’s a little more like it. As I lay in here, I’ve realized that tonight is most likely the last night I’m going to spend in this bivy in the backcountry on ECOEE. I Know I’ve had mixed feelings lately about going home and ECOEE finishing, but tonight the last night out with ECOEE 2010 in the backcountry leaves me feeling bittersweet. We’ve paddled and swam and crawled through rivers, some of us dumped, some of us set things on fire, and some of us didn’t catch any walleye. We watched the most famous geyser in the world erupt, and some of us were too pissed about the critiques we had to write about it, that we couldn’t enjoy the sight. We slept outside and made sawnaws out of tarps, smoked fish and beef with a parachute. We also practiced knife sharpening, tricked Keenan with a bag of oregano, and were relieved when Katy didn’t cut her foot off. We’ve hiked through the deserts, some of us were more successful at getting lost than others, and we’ve seen some of the most famous and oldest cave paintings in the world. In the last few months we’ve seen the sun set and rise in 3 different countries, and with more beauty and color than we have witnesses before.

So I am ready to get back what I left at home, certainly. But am I ready to leave the backcountry? I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to leave, but all good things must come to an end. Peace out poopin’ in the woods.


Ryan