The Narrative Image

As near as I’ve been able to calculate, the red arrow points to our base of operations on the Owyhee River. This location is at the bottom end of about 48 miles of class II and III rapids - that is, if you happen to be there in the middle of May. If you’re there at the end of August and maybe during a season of drought, traveling by raft is rumored to be problematic. Sitting in the shade, fishing and drinking beer is nice, but you can’t do it all day. Well, actually, you can do it all day, but we were also cognizant of other points of interest in the canyon.   One such site was archeological in nature, but the people who know of such sites tend to be protective of them - and for good reason.   (LEFT: pictogram peppered with bullet scars. RIGHT: Same image modified with Jon Harmon’s DStretch to better delineate the original art.) For instance, this antler man that appears near Maupin, Oregon appears to be the victim of fairly intensive target practice.   (TOP: Various car...

    The Montero lurches back and forth and sideways. Kip has become adept enough to accurately pick his way between the most aggressive rocks, but it is still a careful balancing act to maintain a speed slow enough to keep us from bouncing our heads off the ceiling, yet fast enough to keep Rico in sight..at least mostly in sight. Then again, it doesn’t pay to follow Rico too closely on account of the curtain of dust tossed up by his tires. Once again we are approaching the edge of the canyon and once again we will be required to survey our resources and evaluate our prospects. Not having a vehicle, I’m not troubled much with these decisions beyond figuring out which driver is liable to kill me the most and lobbying to ride with the one who won’t. Fortunately, we’ve ridden rapids on wilderness rivers together, negotiated powerful tidal currents together, and together even stood at the edge of Rico’s conspicuously excessive campfires.Maybe all of this has simply fostered a false...