The Red State

Colorado truly is a nice place. I got back from there about a week ago and back from more camping around here just three days ago. I don't really know what Colorado's official motto is (e.g. Texas is the Lone Star State), but I can bet it's probably something like the Red State, as the word Colorado means red in Spanish, or something like that, but I can't quite remember.

During my five day stay with Noah's Ark White Water Rafting Inc., I participated in a different "adventure" each day. The first day a group of us hiked up a mountain (no, really). It took us like, two hours to get to the top with lots of switchbacks, rocky trails and breathtaking views. At noon, we broke for lunch on a grassy meadow near the summit. From there we had a ridiculous view of the canyon below and the surrounding mountains; true postcard material!

Hiking all the way up there was really tiring too; we were at something like twelve thousand feet above sea level by the time we got to the top, and way up there, there isn't much air.

Second day we went rock climbing on "Bob's Rock", a great local place for some real rock climbing and rappelling. There, I completed my first rappel ever. Basically a rappel is a descending from a rock face via rope that goes through a figure-eight carabiner and your fingers. Usually real climbers will climb a rock and rappel down instead of climbing, but we took the easy route and just walked up the cliff. As I walked closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, I couldn't help but look down. My pulse quickened and my palms grew sweaty (maybe because I had put on heavy gardening gloves to prevent the rope from burning my skin off), and all of a sudden, I was on the edge of a hundred foot cliff! Three times I think, I chickened out, saying to my guide "I can't do this, I can't do this GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!!", but eventually the encouraging voices of the other guys there convinced me that I wouldn't fall and die. After taking the few steps off the edge, it wasn't half bad. I was sort of sitting in the air held up by my harness and my guide, as I let the rope slowly bleed through my fingers. All the while I was scared that my arms would go and I would fall to my death, even though I knew the guide had me with a secondary line... real climbers have no such insurance. So that was that.

On the second last day we all piled into a flotilla of about ten or so rafts and began to float our way down the Arkansas. On our way to the base camp eight or so miles downstream, we encountered a variety of local sights and of course, rapids with names such as "widowmaker" and "raft ripper" o_o. Boy, was I scared.

Turns out the menacing names are given to scare people like me. The rapids we encountered were mostly Class II rapids (on the American scale), and occasionally Class III rapids, nothing at all dangerous. However the water levels during our stay there were apparently lower than normal, and our guides had told us things get rough when the water rises.

We also saw some funny looking rocks with names such as "the pink panther" and "sleeping indian"... Hmm.

Anyways, arriving at base camp we got into our tents, had some evening activities and settled in for the night. Next day we woke up early, packed our tents, packed the rafts, rafted down another nine or so miles and took a bus back to Noah's Ark.

And that was the end of my trip to Colorado. Well, not actually because we still had one last meal to go, contact info to exchange, flights back home etc. But I did learn some things from this trip:

• Colorado really is red... the soil... the rocks... even the people >.>
• Doing things that normally wouldn't normally be physically strenous such as hiking and jogging ARE strenous at twelve thousand feet.
• Real rock climbing is much more exciting than climbing that wooden tower at Playdium
• The bugs in Colorado are huge! Like, as long as my middle finger huge!
• The bulk of Colorado's revenue comes not from tourism, but from the sale of postcards, the likes of which can be found (and made) pretty much anywhere in the state.
• Sunflower seed husks float.
• Pure mountain spring water isn't really that pure; it's full of animal crap and giardia which will put you in bed for weeks.

All in all my trip to Colorado was pretty interesting as a whole but I'm not entirely sure I'd do it again if I had the chance.