For 25 days our world existed within the shelter of the Grand Canyon’s walls, thousands of feet below the rim. Nearly a mile above us, the rest of the world continued to move at its blistering fast, distracted pace. At river level, for 25 glorious days, 15 people were lucky enough to slow down, focus on the present, and live the good life. Some days we floated, some days we hiked, some days we celebrated, others we recovered. Regardless of what we did, each day was absolute paradise.
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Describing the experience and the beauty of the canyon is far beyond my literary ability. I took a ton of pictures, and I think they do a better job of telling the story.
Although the Canyon experience goes far beyond, the whitewater, the Z.One ended up being the perfect boat for the trip. On the whitewater days it ran the big water really well, surfed up a storm, and wavewheeled like a champ. I love the way it carves into boily eddies, there is no other boat out there that has the same ability to do that as the Z.One.  A few other paddlers on the trip loved the Z.One too. Our trip leader Tamar, a 110 pound woman, and a 230 pound canyon veteran named Joe both loved the Z.One as much as I did. It’s kind of hard to believe that all three of us were able to fit comfortably in the Medium.
In 1869 Jack Sumner, a member of Powell’s first expedition through the Canyon described his experience in one sentence: “We Broke Several Oars and Most of the Ten Commandments.” I think his quote sums up the canyon experience pretty well. Although we didn’t actually break any oars, we had our fair share of mishaps, but most of all we had a ton of fun.
 
Getting back into the swing of things here at home has been a little difficult. I was hoping to come back to great snow, and another month of winter. It seems mother nature had something else in mind. It rained a ton yesterday, and now it’s back to super cold temps. With ice in all of the local rivers, paddling here is still not an option.  Spring break will be coming soon, and with it, a trip to Asheville, and the official beginning of another season of paddling.