Make Some Room (the book)

Be bold. Be brave. Take action. Even if you’re scared shitless while doing it. I always joke that I was designed for comfort, not for speed. Whitewater terrifies me because of the speed at which things happen. A few years ago, I decided to try whitewater kayaking, since so many of friends seemed to prefer […]

Be discerning about where you spend your energy (reading, doing, watching, eating). My husband Nelson and I are both self-employed. When our friends approached us in January of 2013 to ask us if we wanted to claim two seats on a 16-day, 225-mile Grand Canyon trip, we said YES almost without thinking about it. Rafting […]

Take the time, get quiet, feel into it. Immerse yourself. Grand Canyon is a harsh place, full of extremes, but is also a place of profound beauty. Part of the magic of such an immersive trip as the Grand Canyon is the opportunity to get off the water and explore the Canyon by foot. There […]

Getting organized is work. Staying organized is habit. On any epic trip, but especially on Grand Canyon trips, there’s so much to organize and plan: Gear (backpacks, sleeping gear, boats, etc.) Food Emergency equipment People (and in some cases oarsmen and oars women) Where to stop for lunch and where the group sleeps Where the […]

Two minutes now saves hours later A no-brainer on the Canyon is to spend two minutes checking ropes and tie-downs before running any rapids. There are horror stories of tie-downs that weren’t checked. The raft flips in a rapid and the entire contents of, say, a kitchen box are lost to the river. On a […]

  It is easier to keep up than to catch up. Admittedly, the part of my Grand Canyon trip that I found least appealing was packing and unpacking the boats each day. The set up and tear down routines took time, effort, and coordination. Especially at the beginning of the trip, I struggled to carry […]