The Aravaipa Canyon Olympics

Sunday, May 04, 2008

By Brooke Williams

Sam Beam works protecting wilderness is Arizona. He and I, along with Chris and Emily, spent part of last week in Aravaipa Canyon, nearly 20,000 acres of designated wilderness two hours southeast of Phoenix. Sam’s real last name is Frank, but “Sam Beam” sounds like sunbeam, which, because of the joy he brings to any situation, is a fairly accurate description of his personality.

The place is paradise - big horn sheep, seven species of native fish, more than 200 different birds, a dozen different butterflies, steep and colorful walls, and thousands of plants - many of them blooming.

Chris was responsible for the trip’s logistics, and Emily, the menu. Sam Beam was in charge of activities. These ranged from underwater exploration (he brought goggles for watching fish the deep pools), bird study (he had the field guide to help us northerners discern a vermillion flycatcher from a scarlet tanager, a hooded from a Baltimore Oriole) and a continuing team competition. Chris and I formed Team Lung Nut, and Sam and Emily were the Fly-caught Wizards.

We started at the west end of the canyon, crossing over land owned by the Nature Conservancy, to the perennial stream, which we walked upstream bank to bank through sometimes knee-deep water. Chris and I won the first competition: a test of rock-tossing accuracy - the most hits of a flat rock on a tall, thin branch moving slowing in the breeze. Other first day’s tests included guessing the time water would take to boil, and when the moon shadow of one side of the canyon would hit the other. Sam guessed best on the boiling water (it was his stove), and Emily on the shadow. Day one ended with the score: Wizards 2, Lung Nuts 1.

The morning of Day Two, we headed for a side canyon two hours upstream, where the diving/jumping competition would be held. After lunch we moved up a winding channel cut by a small current through pocked white rock. After a quarter mile, we came to a giant boulder rising 10 feet above a green pool eight feet across and 20 feet long, and no bottom that we could see. It was being fed by a perfect waterfall, bouncing nearly vertically two stories down a jagged rock face. Brilliant yellow columbines and flaming red monkey flowers covered the walls. Sam’s jack knife (9.7, degree of difficulty 2.3) was the runaway winner over Emily’s Pike Position with a half twist and pathetic cannonballs by Chris and me. 

The score after Day Two: Wizards 3, Lung Nuts still 1.
Day Three began with the rafting contest. The challenge: using found materials, build a raft that would carry a fist-sized rock farther and faster than the competition. My raft was a nicely woven mat of thin sticks tied together by string made of twisted cottonwood fibers. Chris and Emily used large dry branches held together by wound bark. Sam Beam built a square of two-inch sticks with a twig deck for the rock, lashed by tied willows. Mine fell apart in the first major rapid. Emily’s got lost, somehow. Chris’ raft traveled a mile before falling apart, and Sam’s kept going until we got bored with it and let it float out of sight, sealing the win and another point for the Wizards.

The Lung Nuts easily won the “hunt the rabbit” competition (a combination of horse shoes and lawn darts played with rocks on a hard, sand beach) it wasn’t enough to win the overall title. Final Score: Wizards 4, Lung Nuts 2.

I’m making plans for what to take when we meet for a rematch next spring.
I’m also wondering about how to use play and fun and joy as elements in the ongoing wilderness debate.

PERMALINK:
The Aravaipa Canyon Olympics | Planet JH News Article: General News

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