• AT HAND: Deuce Lee, The Big Dipper
• LOCATION: Grand-Staircase-Escalante National Monument, near Escalante, UT
• DATES: October 30 – November 1, 2020
• STATS: 3 days/2 nights, 29 miles – 3,455 feet EG

The Upper Escalante River is cold enough to induce scrotal vasospasm when it’s merely roiling ankle-high. Submerging yourself up to the foremelon on purpose is refreshing-falling in while navigating a narrow eddy can be a form of rebirth; pressing through the sacred waters is akin to accessing a portal to the other side of the other side. The water and its slow, steady war of attrition are the star attraction, responsible for the vegetation, slot canyons and netherworldly topography. People much wiser and more connected to the universe than us found their place here, and we pretend to honor and preserve their cultural breadcrumbs while simultaneously rolling our factory farm chicken drumsticks in them-straight to the fryer! If you’re walking a path that is a river are you still walking a path? Who knows, who cares.

Of consequence: Peaceful lake-adjacent pre-camping in Escalante; 10+ hour one way frenetic driving; wetsuit booties; temperature gradients making themselves known in the shade; a massive rocky outcropping littered with pictographs; fungi.