FORCE OF NATURE

The holiday weekend was amazing, filled to the brim with super-secret 40th-birthday activities for Sean zombietruckstop, concocted by his boyfriend and new LA resident mattycub.

The most amazing part was the two-day, twenty-one mile rafting trip on the Kern River on July 3rd and 4th. My cohorts were Matty and Sean, Jeff jeffbear63, Karl bookbear, Sean alphaschnitz, Pete trapezebear, Vinny umkinda, Will sunflower1969, and Owen murphy. Pictures are being developed and shared amongst the group, and I'll be posting some soon.

All in all, it was one of the best two days I've had in the past decade. I could fill pages about what we all experienced on the trip -- however, seeing that every muscle in my body is sore beyond belief, it's even hard to type.

Water seems to be a recurring theme for successful events with my particular group of friends -- but unlike the placid floating of our 2004 group visit to El Matador beach, these weekend's waters were a bit more turbulent, both physically and emotionally.

As Matty and Pete have already mentioned, things got a bit hairy a couple of times, and a number of us became unexpected members of the Kern River Swim Team. Balancing the thrilling fun and scenic exhilaration of our two-day journey down the river were a few bits of unexpected peril (especially for Sean) -- ultimately, nothing life-threatening, but intense nonetheless.

Thankfully, everyone's still alive with no missing limbs, and only the smallest of bumps, scrapes, and bruises to show for it. Not to diminish the inherent risk of what we were doing -- but I'm a firm believer in "all's well that ends well", and withstanding the physical and emotional roller-coaster of this trip, fueled by the camaraderie of these nine outstanding men, is something very memorable for me.

The catharsis of pushing your comfort zones and physical abilities can be a really humbling and positive experience -- as it was for me on Monday afternoon on the first day of the trip, after swimming through a class three rapid and panicking when I ran out of breath and thought I wouldn't make it out of the strong current and back to shore about sixty feet away.

Both Vinny and Owen were in the water with me, and lent a hand in helping me to shore to catch my breath. Both of them said that, for someone who's normally very collected, that they'd never seen me look so terrified. I took some time by myself that evening at camp, just mulling through the situation, wishing I had fidgetcub around to decompress with (who couldn't make the trip due to work).

In hindsight, looking back across that same stretch of river, it was much smaller and less threatening once I wasn't in the thick of it. I really realized that my boundaries were mostly emotional and not physical -- I easily could have made it that last sixty feet, had I not instantly panicked and instead swam upstream at an angle as we had been instructed.

In fact, I can honestly say that I wouldn't hesitate to try the same swim again, and look forward to another trip with the same group.

Well, maybe I'll wait until I'm less sore. And in slightly better shape. :)