if tey 're talking such and such a trail down from the rim , and then they carry half as much . they listen to all advice that says only well-equipped hikers who are highly experienced in the back country should take this trail to the floor or try that route to the river , and they head right off and buy a pair of brand new hiking boots , put on some shorts and a T-SHIRT , get a daypack , stick a couple of liters of gatorate , some gorp , and a granola bar in it , and off they go .
"this is not forgiving terrain , the weather can change in a heARTBEAT . A LITTLE MISTAKE ABOUT WHERE YOU STAND TO GET A BETTER VIEW OR HOW FAR YOU STEP OFF THE TRAIL TO SEE exactly where you're heading next -i'm talking one extra step in some places , sam - a rck gives way , gravity intervenes , and seconds later you're a thousand feet or four thousand feet farther down the canyon than you had planned . before your brain even has a chance to recognize that you screwed up big-time , you're dead , half the bones in your body busted into kindling .
"it's true up herre on the rim . hell , i could walk you to places night close to here where people just fell off the edge of the damn canyon while they were taking snapshots to put on their refrigerators , it's true when you're halfway down the north kaibab -and that's one of the easier trails to the floor ,people think a maintained trail means a safe trail . not true , and that river ? might as well be a people trap ."
"the rim part i understand . the weather part part i undeerstand . the canyon trail part i understand ," sam told her ." but the river part ? i don't get that . why's the river so dangerous ? other places , people fall in river all the time . i'm from nminsota , we have rivers , people fall in . they fall in drunk , even . most of them ....live . if it 's not winter ."
sam said that at that point ranger ramona went into a well worn rap :" since they built the dam fifty years ago - the glen cANYON DAM - THE COLORADO IS NO LONGER A NATURE RIVER . THEY RELEASE WATER from lake powell to keep the river flowing . what they let of the lake is pulled from the deepest water that backs up against ythe dam .
"this is not forgiving terrain , the weather can change in a heARTBEAT . A LITTLE MISTAKE ABOUT WHERE YOU STAND TO GET A BETTER VIEW OR HOW FAR YOU STEP OFF THE TRAIL TO SEE exactly where you're heading next -i'm talking one extra step in some places , sam - a rck gives way , gravity intervenes , and seconds later you're a thousand feet or four thousand feet farther down the canyon than you had planned . before your brain even has a chance to recognize that you screwed up big-time , you're dead , half the bones in your body busted into kindling .
"it's true up herre on the rim . hell , i could walk you to places night close to here where people just fell off the edge of the damn canyon while they were taking snapshots to put on their refrigerators , it's true when you're halfway down the north kaibab -and that's one of the easier trails to the floor ,people think a maintained trail means a safe trail . not true , and that river ? might as well be a people trap ."
"the rim part i understand . the weather part part i undeerstand . the canyon trail part i understand ," sam told her ." but the river part ? i don't get that . why's the river so dangerous ? other places , people fall in river all the time . i'm from nminsota , we have rivers , people fall in . they fall in drunk , even . most of them ....live . if it 's not winter ."
sam said that at that point ranger ramona went into a well worn rap :" since they built the dam fifty years ago - the glen cANYON DAM - THE COLORADO IS NO LONGER A NATURE RIVER . THEY RELEASE WATER from lake powell to keep the river flowing . what they let of the lake is pulled from the deepest water that backs up against ythe dam .
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