LESSONS FROM NATURE

Life is Like the Pecos River

            The Pecos River crosses the western portion of Texas, from north to south, without a tributary.  Entering into a broad plain as it passes from New Mexico into Texas, this wild river descends into an inaccessible canyon as it approaches the Rio Grande.  As the Pecos cuts its way through immense limestone cliffs, the last 60 miles of whitewater provide one of the few remaining wilderness-paddling adventures that can be enjoyed in North America.

            At Del Rio my daughter and I strapped our canoes on top of our SUV and drove west on Highway 90, turning north on Ranch Road 1024.  The stark and desolate land flattened as we penetrated the heart of Val Verde County dotted with yucca, sage, and cedars.  We turned west toward Pandale onto an unpaved single-lane road.  The brilliant sun reflecting off the caliche plain seemed to pale the blue sky as a fine dust billowed behind our rattling SUV.

            We knew we had reached Pandale when we saw the sign.  There were no houses, no stores, no people—just a sign reading, “Pandale:  Population varies.”  A few yards past the sign we came to a low-water bridge spanning the clear, shallow water of the Pecos cutting an asymmetric path toward low-lying limestone bluffs. 

            After we placed our gear-loaded canoes in the water, our ears filled with silence.  No traffic noises.  No cellular phones.  No radio or television.  We were twenty miles from the nearest ranch house.  If struck by misadventure, our rescue would depend on our ability to walk out of the deep gorge we were about to penetrate in our insubstantial canoes.

            The next five days were filled with incomparable adventure—thrills and spills in treacherous white-water alternating with peaceful paddling in placid pools.  We never saw another person—or a snake.  We showered under waterfalls and camped in meadows of knee high grass.  We hiked to caves and saw some of the oldest archeological deposits and rock art in North America.  The second day we faced a fierce wind that, despite hard paddling, drove us backward.

            Sometimes we had to haul our canoes through energy-sucking muddy shallows. We fought through white water.  Twice we roped our canoes together and towed them past precarious boulders. As we approached our destination sixty miles down stream, the waterway widened into a reservoir created by Amistad Dam at the confluence of the Pecos, Rio Grande, and Devil rivers. The tranquil water gave little hint of the adventure we left behind.

CONCEPTS TO CONSIDER:

1. How can we see the beauty around us when we are mired by muck and mud?
2. Like a soaring eagle taking in the full panorama of the Pecos River, would a “bird’s eye view” of your life make the troubled waters you encounter become more bearable?