Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

From June 28th through July 3rd, I had the privilege of being on a raft on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. This was part of a family trip “for the guys.” On a trip put together by my father-in-law Allan, his two sons, me (a son in law), my three sons, two other grandsons, one grandson-in-law, and one great grandson spent five days and five nights on the Colorado River. These blog posts are part of the story.

On the Sunday night before embarking on the river, our guide Andy told us,

Take only photographs,
Leave only footprints

I thought that was a clever way to say things and I like clever ways to say things – ways that people remember. I didn’t need the clever little saying to remember that we were not to leave anything in the canyon. For a week, we lived by the saying

leave only footprints

We ate three meals a day in our camp. We were told, “If you drop any food crumbs, pick them up and put them in our trash cans.”

We did that. We didn’t leave any potato chip crumbs; we didn’t leave any bread crumbs, and we didn’t leave any pancake or cookie crumbs. We picked up every crumb and put them in the trash.

As an aside, what surprised me was that even after we left a spotless camp, big black birds would swarm onto the beach the minute we pulled away. I hate to disappoint them, but we disappointed them every time.

This leave only footprints was heeded on the river as well. On two occasions, we slowed our raft to retrieve a floating coke bottle from the river. On another occasion we slowed the raft because we saw something that looked like floating trash. It was only a lump of foam in the river naturally.

We camped in places that other groups of rafters camped. We stopped to hike near beaches where other groups of rafters stopped. No trash anywhere. Nothing. No one left anything behind in the canyon except footprints, and I saw a lot of footprints. It takes rain to wash away footprints, and there isn’t much rain in the bottom of the canyon.

This was a surprise. The Grand Canyon is a big place. There are only several thousand people a year who see the canyon from the river. I never thought that trash left behind would be a big issue. For some reason it was a big issue and everyone picked up every little piece of trash.

Now that am I back in civilization, I take my usual walks and runs here and there. I am shocked by seeing any bit of trash on the ground. A week of absolutely nothing on the ground gave me a fresh perspective.

It is possible to leave only footprints. I wish everyone could have that experience.