Monday, April 18, 2005
See, it's true
The guy in the red life jacket and blue shorts, who is in the process of being launched into the bow of the boat from the force of hitting the wave, is your humble author. For the curious, that is Troublemaker Rapid on the South Fork of the American River, near sunny Coloma (the site of Sutter's Mill where James Marshall discovered gold in 1848). I'm not sure exactly when the picture was taken, but based on the haircut and the the gear visible in the boat, it's probably around 1985. Twenty years ago... I. Am. An. Old. Man.
Update:: If you look closely you can see that I am wearing a watch. This means that I was the Head Boatman on the trip. The HB has a schedule to keep. He needs to get to lunch on time. He needs to make sure that camp is reached with enough time to finish cleaning up the dinner mess before it gets dark. The regular boatman on the tripd doesn't care what time it is. He just wants to have fun going down the river and entertaining the folks in his boat. When he gets to lunch, he makes lunch; when he gets to camp he does the camp thing. If he's washing dishes in the dark, then the HB should have been looking at his watch more often. So when I wasn't the HB, I didn't wear a watch; I didn't want to have any unsightly, unnecessary tan lines
