Alternate Summer Job for Teachers

I'm relaxing in Las Vegas with an old friend from the years in Japan, after an 8-day paddleboat trip down the Colorado River through the lower Grand Canyon. In addition to incomparable scenery and the exercise one gets from running rapids in a small raft, there is inevitably the human element to a trip like this. Afterall, 24 guests and 8 crew members spend over a week in close proximity through many potentially dangerous situations. Then, after it's over, most of us marvel at how we did it all so smoothly.

Ours was a pretty adventurous and fit group of guests, and our guides and cargo crewmen had a knack for being friendly and casual while never anything less than completely professional. The three cargo crewmen are in a kind of internship for becoming guides with the company, though each of them has some experience already as guides with other companies. Most of the guides had navigated the Colorado River multiple times, some as many as seventy trips, based on an average of four trips per season over a several decades-long career.

A surprising number of the guides are teachers during the academic year, and guide raft trips as a very neat summer job. I became friendly with several of them, including one who teaches high school in North County here.

I'm not so sure that I'd want to do what they do. There's a lot of responsibility for the guests, and not all guests are as cooperative or physically ready for the paddling experience as our group was. Frankly as well, one or two trips through the canyon on a raft is probably enough to satisfy my own curiosity. Nonetheless, for those who choose the lifestyle, hosting summer adventure trips as a guide is one of those activities that a teacher's schedule is suited to.

I admire those guides, some of whom are rather petite women, and feel the trip gave me the basis to get into better physical shape. I hope their example, the long rest from teaching, and my enjoyment of increased physical activity will help to energize me for the fall.