In article , tomj wrote:

On Mon, 04 Aug 2003 20:02:26 -0800, (Jan Flora)
wrote:

. I'm waiting right now for a show about John Wesley
Powell going "Down the Colorado" to come on PBS.
I did too...I've waled and rafted much of the canyon and found the
program fascinating. I live within 200 miles of the canyon...now if we
could get rid of those helicopters....

Gawd, yeah. There are towns in Alaska that are outlawing chopper flights
over their towns. (The cruise ship sheeple take them to look at glaciers.)
Do they run the choppers in the winter down there?

I was disappointed in that show, but the photography was great. After reading
a heavily footnoted copy of "Beyond the 100th Meridian" by Stegner, I thought
the show glossed over too much. (The footnotes in my copy were installed by
my MIL, who grew up hearing about Jack Sumner and that trip. A baby in this
family was just named "Jameson," which was Jack Sumner's real name.) The
photo they showed of the unnamed "mountain guide" who talked to Powell
about the river was Sumner.

I walked down the Kaibab and up the Bright Angel in, oh, 1975 in July (!) Had
to lay in Bright Angel Creek all day, then start up the trail at first light the
next morning. Sucking on a smooth pebble sure helped me from drinking too
much water and foundering. (Getting sick.)

Does Georgie White still run the canyon? I met her at the boat show in San
Francisco, as a little girl, and thought, "I want to grow up to be like her."
You could see in her eyes that she lived in wild country and didn't like cities
worth a hoot.

I think that canyon trip influenced my decision to be a geology minor in
college.
The history of the earth is in those walls. I've never run the canyon. It's on
the list : )

Jan