A week away

It's no secret racing at speeds of 200-plus miles per hour requires a great deal of focus and concentration. After a long race weekend, sometimes I'm as mentally exhausted as physically tired! One way I 'reset' throughout the race season is by taking the opportunity to get away for a week or so. During the break following Baltimore, I was able to check one item off my bucket list: a father-son trip to the Grand Canyon. To say I had a lot of fun would be an understatement for sure!

For a total of 188.5 miles downriver, Dad and I paddled the Colorado River from Marble Canyon, Ariz. to Whittmore, Wash. We had great guides that acted as river runners, geologists, historians, storytellers, chefs, and (even though no one on our trip came close to needing it) EMTs. We did everything from running big rapids to seeing local wildfire, and from to hiking to finding some beautiful waterfalls up the side canyons. Our guides Wiley and Lindsey made the trip even more enjoyable. It was really eye-opening to hear the history of the Grand Canyon, from just after the Civil War through today, with the dams, the engineering and the geology... there’s just so many aspects of the trip that were once in a lifetime.

It was incredible to see something of that size and magnitude and be reminded of just how small we are. The sense of scale was so far off that we would see rock formations and think they were 10 feet tall. When we got to them, they were more like 200 feet tall!

It was even more special that I got to experience the whole trip with my dad. We had a blast and were able to enjoy what I think is really one of the most beautiful parts of the country together (without phone calls or email!). I hope that one day I’ll be able to do that trip again, maybe even to take my son down the Grand Canyon.

Enough of my words about the trip; take a look at some photos I took... enjoy!