My years of experience as a professional river guide have shown me that the trips I remember and learn from the most have been those with a purpose. Trips like these accomplish a therapeutic value from the overall experience of being in nature, and floating down a river.  For me, the Green River’s, Gates of Lodore river trip was an opportunity to observe this therapeutic value through the eyes of veterans coping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The thirteen veterans who participated in this trip were from various wartime operations, which included Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Central America.

For those who suffer from PTSD, being on a river trip enables them to have new experiences and at the same time create a sense of normalcy. One Veteran summarized, “Most vets that are in these programs have lost their self-respect to the point where they feel they cannot contribute to anything anymore, so a lot of this may seem minute to some people…It is a big deal to the vets…it gives us a feeling that we can start over and still be useful”. The veterans were introduced to an oar raft, a paddle raft, and an inflatable kayak through rapids, slept in tents, and hiked up side canyons to waterfalls.  All these new experiences added to the rivers ability to recharge them and build self-efficacy.

Written by Teresa Yates Matheson

Teresa Yates Matheson started guiding through the Colorado River in Grand Canyon in 1985 with Georgie Clark, one of the early pioneers of river running. Her twenty-year river career includes commercial and scientific expeditions, where she did research on fisheries, sediment, vegetation, and wildlife. Since her recent graduation from the University of Utah, Teresa is in the process of writing about how the environment has influenced her life, and the therapeutic value of wilderness. She has published Slithering Company and Nankoweap’s Wild Kingdom in Crista Sadler’s, There’s This River: Grand Canyon Boatmen Stories. Her image of Georgie Clark has been published in several videos and books.

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Sitting in a sleek, stealth dory, content with my thoughts, I watched golden strands of silk drift through the late afternoon sunlight in the Grand Canyon. These strands, actually tiny ballooning spiders, carried me into another world. One so entirely peaceful and relaxing, that nearly a year after the experience, my memory escapes back to that moment daily.

Have you descended into the bowels of the Grand Canyon to face Class 10 rapids or stood at the rim in awe of the canyon’s enormity? Have you experienced Yellowstone National Park’s geysers from the boardwalks or on a sea kayak away from the shuffling masses? Do you remember your first night spent under a blanket of stars? Was it in a national park?

Yosemite National Park Ranger, Shelton Johnson, in the Ken Burns “National Parks: America’s Best Idea” documentary, stated the obvious so eloquently – and the eloquent so obviously. His words, “A single moment in a national park can last forever” still resonate with me more than a month after I first heard them.

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Written by Tracy

Writer, Photographer, former Waterblogged Editor

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