It's the home stretch toward this year's BIG trip

Now that I've done perhaps my one race for the year, I've settled back in at home for one last period of normalcy before I embark on my great Grand Canyon expedition.  My launch date is August 27, and I'm looking at starting the drive out to Arizona a week from tomorrow.

On Tuesday I still wasn't feeling a hundred percent recovered from the exhausting adventure up on the upper Mississippi.  I went down to the riverfront and spent 40 minutes in the whitewater boat.  I eased into it, and pretty soon I had a vigorous round of drills going.  The day was hot, just like we expect here in August, and it felt good to do lots of Eskimo rolls.  There were plenty of forward drills, backpaddling drills, and spin drills, too.  Even though it's been close to a year since I've been on actual whitewater, I'm not too worried about making the adjustment quickly once I put my boat on the Colorado.  Over decades of experience, I've never had a significant problem with that.

Yesterday I rode my bike out the Greater Memphis Greenline and the Wolf River Greenway to the Walnut Grove bridge, and came back.  It felt easy after my post-race ride from Alton to Grafton last Saturday.  I've done a nice volume of riding this summer, and my body feels good and used to it.

This morning I returned to the river and got in the surfski for the first time since the race.  I paddled to the mouth of the harbor hoping to find some wake-surfing action, but the barge rigs I saw on the Mississippi were beyond my reach.  So I returned to the dock and hopped in the whitewater boat for some more rolls and drills.  I felt good when I was finished: there's something satisfying about preparing for one of the world's more famous stretches of whitewater right here in my humble harbor.

My digestive system felt better for several weeks, but for the last couple of weeks it's been a little out of whack again.  Last Saturday morning it was feeling like it might give me some trouble during the race, but it settled down in time for the start.  I'm doing everything I know how to do to get it into a state of equilibrium before I leave town again.

Meanwhile, the news from the Dragon Bravo fire on the Grand Canyon's North Rim is encouraging: as of today firefighters have achieved 54% containment.  I think they've had more cooperation from the weather the last couple of days.

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