Debbie Jacobs 2458 River Road Guilford VT 05301
explore@sover.net Word Count: 880 plus byline
Rivers & Rapids and Bears, Oh My!
She was easy to spot. On her medical form she had noted that she
would not be useful for carrying any canoes, the stick drawing
she included showed three people carrying a canoe overhead.
Standing in between two of the figures, Maxine could not reach
high enough to help.
Even if she were not ‘petite’ Maxine would stand out in a crowd.
At 71 years old she walks with determined strides and dressed in
her outdoor gear, purchased in the boy’s department, she doesn’t
fit the mold of ‘older lady’. Spunky is a word that comes to
mind, but only if it makes you think of a Jack Russell terrier,
small, with attitude. “How’d you know it was me?” she winked
when I approached her as she exited the gate at the airport.
“I used to be 4’10” until I shrunk two @#$% inches,” Maxine
explained to me at dinner our first night together as a group.
We were preparing for a 5 day adventure down Oregon’s Rogue
River. The group, all women over 40, were being accompanied by
three women raft guides, three to four decades their junior. If
the guides thought they were heading out with ‘little old
ladies’ they had a big surprise coming.
Besides our three rafts, we also had 2 inflatable kayaks. Every
day we were given the option to hop in a guided raft, or captain
our own craft. It was late May, and though we had near perfect
weather, the kayakers wore wetsuits and had they flipped, a swim
would have been invigorating, to say the least. Maxine was among
the first to volunteer for the experience. Never having been in
a kayak did not deter her. I held my breath watching her descend
the rapids, but she handled the boat like a pro. “I love being
an active learner,” Maxine explained, “I believe in ‘process’,
which includes: acquiring skills that challenge me with
physical, mental, and ethical prowess...that’s why these trips
are a perfect fit for me.” That’s quite a statement coming from
a woman willing to wear a purple helmet and neoprene.
As we traveled down the river, our guides had built up our one
night camping in bear territory to the point that we were
nervous, but couldn’t wait. A single electric wire enclosure had
been constructed at the campsite where our food was to be
stored. I doubted the effectiveness of the system, suspecting
that a marauding bear would not be deterred by the shock, but I
kept my thoughts to myself. When I was a couple of decades
younger, I had spent wonderful months backpacking in Yosemite
National Park. Black bears were a common visitor at camp and I
never ceased to be thrilled by their presence. A black bear in
camp would be the icing on the cake.
At dinner that evening, Wendy, our young snow-boarding raft
guide, was in charge of the ‘bear talk’. We were warned to put
our toiletry bags into the electric enclosure. Bears show no
reluctance to slicing a hole in your tent with their four inch
claws, gobbling your toothpaste and rooting for the Snicker bar
under your pillow. When the talk progressed to include the
concerns for menstruating women in bear country, a cry rose from
the group, “Not a problem in this crowd!” they laughed. Poor
Wendy, now a lovely shade of crimson, admitted that she’d never
rafted with a group of just ‘older’ women. “Don’t worry about it
honey,” one woman reassured her, “Estrogen is overrated.”
We woke the next morning to discover that the bears had found
better pickings somewhere else and left us unmolested. The one
we’d seen, wandering the bank of the river earlier the day
before, must have found a group of smellier campers to harass.
Sitting in our camp chairs, sipping our morning teas and coffees
at breakfast, our kitchen area was suddenly overrun by a small
herd of deer. Six young deer came scampering out of the trees
and raced each other past our tents, kicking up sand and
circling twice before returning back into the woods. Who needs
midnight bears when the breakfast show includes Bambi!
The women in the group continued to be impressed by Maxine’s
exploits, her willingness to brave the rapids on her own, her
lively sense of humor, her openness to new ideas and situations.
The only complaint I ever heard from her was regarding chair
height construction. Another woman on our trip, admirable in her
own right, after listening to the accolades go round and round,
whispered to me, “I don’t know what the big deal is, she’s ONLY
2 years older than I am!”
She was right, Maxine was the senior in the group by a mere two
years, so she was not that unusual, BUT, she was the only one in
the group whose feet didn’t touch the floor when sitting in a
chair, and surely that has to count for something. But then
again, I’ve learned that it’s not what we’re packaged in that
makes a difference, as much as what’s inside. Henry Ford once
said, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re
right.” Maxine knows she can.
I’ll keep Henry Ford and Maxine in mind when I shrink ‘two #$%
inches’, myself.
_________________________________________________________
Debbie Jacobs, founder and president of Explorations in Travel,
http://www.exploretravel.com, organizes outdoor and cultural
adventures for women over 40 and arranges individual volunteer
placements in Latin America, the South Pacific and Nepal. She
lives in southern Vermont with too many dogs. She can be
contacted at women@exploretravel.com
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------------ Copyright 2000-by Debbie Jacobs This article may be
reprinted as long as: 1.) It is reprinted in its entirety 2.)
The byline remains intact
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