[pct-l] stream crossing practice

[Marion Davison]

Melanie Clarke wrote:

> 
> The Narrows at Zion is pretty tame, you may want to practice on swifter 
> water than that.  I had all 5 of my kids hike the Narrows for about 4 
> miles in, including my son, who has a heart disability, and he was only 
> 10 years old at the time.

My point about my use of the Narrows was this:  I wasn't using it to 
learn how to cross a stream.  I was using it to immerse myself in 
running water for a several hour period, to desensitize myself from a 
paralyzing fear of running water.  This fear had affected me whether I 
was in a canoe or on foot.  While the experience in the Narrows, walking 
against the current for a couple hours and then walking back with the 
current, didn't prepare me for the act of stream crossing, it did 
desensitize my irrational fear.  So it was useful in that way.  In the 
same way, I take rookie llamas to the Mojave River, which is fairly 
warm, medium swift and pretty shallow, and make them walk around in it 
for about an hour to accustom them to the idea that crossing a stream 
will not kill them.  If I don't do that, I will have to throw them into 
stream crossings for years.  I don't want to do that even once.