On July 11, 1957, the sleepy-eyed people in Utah stumbled out on their porches to get the morning paper. The headlines of the title story read "2 Ogden Families Survive Frightening Green River Trip." As they read this article, many wondered what kind of a man would take his wife and family down a river wild enough to turn over an eleven-man raft and swift enough to sweep the raft out of the hands of the family as they stood stranded on the bank. What motivates men like this doctor to join the pack of "river rats" that migrate to the rivers each spring to "shoot the rapids?" My father seems no different than any other forty-year-old doctor. He shaves and wears glasses. He is going bald supposedly from brain expansion. He wears well-pressed suits. He gets stopped for speeding about four times a year when he's on his way to deliver a baby. Where, then, lies the motivation behind this man to take his wife and family on the "Frightening Green River Trip?" One of the things which takes my father annually to the river is his deep love of nature. Joy of the outdoors is something that is shared among a family. We spend our summer vacations walking around in the desert, viewing a cave, or hiking down a canyon. My father calls these "Nature Walks" even if they're five miles long, a real hike for my seven-year-old sister. If the Forestry Service hasn't provided pamphlets to explain the types of shrubbery and freaks of Nature, my father goes into greatest detail explaining the cause, effects, and the beauties. I can remember sitting in the blistering heat of our car in the middle of the desert trying to figure out what killing rattle snakes had to do with the dying off of the Century plant. In spite of the inconvenience of blistered feet and sunburns, we learn. We always reserve a place for a box and a shovel when we pack for trips. We use the shovel to dig up plants and brush and the box to put the vegetation in to bring them home. Some of the souvenirs that now grow in our backyard are: pampas grass, cactii, two palm trees, and some manzanita. A well-known River Rat had described Desolation Canyon on the Green River as a peaceful river in a canyon of rare beauty. My father wanted the trip to be only a starting point for his family to join him on his river expeditions. He wanted to share another part of the desert with his family. All "river rats" have one characteristic in common. Some call it an adventurous streak and others call it being young at heart. Once, my father spent a week taking the motors on his boat apart and putting them back together to make it go a little faster. He sometimes worked late at night while I held the flashlight on the "technical operations" of the undertaking. If you ever go skiing at Snow Basin up on the Porcupine Double Chair you'll see the young men sailing off a jump they've built. One will come off going not quite as far and his form won't be as good. He'll be wearing a gray beaked hat with ear muffs instead of those new fur or stocking hats. Then you'll hear someone say? "There goes Doc Ross. He's one of the best veteran skiers up here." 6 A River Rat character sketch by Sandi Ross