This is one of fifteen images currently in this collection made on river trips. I have had several adventurous friends who have helped get me onto about twenty rivers for more than two dozen weeks in all. This time there were contingents from both California and Maine. It was the coldest February in forty years and the sort of trip where you're certain that liquids freeze before they hit the ground but you don't know for sure because it's too dark to tell. Alcohol consumption was unusually high. Evenings in camp resembled nocturnal huddles. Thank goodness I found this magnificent, atypically-colored prickly pear at the takeout.