River rafting can be an exploratory journey where understandings begin to emerge between self, others, and the natural environment. Although I have guided on northern rivers for close to ten years, I have just come to realize that for much of that time my eyes were closed. They were closed to the beauty and wonder of the landscape through which we passed, the changes in people as they began to feel at home in the wilderness environment, and the even more subtle feelings of interconnectedness between myself, other people on the trip, and the river environment.
