February 27th, 2008: Today, I went to Arizona for the day to go kayaking in the Grand Canyon. It was in conjunction with the DVD release of Into the Wild. There's a portion of the film where the lead character kayaks down the river, so the studio flew a small group of us to the location to be taught by the same person who taught Emile Hirsch.
A car picked me up at my house at 6am and took me to a private airport. There, seven of us (me and producer from TV Guide Network, two people from the E Channel, two from the video game network G4 and one guy from Yahoo) boarded a private plane and an hour and a half later arrived in Pace, AZ. Then we got on a bus for the most beautiful hour long drive to Lee's Ferry, the name of the place where the film was shot.
Scroll down to see pictures of the day trip - we crammed a lot in (and I still made it home in time for dinner!). The first picture is the seven of us with our two pilots. We're all wearing our "Into the Wild" windbreakers. It was all fleece inside and waterproof on the outside. Usually this kind of gear tends to be tacky, but these were really cool.
Driving from Pace to Lee's Ferry was so scenic. As you'll see from the pictures below, the land has these huge cracks in the earth. It looks like an earthquake split the ground and just stayed that way. The soil and rocks are red. We stopped at the side of the road to take pictures because we were so enthralled. Check out the huge mound of rocks that just dwarfs the truck that's there. I mean, that truck was huge, but Mother Nature in Arizona has a way of making you feel so tiny.
Once we got to our desitnation, we wasted no time in taking in the sights with our digital and video cams!
A crew was waiting for us, as was our guide, Brian Dierker. (He's the one in the blue shirt and white cowboy hat.) Brian owns a company that's basically in charge of working with any film crews that come in to shoot. He'll teach everyone how to look authentic on camera, he and his men are all camera boat operators to shoot the scene and when he's not filming, he's under contract with the government to work on all sorts of preservation, conservation, wildlife, gaming, botanical you-name-it stuff on the river. Besides working on Into the Wild, he's worked on tons of other films, most famously, the Merryl Streep/Kevin Bacon flick, "The River Wild." That was also shot there and believe me, as quiet as everything was that day, the only loud noise was the roar of the rapids coming from around the bend. You couldn't see it, but it sounded so ominous.
I got fitted in my kayaking gear. The funkiest part was "the skirt" which then gets sealed over the kayak so you and the boat are basically one entity. Then Brian gave me my lesson on-camera, and off I went "Into the Wild!!!!!"
After lunch, Brian took us out on his motor boat on a sight-seeing tour up-river. Brian is now somewhat of a local celebrity. During the shooting of "Into the Wild," Sean Penn was so impressed with Brian, that he decided to cast him in a major role in the film. Brian had never, ever acted before in his life. But all of a sudden, he found himself cast as Catherine Keener's husband. If you've seen the film, you know how impressive he was. But now Brian is back to his normal life, working on that river. (Although he does now have a Hollywood agent!)
The boat-ride was spectacular. We made a stop along the way to explore the Grand Canyon. In the picture below, you'll see how small my fellow journalists and I are in this amazing rock jungle!
During our exploration, we just started wandering off, marveling at the cool rock formations. Then I found a cool "wall" of rock that I decided would be perfect for a group picture (well, not everyone was there. The two E Channel folks opted out of the boat trip to stay behind and chill with the scenery.)
Anyways, getting back to this "wall." When I photograph group shots, I love to do what I call "The Album Cover" shot. That's where everyone pretends that we're all in a famous rock band like U2, or Rolling Stones and we're posing for the picture that will ultimately be our Album Cover. It's a fun thing to do because everyone assumes identities and makes funny poses and it really makes for a fun memory.
The next two photos are my attempts to corral the troops for the Album Cover shot. I think the very last one is "the keeper." Can you just see that picture on an album with spray painted letters above us on the rocks that says: "Into the Wild Tour 08." Ha!
Okay, okay, we're dorks. But admit it, you'll be stealing my idea and making your own Album Cover shots with your friends next time you have a camera in hand!
We a found really cool animal tracks, but we couldn't pin-point what it was. But next to my already size 8 and a half boot, those paw prints were HUGE!
We were gone so long that Brian went looking for us. And when he saw us doing our Album Cover, he wanted in on it too. So we went looking for another location to pose with him front and center.
With that we headed back to base camp, taking more pictures along the way, this time including our wonderful guide, Brian, who was the best guide anyone could hope for .
Once we came back, our bus read ready to take us back to the airport. We took one last group shot when we finished our boat ride, which included the studio reps who came out to meet us at the shore.
The sun was starting to go down and it was time to head back to the plane. There's the gang, walking to our plane (picture a slow-motion walk and cue in Top Gun-style music).
We were all pleasantly beat. It really was one of those "bestest day ever!!!!" and I was still able to get home in time to put the kids to bed! Can you believe I did all this in one day?
Sayonara! Until the next adventure!!!!!!