Thanksgiving week brought together a group of 17 veteran adventurers for an 8 day paddle down the Lower Canyons of the
Rio Grande / Rio Bravo which borders the US and Mexico just downstream of Big Bend National Park. There were six SOARs in
all including an S12 solo, an S16 solo and 4 tandem S16s.

There were quite a number of swamped hard shell canoes during the week but not a single SOAR tipped over or threw it's paddlers
from the boat. In Upper Madison Falls, the river's most technical and challenging rapid all the gear-laden SOARs manuveured expertly
around the rocks and through the holes. More then one person who paddled their hard shell canoes wished they had been paddling
SOARs instead.