INTO THE HEART OF THE RIVER
An Odyssey with Ellen McLaughlin
Tony award-winning actor and playwright
6 days/5 nights August 15-21, 2023
SPECIAL GUEST ELLEN MCLAUGHLIN IS RETURNING! After a 6-week, 2023 summer engagement at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder, where Ellen will be starring in the lead role of the play King Lear, as King Lear, Ellen will be back on the river with Page for a third time. A scholar of Greek mythology, Ellen’s plays have been produced nationally and internationally. A fine actor, Ellen originated and starred as the Angel in Kushner’s Emmy-Award winning Broadway play “Angels in America.”
Ellen, a whole lot of fun on the river, is a force to be reckoned with onstage.
WHY IS OUR RIVER TRIP THEME AN ODYSSEY? Like Odysseus, whose only way home was by way of the sea, many of our journeys involve elemental water. We answer the Call to Adventure, leaving the confines of the familiar to light out into the unknown where we encounter not only the magnificence of this watery world, but our very souls.
THE JOURNEY is the human journey, each one a reckoning with self as we step into these elemental waters. And when we return, we carry that most precious cargo: the story. We pass the great stories down from generation to generation, mother to mother to mother. And most of the great stories are about journeys, even, especially, river journeys.
RIVER TRIP DETAILS
Seven Days/Six Nights August 15 to 21, 2023 Gates of Lodore, Dinosaur National Monument, Green River, Moab, Utah
COST: $2399.00 (plus tax, government use and launch fees, and optional guide gratuity).
Please consider purchasing trip insurance. SGE has a no-refund policy.
INCLUDES: Tents, sleeping bags, Paco pads, rafting equipment, professional women guides, healthy snacks and fresh meals, beverages, river journals, writing facilitation, creative discussions with Page. The trip also includes a copy of Linda Hogan’s new book, A History of Kindness.
DEPOSIT: $350 sent with this registration form (space is limited; please register early). If you must cancel, $200 of your deposit may be applied toward a future Page Lambert Creative Adventure.
DATES: Orientation and no-host dinner Tuesday, August 15; on the river Wednesday, August 16; off the river Monday, August 21, 2023 (six days/five nights)
WHERE: Gates of Lodore, Dinosaur National Monument, Green River, Utah. The trip starts and ends at the Microtel Inn, in Naples (Vernal), Utah.
REGISTRATION: Option 1) Send completed form and $350 deposit to Page Lambert at 26037 Mt. View Road, Golden, Colorado 80401. Option 2) Register online (credit card payment is an option using PayPal. Option 3) Register with SGE via phone using credit card. Email confirmation sent when deposit is received. Sheri Griffith Expeditions will contact you with additional registration forms and trip details. Page will be in touch regarding the creative aspects of the trip.
The Gates of Lodore on the Green River is one of the most popular trips offered by Sheri Griffith Expeditions, the professional outfitter that Page has been partnering with since 1997. A classic river trip with great hikes, exciting whitewater, beautiful beaches and colorful history, this is also a journey into spectacular wilderness. The scenery is a combination of Rocky Mountain trees and plants, drifting down into dessert canyon country. Abundant wildlife includes deer, bighorn sheep, eagles, trout, and hawks around almost every bend. The Green River through The Gates of Lodore cuts into the great Uintah uplift at Dinosaur National Monument.
We purposely travel slowly, about 10-15 miles per day, giving us ample time to explore the canyons and take in the Green River and its surrounding wildlife. Days are a blend of excitement, wonder, rewarding hikes, peace and tranquility. This special trip includes a lay-over day to allow more time for our creative explorations.
Sheri Griffith Expeditions is working with the managing agencies to make sure that they offer opportunities for excellent outdoor experiences that still comply with CDC requirements and recommendations that mitigate the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
PERSONAL JOURNALING TIME is woven into the moments between floating down the Colorado River, hiking at your leisure, or relaxing on shore. Although this is not a workshop, Page will facilitate creative discussions about writing at the river’s edge and in the evening when we circle up to share readings under the stars. “Women rediscover a unique part of themselves in the natural world,” Page says, “and we inspire each other in uniquely feminine ways.”
WHY THE RIVER? “Women have always gathered at the river,” Page reminds us. “It is where we traditionally have come to greet the sun, to bathe our children and wash our clothes and fill our cooking pots. It is where we cleansed and purified ourselves. It is where we have always shared our stories.”
In 1996, photographer Kathleen Jo Ryan invited Page and 14 other women writers, including Linda Hogan, Annick Smith, Nickelodeon producer Linda Ellerbee, and writers Ann Swinger and Teresa Jordan, to be part of the book project, Writing Down the River: Into the Heart of the Grand Canyon. “It was my first outdoor adventure that paired my love of writing with my love of the outdoors,” Page told a Denver Post reporter when interviewed in 2016.
She hadn’t known, of course, that her father would die a few weeks before the trip launched, and that she would enter the experience deeply grieving. The river both healed and challenged.
“Since ancient times, women have gathered at rivers—bathing our children, washing our bodies, our clothes, filling our cooking pots. It’s where we cleansed and purified ourselves, where we went to tell our stories and share our dreams, where we created a vision for the future.”
Page’s experience in the Grand Canyon inspired her to partner with Sheri Griffith Expeditions in 1997, and create her first river journey for women. Several renowned women have joined Page on these adventures, including Joy Harjo (National Poet Laureate), Cheryl Crazy Bull (President of the American Indian College Fund), Ellen McLaughlin (award-winning playwright and actor) and New Mexico’s Living Treasure, storyteller-in-clay, Roxanne Swentzell.
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