Cowboy & Indian Summer Tour, Part VIII—On Sacred Water
To understand the massive scale of Lake Powell, you need to be here. There’s no other way to really get it. And thanks to the Cowboy & Indian DCB M37R Widebody catamaran-owning duo of Kelly O’Hara and Kiran Pinisetti, that’s where I am this weekend.
Going vertical at Lake Powell. Photos by Matt Trulio
What a difference a week makes. Last Friday O’Hara, his wife, Julie, and Sally the Wonder Dog were in Georgia for the mostly soggy Pirates of Lanier Charity Poker Run. Pinisetti was at an equestrian competition cheering on his wife, Jessica, who took a nasty spill in a jumping event but somehow emerged bumped and bruised but otherwise unbroken.
Now I am in Page, Ariz., with the Cowboy & Indian crew. There is more sunshine than I can handle bathing a body of water I cannot adequately describe. Vertical walls of rock extend from dark blue-water into a light-blue sky. Carved by time, narrow canyon channels lead to natural cathedrals of shadows and light. Infinite shades of red and brown tower above you and make you feel very, very small.
None of that even comes close to describing this place. But it’s the best I’ve got.
The perfect frame for the newest DCB M37R Wiidebody catamaran.
To say you have to be here to understand this place sounds like an excuse from a reporter short on flowery language. It’s not. It’s a fact.
Today was a free day at the Lake Powell Challenge, now in its second year of resurgence since the pandemic (and a drought) erased the event from the go-fast boating event map. O’Hara and Pinisetti split driving duties as we put in 130-plus roundtrip miles exploring the lake alongside the Scheller family, which own the newest M37R produced by DCB, and a couple of friends.
“It’s a road course, this lake,” O’Hara, who explored the Colorado River-fed waterway with his wife for several hours yesterday, said and grinned as Pinisetti piloted the 37-footer all the way to Cathedral Canyon.
Another passage to unmatched beauty.
Translation? Lots of carving twists and turns at 80-plus mph as we snaked our way along the famed Lake Powell destination. Each turn revealed a different spectacular view. Just when you thought you’d seen “the best” one, a better one greeted you around the corner.
Lake Powell soon reduced me to muttering aloud about what I was seeing, so much so that at one point during our return leg to Antelope Point Marina Pinisetti turned around and asked me what I’d just said.
I laughed.
“Just ignore me,” I said. “I’m talking to myself about Lake Powell. I’m on sensory overload.”
A cathedral of shadow and light.
Now in its 13th year, the on-water portion of the Lake Powell Challenge begins tomorrow at 11 a.m. According to organizer Amber McDaniel, between 40 and 50 boats are registered for the three-stop, 200-plus-mile run that raises money for Breakthrough T1D, formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. (The organization changed its name in June.) Tomorrow night’s action will include poker-hand play, dinner and a “dueling piano” party at the floating Jádí’Tooh—the Navajo word for antelope—restaurant in the host marina.
The adventure is just getting started. I’d like to say it can’t get any better, but I know I’d be wrong. This is Navajo country and antelopes are sacred in Navajo tribal culture.
And that makes Lake Powell sacred water.
The adventure is just beginning.
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Cowboy & Indian Summer Tour, Part IV—The Homecoming
Cowboy & Indian Summer Tour, Part III—Umbrella Coverage
Cowboy & Indian Summer Tour, Part II—No-Wake Zone Confidential
Cowboy & Indian Summer Tour, Part I—Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants In South Carolina
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