{"id":15458,"date":"2025-11-30T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-couple-completes-latest-adventure-to-document-americas-public-lands\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:48:10","slug":"durango-couple-completes-latest-adventure-to-document-americas-public-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-couple-completes-latest-adventure-to-document-americas-public-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango couple completes latest adventure to document America\u2019s public lands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Brett
Brett and Diana Davis with a pack raft while on their journey retracing Butch Cassidy\u2019s steps through Southwest Colorado and southeast Utah. (Courtesy of Brett Davis)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Brett and Diana Davis are no strangers to getting deep in the backcountry for weeks at a time, just to see what is there.<\/p>\n

Most of their adventures revolve around pedaling through a remote wilderness on two wheels, though he usually pairs biking with another activity to experience all a landscape has to offer.<\/p>\n

There was the time Brett Davis biked to and skied 18 peaks in the San Juan and La Plata mountains. Once, he pedaled and paddled inflatable kayaks called packrafts through Alaska\u2019s Brooks Range. The Davises, along with a group of friends, retraced famous outlaw Butch Cassidy\u2019s network of escape routes through Southwest Colorado and southeastern Utah.<\/p>\n

Most recently, the couple paddled packrafts across 150 miles of Lake Powell for four weeks in September and October. The goal, Davis said, was to explore slot canyons that were submerged when the Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1966 but have reemerged as climate change and years of drought have lowered water levels in the reservoir.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impetus for it all started in 2020, when I said I want to spend a significant amount of time out here,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to go there with an exploration mindset of \u2018we\u2019re going to paddle the whole thing, but we\u2019re going to take our time and stop and explore canyons along the way too and really give it justice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, Davis retired from his position as director of Fort Lewis College\u2019s Outdoor Pursuits, where he facilitated outdoor expeditions and educational trips with students. Though Davis loved his job at FLC, a role he was in for 15 years and in which he mentored hundreds of students on how to safely explore the backcountry, retirement has given him time to do trips he always dreamed of.<\/p>\n

The Lake Powell trip, for instance, was to document what was happening in Glen Canyon as the waters of the reservoir recede.<\/p>\n

Davis and his wife packed enough food to last four weeks into their kayaks, as well as cameras, ropes, camping gear and climbing equipment so they could stay in Lake Powell for as long as possible. What they found was a world returning to nature, despite the drought and a relatively short couple of years away from his last visit.<\/p>\n

\"Brett
Brett Davis paddles through the Brooks Range of Alaska, documenting what he saw along the way. (Courtesy of Brett Davis)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIn 2020, we had gone into a canyon called Smith Fork, and I wanted to go visit that canyon again and see what changes have been made in the last five years,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got to it, and I couldn\u2019t get into the narrows. It was so overgrown with so much life there. The beavers had moved in there, and I couldn\u2019t get in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the pair traveled across the lake, they found many of the canyons on the north side of the lake had undergone similar metamorphoses. Beavers and native plants had reclaimed the canyons they once called home. The receding waters revealed sites of the area\u2019s past Indigenous inhabitants, Davis said.<\/p>\n

\"Diana
Diana Davis pulls her packraft through a shallow section of a previously submerged slot canyon in Lake Powell. (Courtesy of Brett Davis)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But, he said, these canyons have already started to see the impacts of humans. They found tons of evidence of people who would drive in on house boats or jet skis to scrawl graffiti on the newly revealed sandstone, as well as leave trash, fire rings and deadman anchors on the beaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cToward the bottom of Lake Powell, there are places where the boater can get to where the lake\u2019s receded and hasn\u2019t grown up with vegetation,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s beautiful slots you can walk through, but the amount of human impact in there, it\u2019s crazy. You\u2019re already seeing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis said he wants more people to explore these natural places \u2013 the fact that there is so much open space in the West and the freedom that comes with that is something that is a quintessential part of being an American. But, he said, he thinks it is important to spread awareness and a sense of responsibility to protect these places and keep them beautiful.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can recreate however you want, because it\u2019s fun to ride a speedboat and a Ski-Doo and all that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut just respect the land.\u201d<\/p>\n

That leave-no-trace ethos \u2013 wherein someone who travels through a wild place leaves it as they found it for the preservation of the land and the enjoyment of its users \u2013 was a huge part of Davis\u2019 work at Outdoor Pursuits, he said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A shot from a 2018 Fort Lewis College Outdoor Pursuits spring break expedition in which students, led by Brett Davis, paddled packrafts around Lake Powell and explored slot canyons. (Courtesy of Brett Davis)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI miss working every day with students,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was modeling good, healthy behavior and living a good, healthy life. Sharing and giving skills for people to pursue it on whatever level they want. We can make an impact in the world by being an educator by doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis said he is still figuring out what that impact looks like after his 26-year career as an educator and 15 years at Outdoor Pursuits. Filming and writing is a way he can continue modeling responsible outdoor recreation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to have a bigger purpose than me going just to play,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m good at playing, but there has to be a bigger purpose. I think that\u2019s why I\u2019ve been trying to share some of these adventures in a media way.\u201d<\/p>\n

His trip following Butch Cassidy\u2019s footsteps was a way to add to the story about America\u2019s endangered public lands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy trip, the whole impetus was to follow the warnings of Butch Cassidy,\u201d Davis said. \u201cGiven this current state of the world and attacks on public lands, how much have the lands that Butch Cassidy moved through freely, which allowed him to do what he did \u2013 rob banks or hide here and there \u2013 can you still move through like he did?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Diana
Diana Davis paddles toward a waterfall created by flash flooding while on Lake Powell in early October. The rains caused widespread flooding, including in the community of Vallecito, while the Davises were on their journey. (Courtesy of Brett Davis)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Davis made it through most of his planned route, which was painstakingly pieced together through historical analysis of Cassidy\u2019s movement. And for most of the way, he was able to follow it. But, he said, right at the end, he ran into a barbed wire fence marking a private ranch \u2013 a bittersweet reminder that the West has changed since Cassidy\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

For Davis, though, the fact that he made it so far, and that he can go to Lake Powell or the Brooks Range and just disappear into nature for weeks at a time, is something to celebrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of our public lands, especially here in the West,\u201d he said. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t take that for granted, and we should be doing what we can to protect that. The more we continue to try to sell it off and privatize it, we\u2019re losing what, I think, uniquely makes us American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Brett
Brett and Diana Davis with their bikes and in period clothing on their trip tracing the footsteps of Butch Cassidy through Southwest Colorado and southeast Utah. (Courtesy Brett Davis)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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