Nature's Impact on Rick Walker
By: Joe Lauria
About Rick Walker
Maverick
The Maze
The Cliffs
Natures Impact on Rick
Maverick
The Maze
The Maze was where Rick Went after he escaped from Blue Canyon Detention Center. It is also the place where he met Lon and all the Condors too. The Maze is inside Canyonlands National Park, and one day Rick decided to go inside it. “Rick Packed up some snacks and a water bottle, found a way down into the closest canyon and walked for hours among its twists and turns,"(136). As the reader can see, the Maze is a pretty big maze, with all those twists and turns in just one canyon. But for Rick this maze was: “easy compared with his personal maze, which didn’t seem to have a single exit," (137).The Maze was a place that was connected to Rick. For four years now he has been trapped in a maze full of bad behavior, jumping in and out of foster homes, and losing his closest and only family member known to him his grandma. But just like there is always a way out of a real maze like the one in Canyonlands, there is also a way out of Rick's personal maze. And by the end of the book due to the maze at Canyonlands national park he is able to find a way out of the maze that he has been trapped in for four years.
The Cliffs
Throughout his life, even before he entered his personal maze, Rick has always had dream of flying, and when given the chance to fly with Lon on his hang glider on the cliffs, Rick immediately took him up on the offer and they went hang gliding together, Rick described his feeling for the flight the next day:”All he had to do to recapture the sensation of the flight was to close his eyes. It was the greatest feeling in the world,” (156). A couple days later Rick also started to take solo flights. But only after a few days of flying lessons, Rick and Lon are approached by Nuke and Gunderson, two angry men who want all the condors gone from Canyonlands and have already killed Maverick to show for it. Lon tells Rick to go down to the maze, and go back to camp when it gets dark, and if he is not there call Josh, the park ranger for Canyonlands National Park. Well,he does get back to the camp at dark, but after hearing a few gun shots while down in the maze, he knew he had to do something else then just call in Josh: “his idea burned brighter and brighter, yet he was scared to death of it. He was afraid he was getting crazy from fear, crazy from desperation. Still he knew, he knew there was a way to get to Lon if he had the courage,” (200). Rick’s plan was, to go to the cliffs with Lon’s hang glider
and try to find Lon who was in a place unknown to Rick at the time. During the flight he faced many challenges, trying to save Lon. First being, getting past Nuke,Gunderson, and Jasper. Rick Barely made it through them, and then started the flight. Soon after he finds Lon underneath a part of the maze, and even though he broke his arm and Lon’s hang glider, Rick was just happy to see Lon again. Without the Cliffs though, Rick would have never been able to find Lon underneath one of those Canyons, and without Lon meant that Rick would have to fend for himself for a day, and no legitable witness for his date in court the next week. Without the cliffs, Rick wouldn’t have found his passion for hang gliding which is now his favorite hobby, which is much better then throwing rocks at stop signs.