Lili Wright

In the 30 years since I gave up marijuana, both the culture of it and I have changed.

“I am tired of being the girl cooking,” Rogers says. “I want to be the girl having the party. That was a goal: To get to that next level where someone else would cook for me. What would that feel like? I am still working on that part.”

“We’re a bit busy scooping poop and mopping pee every day.”

He’s a designated driver, bouncer, tour guide, photographer, and master of ceremonies for the two-hour joy ride.

Not all orangutans are the same. Some female apes love babies. Others couldn’t care less. Some are loners. Others, more social. “There is such remarkable individual variation that we have to acknowledge and appreciate it,” Shumaker says.

“You are strapping these guys on a piece of metal that is as fast as a tomahawk missile, and then you are expecting them not to have fatalities,” Coronado says. “Actually, I am surprised in the 17 years I have been doing this that we have not had more.”

“You can cheat people blind if you want to,” Mike Bursaw says. “But how do you look in the mirror if you do that kind of stuff?”

“Every man wants a lady looking sad at his grave. Most of the time, the only way he can do it is to build a statue.”

“It’s like getting a massage or taking yourself out to eat. It’s a treat. Some people even like the pain.”

“I’m pretty choosy,” says one hunter, “and she’s the only one I take them to.”