A Day on the River

Yesterday found Liz, Robert, and I out in a canoe on the river below our house. I had put up a struggle against going out there because I was sure that we would tip the boat and drown, get stuck in a clump of seaweed and drown, or hit a rock underwater and drown. Any way I looked at it, I wasn't so confident about the grimness of it all. Eventually, though, Robert called my dad and told him to tell me to go. He did. lol So I went.

And oddly enough, I had a blast! I've always loved water, and especially being *in* it. I'm faster at swimming under water than I am above it. (I'm a fish!) How, therefore, could I have not enjoyed this? I'm glad I did go, for I did have fun.

The crew of brave explorers were as follows:

Robert(the driver)

Faith (the sharp turner)

Lizabeth (the photographer)

Explorer 166 (the transportation) (soon to be christened something else)

Robert drove us through the woods on the little overgrown road down toward the river. His truck, Charlotte, bumped along over rocks and grass stems which stood some four or five feet tall, and she eventually got us down to the riverside. Once there, we got out and Robert began untying the canoe. Liz and I explored around the sandy-rocky shore while we waited and examined the river.

It's not a huge river, but it is a pretty good size. In some parts its only half a foot deep, or so, while in other places it's probably almost ten feet deep. There are frogs and minnows and fish in it, and once or twice we've seen water snakes in it, but dad says those are rare, and we don't need worry about them.

Robert eventually got the rope off the boat, and we dragged it down to the water, and Liz and I climbed in nervously. Robert pushed it out into the water a little ways, and then climbed in too.

First we decided to go upstream a little bit and see how far we could get before it gets too shallow for the canoe.

I think it was sometime around here where we encountered a rather large rock. It was trying to hide by being just barely under the surface of the water, so we didn't see it until we almost hit it.
Robert:"WHOA! Um.. there's a HUGE rock up here. We're going to hit it, I think."
Me: *does something weird with her paddle and the boat turns really sharply to the right*
Liz: "... what was *that*? What did you do, Faith??"
Me: "... I have no idea."

We got quite a ways upstream before we came to a barbed wire fence across the water, so we turned around we headed back towards where we started. We floated peacefully over clumps of seaweed (riverweed?), and logs which had been caught underwater.

Once upon a time, a long time a go, the whole flat land below our house was a lake. My grandmother remembers ice skating on it in the winter time when she was little. (I am the fourth generation on our land, and proud of it!) Potlatch was once the home of a large and booming mill. It was the largest white pine mill in the world. People would come from the big cities to shop in Potlatch(now it's the other way around). Potlatch had a huge baseball stadium too! We even hosted the All Star game one year! Sadly enough, the mill closed down and was moved some sixty miles South of us, and there it remains to this day, still working away, but not half as important as it was ninety years ago when it was here in Potlatch. Anyhow, in the 1920s, the flat land which is now covered with tall grass and tanzy, was once a lake. A huge lake, with hundreds of logs being floated down it to the mill. Therefore, there are still huge logs deep underwater that you can see as you float over them. It's rather creepy, actually.

I, however, enjoyed looking up rather than down.

We continued on our way, letting the current push us, and enjoying the speed of it all (it wasn't that fast, but it sure felt fast). The ground around the river seemed to grow higher and higher, and soon we felt like we were in a sort of canyon. Surrounded first by water, then by brush and bushes, and then by the high rocky river walls.

By now we had gone so far down stream that we had passed the truck entirely. The sun was beating down on us, and the water felt cool and refreshing. I wished I'd had my swimsuit on. After a rather interesting journey over a few places of thrashing water and several more places where the water was as smooth as glass, we turned around again and headed back upstream again. This time it was much harder, for the water ran fairly quickly here, so it took a lot more energy to keep the canoe moving against the current. I probably built up the muscles in my arms simply during those twenty minutes or so.

We made it back to the sandy/rocky beach again and beached the canoe. Robert wanted to swim, so Liz and I waded while he swam around in one of the deeper spots in the river.

Soon we loaded the canoe back into the truck, and headed back up into the woods. We sang songs as we rumbled up the hill toward the house, and laughed at how badly we had been at steering the stupid boat. We're going to have to work on that next time.

And yes, there will definitely be a next time.