Riding Our River

"Oh, Big Sandy River and a mountain man,
We get together anytime we can.
Oh, Big Sandy River and a mountain man,
We play together in Mother Nature's band.

Me and my woman's done made our plans
On the Big Sandy River, walkin' hand in hand
Gonna raise a famly, Lord, settle down
Where peace and love can still be found. "
(only the name of the river has been changed to protect the innocent)

We've been enjoying our river in a whole new way this summer. We've had a john boat for a couple of years now, but we have never made the time to put it into the river in front of our house. That is until an early morning last week when we finally decided to take a little boat trip. I took Matthew and Simon and the three of us floated down the river about 5 miles to our other piece of river bank down the road.

It was a wonderful 2 1/2 hour expedition, full of beauty and grandeur! Most of the time we just floated and took in the scenes, but we did land at one place to explore an interesting looking spot on the bank. We also spent some time testing out the anchor, which held the boat perfectly still even in the current, and we practiced paddling upstream some, just to see how difficult it was. We found that we could manage it pretty well, even though it was very slow going. (Some time in the future we will put our outboard motor on the boat and see how that does in the river.)

Floating down the river put things in such a different perspective, with the river being so much lower than the surrounding houses, roads and railroad tracks and being covered with large trees and other river growth. It felt like we had gone back in time, before civilization had dug it's fingers into every nook and cranny. We saw an occaisional riverbank garden and a barn every now and then, and we passed a couple camp sites where folks had been fishing, but other than that, it felt like we could have been the first pioneers exploring this river!

One very special 15 minutes or so involved a mama deer and her two small fawns. We spied them far ahead of us on the riverbank, so we stopped paddling and remained as quiet as possible as the boat silently drifted closer. They paid us no mind at all as we watched the two spotted fawns play tag and run around in circles as their mama munched on various low hanging leaves. When we were pretty near, she stopped and looked at us for a few seconds but then went about her business. She evidently did not feel threatened at all by what she must have thought was just some big log, and we were able to watch them the whole time as we passed just 50 feet away or so. Looking over my shoulder I could still see the adorable fawns taking turns getting a drink of milk from their mamma as she ate the river grasses.

I enjoyed the trip so much that I was determined for Erica, Christina and Lisa to get a chance to experience it. Timothy would love it too, but we figured that a 2 hour trip would be a bit too much for him to sit still. Yesterday evening, Matthew and Simon took Lisa, Erica, and Christina on the same boat ride while I kept Timothy. I tried to get some pictures, but since they were taking off in front of our house at the shoals, they zoomed off pretty quickly.

Here is the boat waiting to be put into the water:

And here they are in the water after a hearty push off:




And there they go, down a river that time forgot:




Timothy said, "They go float away!"


But then Timothy had a good time playing on our river bank and throwing rocks into the river:







After they had gone just around the first bend, maybe 10 minutes into the trip, they passed one of those gardens that some folks have near the river. When the boys and I had gone last week, no one was in this garden, but this evening found folks tending it. They had music going as they worked the garden and Lisa was amazed at the song she could make out as they came nearer: "Rollin... rollin... rollin on the river..." It was as if someone was playing the song just for them!! It was actually on a radio station at that moment because they heard the announcer come on after the song finished. That was some pretty awesome timing, I think!

It is too bad that they didn't get to see the deer like we did earlier, but they did see several birds, ducks, fish and much beauty. One awesome moment involved a large flock of vultures that were covering a dead tree very near as the boat passed.

Timothy and I went down to our new river bank to await the family's arrival. After about 2 hours they came into sight:



Timothy was so happy to see them! He even ran down and slipped into the river trying to get into the boat. He then got to take a boat ride with the rest of the family and he enjoyed it very much! This is where they stopped to let Timothy in:

And then they took him down the river a bit more to the landing place where the four-wheeler was waiting to load the boat up onto the trailer.

This river has always been a special place for us at Pure Water Hollow Homestead, but now, traveling down it by boat, it is even more special! It is also good to know that it is still possible to use the river for transportation, if the need should ever arise. But since it is not exactly a need, we will travel it for enjoyment and as an escape from the civilized world. It is a blessing indeed!