Tuesday 27 March 2007

Other Paddles

Other Paddles
I have never seen a river that I could not love. Moving water . . . has a fascinating vitality. It has power and grace and associations. It has a thousand colors and a thousand shapes, yet it follows laws so definite that the tiniest streamlet is an exact replica of a great river.

-- Roderick Haig-Brown
Going With The Flow

As with the first shake of a stranger’s hand, first encounters with a river may only offer a few shared hours or lead to a lifelong relationship. Undeniably, every river has a personality of it’s own, some more memorable than others. Within this Blog I've recounted stories primarily based on the canoe trips I shared with my friend Brian on Ontario's northern rivers. Having taken a drink from each river's waters I hold the romantic notion that each has somehow physically become a part of me. They no doubt have influenced me mentally having faced the challenges offered and having earned precious memories as an eternal reward. Regretfully, there were a few rivers further removed which life's circumstances did not permit me to explore. Perhaps I'll explore them below, substituting paragraphs for a canoe and words that might propel the reader as would a paddle. But those well have to wait for now....


South Nahanni River, NWT
"You have to listen harder to the natural world so you can separate out the primal song from the songs of our civilization and from our static."

Bill McKibben, The Age of Missing Information


Attawapiskat/Winisk Rivers, Ontario


Dumoine River, Quebec
s

Coppermine River, NWT

Thelon River, NWT

Yukon River, YT

© Copyright - All rights reserved.

No comments: