Finally she touched water!

The Bear Creek arm o' Bull Shoals Lake. Bright sky with thunderboomers trying to form in it. Fair and intermittant breeze from the nor'east. Odd for the time o' year.

Carp spawning against the shore, rooting in the shallows like hogs. Dorsal fins as little schooner sails catching air above arched backs.

Ducks flushing from brushy shorelines, whistling away.

Moping, disjointed-of-long-neck blue herons; croaking hoarse-of-voice fishers, showing us where the panfish were by fishing there themselves.

A limestone ledge, pouring water from it's crown. It's enclave filled with the mud-nests of dozens of swallows, self enclosed by their own architecture. Only their heads sticking out, yellow beaks a'shining. 'Twas a fanciful, musical place as they came and went singing in their routes.

A narrowing bay ending where it met a rushing stream. Waters rippling like clear carnival glass; tumbling from a steep hollow in a series of falls. It's own song told it's story e'er we saw it, drawing us . . .



My wife, Kathy, and I paddled a two mile circuit, or thereabout, enjoying every minute, finding fishing places and hunting places; the land around it is public and forested.

Buffalo Belle is a 17 foot canoe of 38" beam. She was built nearby in Jasper, Arkansas, along the Little Buffalo River.

Paddlin'sticks

You put me right there, 'Sticks. Keep writing.

The mention of the herons and a canoe simply forces me with some trepidation to hint that my wife has written a spiritual journey book set in the Boundary Waters, called "A Heron's Balance" (by Cathy Barker). She's clergy, and as a person of the cloth you might find it interesting if you work with people in grief. Website is www.heronsbalance.com, I think.

Dick

Thanks, Dick. I will.

The book sounds intriguing.

Fiddlesticks

'Sticks...thanks fer the word picture....makes me wanna get my Old Towne on the Big Piney or upper Meramec. Glad you had a great "maiden voyage"!

Vic

We've got a 'Big Piney' down here, as well. South of us in the heart of the Bostons. Had a b'ar walk up to me down there, once, many, many, many moons ago. I was sitting under a pine tree with a .45 cap'n'ball rifle in my lap. No bear season in those days. It's scent spooked a buck off just as it was about to step into the clear.

I can see where a canoe could get in your blood. Wife and I've done very little canoing in our lives and have much to learn. We do a lot of zig-zagging when a straight line would be much better.

Fiddlesticks

'Sticks, if you haven't yet, learn the "J" stroke for the stern paddler mostly, or the modern "C" stroke--but for traditional paddling the "J" is hard to improve upon.

Dick

Thanks, Dick.

I reckon I need to find out what those strokes accomplish. I've heard of both, but it didn't dawn on me to try them. I'll google-ize some basic techniques. Not to mention that I work with some 'perfessional canoe-ites' in the Buffalo National River HQ!

Thanks for goosin' me in that direction, my friend.

Fiddlesticks

Fiddlesticks,
it's out of print now, but if you can possibly find one, a copy of "Pole, Paddle and Portage" by Bill Rivere (sp?) is real useful to canoeists. Several different and very useful strokes shown in there. Realy good book.

Glad you're having fun there 'Sticks. When I think of canoe's a big grin comes to my face as I remember all the "fun" I've had in one capsizing them over and over again. I remember in one of Patrick F. McManus's books a few comments he made on canoeing - "oh well, so much for shooting the rapids in a canoe" closely followed by "oh well, so much for romantic manuvering while shooting the rapids in a canoe." That guy cracks me up.

Sticks,
Actually, both strokes can be used either bow or stern, but usually the paddler in the stern does most of the navigating. A J stroke is done by simply holding the paddle straight up, close to the canoe, on whichever side you're paddling, and reaching forward, putting the paddle in the water, and drawing a letter J (or a backwards J on the right side). At the tail of the J the paddle pretty much comes up out of the water, and you do it again. The effect (let's say we're paddling on the right) is that the straight part of the stroke sends you forward and to the left, and the curvy part of the J corrects and brings you back to the right; overall effect is to go more-or-less straight. The C stroke is drawing a full C in more or less the same way. It slows you down a bit more, drawing you first right, then left, then right again. Easy, right? Practice, practice, practice.
Actually, it's a good excuse to hit the nearest REI; they've got books and people there that can help.

Dick

Snakebite,
Don't forget McManus's comment about how you could tell a black powder shooter by his "lack of eyebrows..."

macNnc,
Yeah, that one was the first of his articles I ever read. It was handed to me at a time when I really needed a good laugh. I nearly went over the edge gurgling and twitching reading that one. I read it to everyone who would listen. Loved that line, "Sorry about your dog."
volatpluvia

Dick,
I tried to bring up the website you posted for your wifes book and I'm having difficulty. Maybe my computer, maybe me, or both. Is the book available in book stores?
John

John, Dick inadvertantly added a comma at the end of the addy. Just type the addy out and leave off that last coma. You'll land right on the cover of the book. I like the looks of it, myself.

Thanks for the lesson on those two strokes, Dick. I'll be trying them, for sure.

Fiddlesticks

Gents,
Yeah, sorry about the comma. The book's cover is actually of photos from the BWCA and the pen-and-ink of the heron. Cathy worked up the website by herself. Thanks for the compliments and the look-see.

Dick

My brother gave me a Pat McManus book to cheer me up in the hospital when I had open heart surgery. Almost killed me. I had to wait six months to read it before I could laugh that hard and not break my chest open.

quote:

it's out of print now, but if you can possibly find one, a copy of "Pole, Paddle and Portage" by Bill Rivere (sp?) is real useful to canoeists. Several different and very useful strokes shown in there. Realy good book.

Mac

I checked on the Amazon.com website, and they have several copies of this book available (from $0.22 to $9.00). Just go to the website and type in the title in the search box.

Thanks for the reference, guys. Really appreciate it.

Fiddlesticks

Sticks, Thank ye for takin me along on your ride. I might as well been in the canoe with ye.
The J-stroke is basically a little bit of rudderin' at the end of the stroke, counter acting the stroke's push to the oposite side.

Fiddlesticks! Got to ask,is the Buffalo River you associated with in PA?I use to hunt in Woodhull NY going through Elmira Pa to get there.I was coming out of Washington Dc to get there, I'd treck up along the Buffalo River in PA.you could shoot your deer the first day and have nothing to do the rest of the week,or go out everyday and torment your self by just watching them go by all day long for a week.One year all six of us tagged out the first half hour of opening day,do you know how many hunting adventures{lies} you have to go through to cover four days? And the first lier in deer camp don't stand a chance.Remember:Make peace with the past so it won't affect the present.See you up the trail.