Boat Eddy on the Arkansas

In the middle of winter it is nice to remember what May looks like on the river. This is our put-in ramp taken in May a couple of years ago. The grass and willows starting to green up and the water probably around 400 to 500 cfs. Clouds aloft showing signs of wind, but still pretty calm. Nothing like we have experienced this past week here along the river. Of course nothing like what everyone is talking about, the 148 mph wind on Monarch Pass as the Jet Stream slide south over the United States. I am sure it was the Jet Stream even though there were some Politicians, west of us, spewing hot air in Nevada! Ah the silly season in US Presidential race. As I have gotten older here by the river, it has seemed to me that gap between what is claimed by candidates and what actually gets accomplished post election is getting wider. Fear mongering being the modus operandi of the right.        
The river shown above doesn't care, it will keep finding it's way to the Mississippi River.
      A few years back Neil Degrasse Tyson did that piece called Cosmos and in that showed how few seconds man has been in the evolution of the universe. Sitting here on the grass as the water flows ceaselessly by it is easy to see what a headstart the river had over man in shaping this valley. But every four years we humans posture for power and tell people in our country what is wrong and who to blame. While I certainly think that I will vote in the national elections, It is what we do here locally that we can make a difference in. To that end I want to mention two candidates for County Commissioner. Both Bill Dvorak and Keith Baker are running for seats that are term limited. Both Bill and Keith worked hard for the Browns Canyon National Monument designation. They both bring a long history of working in their communities and the county for use of our natural resources. It is very edifying during this election season to have two local candidates with their resumes step forward to run for County Commissioner and I hope we as county citizens have the sense to elect them to office. I for one don't think we can do any better. I wish them both the best of luck, it is fun in many ways to run for office. Your feeling of community just gets better. It leaves you feeling very much at home and I think eager to take on the job.
       If there is a downside, it is that you expose yourself to criticism from those that don't agree with you. But time spent on this river or in these hills, leaves you with the desire to not leave to big an imprint on these natural surroundings that took so many eons to be as we have them now. Both Bill and Keith are of that desire. I would call on my fellow Chaffee County citizens to be informed voters, look not to promises but results. It is the selfishness of self interest that should be kept from office, and a vision of a shared better that should be voted in.
     As this winter starts toward what we call spring, (still snowing, longer days), it seems we will have water to float on for another year and the trees will green again, the swallows will come back and show us how to fly,  and life will be good no mater what the politics. Nature has, after all, been changing the seasons here long before man voted on anything here on the Arkansas River. So far that is the one thing you can count on.
      I think I will go and watch some water go by for a while, thanks for reading.
Will by the River.

Twenty One Years Ago

I was a passenger in a Piper Cherokee six twenty one years ago that crashed onto these frozen lakes in the Sangre De Christos. Those three days in February have just passed this week. The sharp memory of the plane crashing, the cold, and the struggle through the deep snow are present each year at this time. As I sit here this morning and watch the Arkansas River flow past as it has for centuries, that twenty one years is minuscule in time. But we live such a brief period in our human experience compared to the mountain we flew into. I suspect there may not even be any evidence of the crash site up there at Stout lakes anymore. I only went back up there once after the crash. It is steep country to hike up there, which was part of our decision to try and walk out. On the edge of the lake looking down you could see the Arkansas River. It looked like you could just let gravity have it's way and be down in no time. But it wasn't that easy, and the pilot succumbed to hypothermia.
      This was, of course, a life changing event for me in the aftermath. It's psychic hold an influence on my energy and thoughts each year. Philosophically it has left me to think of the reasons for my survival, so little of the three days did I have any control over, yet I didn't freeze. While I did work to not get any colder, we had little to work with and that didn't work for the pilot. It has left me wondering if there is an allotted time to our lives that might part of our entering into this world. It certainly seemed as if it wasn't my time to fade. By the dawn of the third day, when I crawled out from under a rock, literally, I knew I would be able to make it out that day, and ran into the searchers coming in down by the Rainbow Trail.
      The story of this event has been told and published in magazines. I have a powerpoint presentation  that I have given once to a gathering of pilots. But my thoughts today have been on the lasting effect it has had in my life. I am grateful for those twenty one years I have had since those days in 1995. Grateful to have helped raise my children, to welcome nine grandchildren into this world. Grateful for the time I have been given to spend on this river flowing by with friends. I got to play a set with the Salida Brass and Groove Farmers for a Mardi Gras party at the "Vic" on Feb 9th this year, the historical second day after the crash, and was happy to be among friends playing music that night. A friend in the audience on that Tuesday described me as a lucky man and I had to agree with him, just being there and playing music made me grateful.
        In the past twenty one years, I have been involved in a lot in this community that the Arkansas River flows through. I feel appreciation and support from this place I live in and I am grateful for that feeling of home. I have a memory of being welcomed back into my community after the tragedy of those three days. Cared for by my community.
        I can only live one day at a time and as I approach another birthday tomorrow, remember that, yes I am a lucky man.   Will by the River

A Day at The Grand Canyon Skywalk

The Crew SkyWalking 2016

As family events go, this one was successful. To gather us as Jon & and Marie did was really great. They even made scarves with SkyWalker 2016 embroidered in them.
      In life one is encouraged to live on the edge, no fear, and this experience was literal to that. This vertical territory is, as my son Bill put it, on the misstep edge of death. But the other side of that is then the obviousness of life. The day was cool but bright sun and no wind. The photographers agreed that most of the time there is some sort of wind. But calm prevailed for us and our hardy group, fearlessly looking straight down for a couple of thousand feet! Well some where fearless. Others had cautious optimism that this structure was well built. We went on to visit Guano Point and see the structures that use to haul bat guano out of the canyon for fertilizer.  
                                   

     The tourist also visiting Grand Canyon West were mainly Chinese, Japanese and Korean so it seem as if english was the minority language. But it is what I have experienced on the North and South Rim also. This place is truly international. The helicopters and the utilization of the part of the canyon disturbs some of the solitude for those finishing a three week float to Pearce Ferry and it highlights the problem of here, plans at the Little Colorado and Lake Powell. Many visit this form of attraction that would not hike in or raft down the canyon below. Our National Parks are America's best idea, but Edward Abbey warned that we could love them to death. But the number of people visiting here on this cold February day was impressive and you can see why the developers are encouraged to do something else up on the Little Colorado.

      This left over structure from the Guano Point is the kind of fingerprint mankind leaves throughout the west. Should we be making more?
      In the meantime, thank you to my family for making this such a nice place to be together for a little while. The views are pretty spectacular. And the drive across the four corner region was lovely as we made our way back to the cold here in Salida.
    So back by the Arkansas with ice on its edges and snow on its banks. I guess we will sit by the fire and wait for spring.. Will by the River.

The Grand Canyon

This is the Grand Canyon almost down to Lake Mead. That Island, in the middle of the Colorado River, is the size of two football fields and is over 3 miles away.
We were a group of eleven, gathered to celebrate my son Jon's fortieth birthday. Jon's wife Marie made all of us embroidered bandanas that said Skywalker 2016, which we wore in many different ways as a group. For many of us, surrounded by people from all over the world, this was their first visit to Canyon. For  Mary and I together, it was our fifth visit. We have flown our plane over it, landed at it, rafted it, been on both north and south rims and now skywalked it. I find the majesty of this place effects everyone, and of course selfie sticks were plentiful with backs to 2000 ft drops! But we all spent at least an hour out on the Skywalk and had great fun with a photographer, the results of which will start showing on Facebook soon. We also spent time at Guano point, looking at the old equipment and the views. Helicopters dropped below the rim here and headed upriver as this is below the National Park. It was a wonderful day, plenty of people but english seeming to be the minority language.

Back at Hualipi Ranch, a city slicker themed motel, the Reeves men paused for some cigars and scotch (scotch actually not allowed on the reservation) while others of our group took horseback rides out to the canyon rim behind us. We gave my son Jon a great birthday gathering, but a lifetime of memories for all of us.  
     A coyote walked by while we were out here on our rocks and I can't speak to whether he found us memorable. He mostly just left, headed toward the canyon the last I saw of him. The Ravens were impressive in size here, and I loved to watch there flying below the canyon rim using the updrafts along the walls, including soaring under you as you looked down through the glass of the Skywalk.
     Tomorrow begins the long drive back to Salida and back to being Will by the River on the Arkansas instead of the Colorado. But tonight in the crepuscule of the evening is was peaceful relaxation.
Will by the River

Geography of the Southwest

We escaped knee deep snow in Salida Colorado by the Arkansas River on Tuesday morning. Winter was in full force as we left in 6 below zero weather.
     Mary and I plus my son Bill were headed to Grand Canyon West to celebrate my son's Jon's fortieth birthday by walking on the SkyWalk. But first we had to find our way out of the Arkansas Valley over snow packed passes and ice sheeted roads. Noon found us stopped with friends in Durango for lunch then on to the Cameron Trading Post and Lodge for the night. But we couldn't resist the stop at the Four Corners monument to take a picture of my son in all four States!
     Through the years I have driven on the US 160 through the four corners and on to Tuba City and Flagstaff and I never tire of the drive. It always seems to show me some new hoodoos and ridge lines that can be seen anew in different lightings of the day. The shadows were long as we paused at the Four Corners and so are drive into Cameron Arizona finished in the dark.
    This was our first tine to stop and stay at the Cameron Trading Post and Lodge. This is off season so it was not very busy and the rates were inexpensive. Our room looked out on the Canyon and Old Suspension bridge over the Little Colorado River. Red Rock Cliffs in the Morning light..

I've been driving from Colorado to California most of my life. I can remember what it was like to drive on the old Route 66 before I-40. We would do the desert parts at night because we didn't have air-conditioned cars, but I think that is where my love of the geography of the Southwest began. The open space, the rounded petrified sand dunes give the landscape a soft sensual feeling that I find inviting. I could wander out there looking for the next canyon to peer into or wander up the canyon bottoms among the cottonwoods.
     There is some snow on the ground out here in the Four Corners region and the the temperatures are cold, but by the time we get down to Kingman Arizona I expect them to be warmer.  
   This time away from the river will be fun and family,  and another break from the snow we are having this year. But soon I will be back being Will by the River.

Back by the Arkansas River

Morning fog at sunrise in the Everglades

The softness of the air on this morning of January 9th 2016 was so different from the crisp air here in Colorado in January. In this picture looking out toward the Bay of Florida through our tent door I felt drawn out. We were car camping at Flamingo Campground down on Florida Bay at the very end of the main body of Florida. Going out on a pontoon boat through the rivers and lakes of the Everglades, we saw crocodiles, alligators, Ipis, heron.  This was the last of our southward traveling and the next day we started back north to Colorado, though we would take five days to get back to Salida. 

Back here by the Arkansas River we found it still to be the cold of winter with snowpack lingering and packed icy roads. There was ice formed along the sides of the river still and ice chunks floating by. A far cry from the 78 degrees in that picture above. I talked in an earlier blog about the friendliness I found in driving across America, a big difference from the drone of the news, with tragedy and dysfunctional politics seeming to be our national dialogue these days. But then I was of no permanent interest in my passing through. Still it seemed to always be an enjoyable experience when ever we were talking with people wherever we would stop. So even after driving through so much of the south and southwest I am unsure of why we have to have so much dissension in our political dialogue these days. I have heard it is because people are unhappy and fearful, and while I am sure those people are there, I didn't meet them in our travels. 

      It is nice to be back in our community and picking back up some of our responsibilities in the county. I get the feeling sometimes in my travels that I am not among my people, here I never feel that. For good or bad, dissent or not I feel at home here by the Arkansas River and it is nice to see it flowing by, even if it has ice chunks in it! 

Will by a Warmer River

The 27th of December dawned yesterday with a passing shower and then cleared off to this weather here in Florida. This boat departed from the private docks here on Hutchinson Island at the Coconut Cove Condo's. The pier pole sitting pelican and I watched them quietly depart for either a cruise around the Indian River Estuary and intra coastal waterway or out the cut to the Atlantic Ocean.
     My son and I talked about how much the water calls to him when he is near the ocean. And our time together over on the gulf shore was spent playing in the waves with his children and nephews. We had days of really nice waves for the gulf, with boogie boards and kayaks to surf them. Plenty of sand and water for my son.The Indian River Estuary, here on the Atlantic side of Florida, is a very biological diverse ecosystem that is a reminder of how much I love being near the water, but even more near a river. I love the ocean views, especially when the shore has some bluffs and rocks for the waves to break against. The gulf and the Atlantic are nice here, with great beaches, but they don't call me to go boating like rivers do.
     Here in Central Florida they have started to work on the recovery of the Indian River Estuary, looking at storm water discharges, the health of different fish and turtle populations. Throughout America, just like Salida Colorado, we are embracing our rivers and their health. Building to watch to river, not have it in our back yard, but our front yard. Here they don't have dams to be concerned about, but they do have runoff from huge areas that affect the health of this system. I am a member of Trout Unlimited and so read their magazines about opening up rivers to the sea and know that we are doing better, the success of the salmon returning to the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula after those dams were removed is proof of this. There are many more not so public successes. I suspect those working for the Indian River Estuary will find success also. I think our climate awareness adds to this process, if for no other reason than this feels more local than the ozone and we might be able to make a change. I was encouraged as I watched some YouTube video yesterday to acclimate to what we might do here during our visit, that talked about the work in progress.
   It is warm and lovely here, and with all the weather happening north of us, rain, snow and tornadoes, the scene above seems especially tranquil.
     I love being Will by the river, but in winter, I love that this river is in a warmer climate!