At home on the river

Lesson #1 of river paddling: downstream is easier. 

Of course every idiot knows this, but we're dealing with a river that resists easy access, so sometimes you have to paddle upstream to get where you want to go. The mighty Muskingum is known for its many low-head dams and its historic hand-operated locks, which draw tourists, fisherpeople, and campers but are less friendly to boaters. The dams are treacherous, especially for unpowered craft; last month when the river was at flood stage, a 17-foot fishing boat lost power and got swept over one of the dams. Two of the fishermen swam to safety but the third drowned. The river held on to his body for three days, and it's still holding on to his boat.

So we're not taking our canoe anywhere near the dams, and the hand-operated locks may be quaint but operators are on hand only a few weekends each year.
But the Muskingum is beautiful and very close to home and full of fish, so all summer we've been working our paddling skills up to river level and then waiting for the river to come down from flood stage. 

Finally conditions were right, so for the past two Mondays we've taken the canoe on the same stretch of the Muskingum: putting in at the boat launch across from the power plant just above Beverly, paddling upstream toward Luke Chute, and then paddling back downstream to where we started.

Last week we took a side-trip up a very quiet creek but this morning we just kept moving on upriver. It felt as if we were paddling miles and miles but distances are deceiving on water, and the length that took us two hours to paddle upstream took only 40 minutes going down. We worked really hard maneuvering the currents and the occasional wakes from powerboats, and when we were worn out, we pulled in to a secluded cove for a picnic.

And then we turned around and went back downstream, marveling over how quickly we moved past landmarks that had signified major accomplishments while paddling upstream--a landscape that had been moving past at ultra-slow speed suddenly slipped into fast-forward.

Which felt GREAT. All that hard paddling against the current gave way to a swift, easy slide downstream in a breeze that cooled our sweaty bodies. 

Downstream is like dessert--except the only way to get a second helping is to paddle upstream first.