Ah, the reluctant blogger returns. It has been a while, and things have been happening, so that partly explains my absence.
Last May I gave notice that I wouldn’t be returning to teach at Montana State University. It felt like a big step, first to edge into retirement (at least partial) and second to lose teaching, which has been a fulfilling role. I knew when I pulled the plug that I’d miss that. But you have to make the leap at some point, and I’d rather do it when I’m healthy enough to make something of it. So the leap has been made, with some measure of trepidation.
At some point this past summer it occurred to me that I’d planned river trips every month from May through August. It just happened that way, but I started wondering about making a monthly river journey the theme for this first year of semi-retirement. So far I’m making good (6 months in), and it’s already quite a memorable medley. Here’s the lineup so far, and some hints for what’s ahead.
May: My annual stitching together of the entire East Gallatin River, from source to confluence – a tradition that goes back some 35 years now. In addition, the continuation of the 3 Rivers tradition over Memorial Day, during which a gaggle of friends take on three rivers over three days. This year’s highlight was the lower section of Grasshopper Creek, from Bannack State Park to the Beaverhead River, a true leap into the unknown, and quite memorable for that.
June: On the way to a family reunion in Pt. Townsend, Washington, we floated the Grande Ronde River in NE Oregon with friends. I’d done the river before, but Marypat never had, and we had a sweet week all the way to the Snake, punctuated with flashes of Bullock’s oriole along the way.
July: A friend got lucky and scored a permit on the Main Salmon in Idaho. It’s the kind of invitation you don’t turn down, so we joined onto a group of 9 to run the rapid-filled stretch of high desert river for a week in mid month.
August: Finally, we returned to the far north on an expedition down the Mountain River, a degree or two south of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories. A spectacular 3 weeks through massive wilderness, stunning canyons, myriad wildlife, fun whitewater and a quadrant of northern water wilderness we’d never explored before. All the better for the fact that we were joined by Ruby, Sawyer and their friends.
September: I set off on a solo jaunt to the lower Yellowstone River in Montana to make good on my long-stated goal of drifting down sections of the river with the sole purpose of collecting pretty rocks (agates and petrified wood). It was also an opportunity to dive into the vagabond life, living and camping out of our trailer. Returned with a box of rocks it will take a year to tumble!
October: A glorious fall week spent floating the Desolation and Gray Canyon section of the Green River in Utah with a group of six good friends. Brilliant cottonwoods, pleasant weather, and a series of life stories shared around evening fires.
So there, six months in the books and six more to come. Here’s what I’m thinking:
November: A week on the San Juan River in southern Utah with my good friend and best man, Grant Herman. Will we get another dose of fall beauty or a taste of winter??
December: I’m meeting my brother, Craig, for a week on the water in northern Florida, probably paddling the Suwannee River.
January: Still a bit uncertain, but I’m leaning toward time spent dabbling in the waters of the lower Colorado in southern Nevada/Arizona.
February: 10 days on the Rio Grande in Big Bend, Texas with friends, concentrating on the three main canyons between Lajitas and Rio Grande Village.
March: A little unclear, but I’m looking hard at the upper Gila River in New Mexico, with hopes that Marypat can join up for that one.
April: Hard to say, from here, but by then, water is opening up again, and rising . . . lots of options.
And that makes a year of river trips. Who knows, maybe I’ll just keep the string going.