On Water

Recently I have spent time on the water, floating on the Jefferson River here in Montana and fishing on a quiet bay of Georgetown lake not far from where we live. I wish I could write something poetic about experiences on the river, but the muses don't stir.  Others have better expressed the feeling that comes to me, like in the song, "When Peace Like a River" and it's line; "it is well with my soul", when I am on water, especially when I am alone in the solitude of surrounding mountains, as I was yesterday on the lake.

I think one of the most poetic and profound words I have ever heard or read about a river was written by Norman Maclean at the end of his classic book "A River Runs Through It"... 

"I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening.  Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories of the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.
Eventually, all thing merge into one, and a river runs through it.  The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time.  On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops.  Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.  I am haunted by waters."

A chill runs up my spine every time I hear or read those words. 
I wish I was a good fly fisherman like Maclean was, but really, it is alright that I am not.... it is enough just to be there ...  For me it is like a retreat for spiritual renewal.. 

We belong a group called the Jefferson River Canoe Trail that aims to locate and

secure camping sites along this river, one of the three major rivers in Southwest Montana that were named by Lewis and Clark over two hundred years ago - the Madison, Gallatin, and Jefferson (named after President Thomas Jefferson, who commissioned that great expedition of the American continent). We floated with some of those friends on part of the river last week, and several of the group canoed and camped along the entire length of the Jefferson for seven days.

A picture from an earlier canoe float on the Jefferson with family:

Near the beginning of the Jeffrerson River.

 The Tobacco Root mountains can be seen from the river.

These days the skies over Montana are affected by the many forest fires burning in the Western US.  Sometimes this produces glorious sunsets - but the air is not healthy to breath. 

 Alone on the river...