LIFE UP THE EDDY (14): SPECIAL SWIM SPOT

It was early summer. The river was warm. It was still running high from the spring rains that had fallen in the woods on all the hundreds of hills and valleys for miles upstream.

School was out. Donnie and I were looking for something to do, when he said, “Hey. Let’s go upstream and swim at our special spot.” That special place was about a mile upstream, past the island and in the next eddy.

We told our moms where we were going, jumped in my boat, and rowed upstream. When we got alongside the island, the current got a little faster as we approached the upstream rapids. I pulled on the oars from the rower’s seat and Donnie pushed in concert with me from where he kneeled on the bottom of the boat.

We stayed close to shore to avoid the main current. But, when we neared the upstream tip of the island where the water was shallower and moving faster, I put the oars in and said, “Let’s jump out.”

When we jumped out, the water was up to our knees. We grabbed the anchor rope at the bow and started to pull our way through the fast current, up into the next eddy. When the water was slower and up to our waists, we climbed back in and continued rowing upstream.

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About half a mile ahead of us where the hills came down to the river on each side, we could see our special swimming spot. It was a gravel bar that the river had somehow built up over many years whenever the water was high. It was near the south shore of the river and had small trees on it.

When we got to the downstream end of the bar, we pulled the boat up onto the gravel. And there it was, our favorite spot, a mini-rapids, where water was flowing fast down a ten-foot-wide, chute between the bar and the shore. By some chance, the river had diverted some of its current toward the upstream end of the bar and down through the chute. The rapids there were about three feet deep.

There was a thick stand of water willows on each side. Some of them leaned over the water. Some of them even leaned into the water, moving back and forth, waving in the current.

It was very welcoming there as we ran and splashed upstream to where the chute started. We were used to going barefoot, and the gravel in that spot was unusually small, smooth, and pleasant on our feet as we ran along the edge of the rapids.

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When we got to the top of the cascade, I was first to get into the water. I grabbed hold of a water willow and leaned back into the warm current. I just lay there with the water swirling about me. I held on with two hands as the current tugged at me and tried to pull me loose and downstream. I looked up at the sun while the passing water gurgled in my ears.

Then, I opened my hands, let go of the willow, and let the water carry me downstream. As I drifted, I looked up. The green willows and treetops sped by against the blue sky above. I could hear the water quietly murmuring over willows that leaned into the rapids. And there was the soft, sizzling sound of the current rushing over the gravel beneath me.

The ride lasted for several minutes. When I felt the current slow down and the treetops above me give way to open sky, I knew I was at the end of the chute. Donnie arrived right behind me, and we ran and splashed back upstream to ride down again.

We played there for over an hour. And when we were shivering, our teeth were chattering, and our lips had turned blue, we decided to jump in the boat and go home. We pushed off and, with the hills above us on each side, rowed downstream to our island where we drifted silently down through the rapids. Finally, we paddled with the current the quiet last half mile back to our Eddy.