The Secret Channel

 

It’s a secret sort of channel that momentarily breaks away from the main river. The water there runs crystal clear over sand & gravel, and briefly along a light colored, slippery bank of clay.  Eventually it shoots through a hundred and fifty foot raceway on its way back to the primary current.  It returns stage right in the midst of a shallow tailwater that’s layered with softball sized rocks.

The Clay Lined Bank

The rhythmic cadence of water spilling over a rotting log, and around a mounded gravel bar, helps drown out the chatter of bothersome uncertainties beyond this mini ecosystem.  The shade of canopy over the channel comes from the balsam along one side and the tag alder on the other; although the first and only bend has a clump of paper birch with 6 strong trunks and their fluttering leaves - opposite of an awesome white cedar and it’s flat, scalelike needles.  The cedar can act as either a seat or anchor for a well placed hammock.  It’s done both.

The Raceway - Around The Gravel Bar

Twenty years ago one of the cedars’ dead branches came home with me.  It’s what I annually cut into 2 to 3 inch chunks and split into 6 to 8 sections.  Those split plugs of cedar, from that shade tree on the channel, are what are offered up each time I head out onto water; of any kind, any where, for any reason - but most typically when I fish.  It’s offered and released with a prayer of thanks for the chance and opportunity to be a part of that particular setting while enjoying all that it has to provide.  It’s my version of a sage, sweetgrass, or tobacco bundle; a gift of gratitude.

Seclusive enough, the secret channel stays cool even on the hottest of days, galvanized by spring fed water and overhead shade.  The river itself isn’t visited very often, and when it is on hot days, the mouth of the secret channel stays stealthy and well hidden beyond a shallow, rippling, open area - on the other side of a rock dam and sexy little swimming hole.  The area where people sometimes swim isn’t as deep as it used to be but it still gets most of the river’s attention.  It’s a necessary distraction that inadvertently protects the channel.

That protection provides the perfect place to hide out after several days of memorable camping, fishing, and running.  More than that, the secret channel is a place to relax after burning so much energy; letting the water run over your feet, between your toes, and along your legs as you sit in a favorite chair plopped down and smack dab in the babbling water itself.  It’s a place to sit and let memories of the last few days, and last few years, simmer and permeate the very core of your inner being. The core; where chromosomed cells and the synapsed ends of nerves can be imprinted and branded in such a way that when you fish for hours against the current - alongside undercut bends, run the ridges overlooking the snaking blue ribbon of water, or submerge yourself in the liquid cold within its gravely troughs, the experience becomes a holistic journey that runs deep. In fact, those particular holistic journeys have the opportunity to run deep for as long as you circle the sun and allow your shadow to fall upon that chunk of Earth.

2024 Trip With The Cousins
Brian, Me, Sean, & Brad

Here in the secret channel you may doze, read, or write.  Heck, you may even stack a few flat rocks, or mold a cup from the white clay of the bank, until the current or sun returns such things back to their place of origin.

These are all foundational actions; actions that revitalize the soul of a person after a year of life and a week in the woods.  So that with a deep breath and content smile, under the canopied coolness of the secret channel, a person’s ready to do life for another year.

See you along The Way…

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CLICK BELOW FOR A VIDEO OF

THE TRICKLING, CLEAR WATER OF

THE SECRET CHANNEL: