[photograph courtesy of RW]
We rafted the Snake River a couple of days ago. It was beautiful. I know I use the word beautiful a lot but it’s really true. If I call something beautiful, it’s because it truly was. My parents were down from Saskatchewan visiting this week and so we woke them up extra early one morning, injected my dad with coffee and a breakfast sandwich, and drove up to our put-in on a section of the Snake River that flows through the Fort Hall Reservation. After juggling trucks to take-out and put-in points we were ready to launch. It was a funny, misty morning that gave way to a hazy afternoon. The river was running fast and smooth. The wind was peppered with Canada geese, ducks and swans. My dad was delighted to be an oar beast — he rowed, steady and sure, all day long. Tater Tot was wicked excited about all the birds we were seeing and Robert was jump shooting ducks from the bow of the boat, trying to bring home a little dinner while we were out recreating.
Let me say that I love my dad but I love him best of all when he is in a boat. I grew up canoeing Northern Saskatchewan with him and my sisters and friends. He is the very best version of himself when he is in a boat crossing water with smooth sweeps of a paddle or oars. He had a spectacular time and we did too, just being with him in a beautiful place, traveling slowly across a living body of water, counting moments in feathers and sun glimmers.
We saw 33 bald eagles, a variety of hawks, kingfishers, swans, multitudes of ducks and Canada geese, two bands of wild horses (the Shoshone wild horses in the bottoms country, not mustangs), whitetail deer and a lot of fish. Rafting is a wonderful way to view wildlife. Nothing runs away too fast or flys off to quickly when you peacefully drift by on a current. Robert took two ducks out of the sky for future dinners here. Tater Tot found three wounded Canada geese on a gravel bar, all with broken wings, unable to fly, barely able to run, and while Tater dispatched one, Rob ended the suffering of another. I am actually somewhat against goose hunting, and I prefer eating upland meat but I’m going to find a way to cook up some delicious goose for dinner since we wound up doing nature a favor by ending a little needless suffering out there on the river bend. It makes me sad to think of all the wounded ducks and geese out there during hunting season. Nothing ever goes to waste in nature, every dead thing feeds other living things and eventually bones turn to wildflowers and willow, but it still strikes a melancholic chord in my heart when I see wounded wild things slowly die. I suppose life comes with a little suffering, now and then, and that suffering is natural and good for exercising the compassion of our hearts as humans and tenders of the wilds. But it still makes me sad, and frankly, I’m thankful it does.
Tater Tot also found a porcupine, most unfortunately, and we had to dedicate a little time to pinning him down and extracting quills from his paws, nose, lips, tongue and the roof of his mouth with a pair of fishing forceps. Thank goodness my dad was there to help. There was some wrestling involved but we managed to pull every single quill and Tater Tot was as spirited as ever once we had him doctored up.
We stopped for lunch and a fire shortly after I managed to fall in the river and soak myself up past my knees (I do it every time I am in our raft and am officially ready for a pair of neoprene waders…). It’s not a big deal in the warmer months but it’s a bloody disaster in cold water and cold weather. I dried off, cooked my socks, and warmed up by a lazy-mans driftwood fire on a lovely gravel bar while dad dozed in the sun and Robert watched ducks breeze by on squeaky wings. After that, since my Sorel boots were entirely soaked, I bundled up in my sleeping bag and wool coat in the stern of the raft and simply watched the wild world pass by with a full heart, wide open eyes and a thermos of peppermint tea. It was peaceful and relaxing.
I found duck feathers, goose feathers, beautiful river rocks for future jewelry designs, a full cow skull (top and bottom) and my dad found me a gorgeous, river polished, huge, natural agate! What treasure! It looks like the heart of the North, simply exquisite.
I wish every day of my life could be this beautiful. And I wish the Earth, everywhere, could be this robust and healthy (even that is a relative thing though…). Do you ever think about how different the face of our planet must have been 100 or 200 or 1000 years ago? Before our oil spills, mine tailings, clear cuts, sprawling cities began to bite away at the skin of our Earth? I think about that all the time. I get lost in my daydreams when I let myself drift into thinking about the way our world used to be. I’m a good daydreamer, I can take myself to those old times, drift there on the breeze like a seed in a time capsule. But still, the imagination only lets us travel so far.
I want to get in my raft sometime and run from the mountains to the sea — from the Tetons to the Pacific Ocean. Right now, it’s just a dream, but I’m going to find a way to make it happen. Just you wait and see.
Life is so good and I’m always grateful for the way Robert and I are able to spend ours, so grateful. When the sun sets on days like these, I can’t hep but thank God for every breath I took while out in the wild places. I fall to sleep tired, transformed and healed by creation. Everything is just the way it’s meant to be.
this post just filled my heart with so much joy that i think it’s going to burst wide open now.
xx
🙂 Glad to bring you joy, friend. X
That’s exactly how I felt too! Thank you Jillian XO
My pleasure, Lynn. X
Stunning. A full, fresh breath, full of gratitude, beauty and hope.
I’m glad you had a great time, and I’m glad your folks could come visit!
I’m so glad my parents were here too. It was VERY good to see them.
You always manage to transport me to your wild and magical world jillian. I will have to visit your ‘country’ someday and you should visit Australia. I think you would understand it’s raw beauty and capture it’s heart in words xox
Well, that is my GREAT pleasure, and the very heart of my real work. Thank you for being transported. I have been to Australia and indeed, it is beautiful. I’d like to return and go more into the untouched places there.
X
I meant ‘its’ silly computer 😉
That agate is as yellow as the sunset!
I really enjoyed reading your post this dark, wet evening here in flooded out Wales.
You temporarily transformed me to your wild places and I almost breathed in that cold, bracing air smelling the smoke of the fire and squinting at the sun.
Many thanks!!
xx
The agate is amazing. It’s actually more colorless than it is yellow…but the sun was coming through it and it changed its color a bit.
The evening here is flooded in light! Wish I could share a bit of it with you.
Thanks for being moved. You give me a reason to write, friend.
X
What a wonderful time!! I adore my dad, and now that he is in his late seventies, all the times I spend with him are treasures to be stored up in my heart. He is a great archer, and we gifted each other with archery related gifts at Christmas – his gift to me a beautiful new longbow, and he gave my two littles their first bows. I am so looking forward to the spring, and their first archery lessons by Grandad.
So wonderful you had a great time with him! And that agate!! What a special reminder of the day!
A beautiful new long bow! Lucky you!
I’ve been asking Rob for a bow… 🙂
I, too, am glad you love your father.
your photography, while always beautiful, seems to me to be reaching a whole other level these days. (i admit to being a little jealous – my time for mindful photo taking is almost non-existent now.) fantastic stuff lady! sounds like a wonderful way to spend the day.
Thank you for saying that. My work for Skookum Dog has been pushing me to new levels and I’m stoked to hear it’s getting noticed. 🙂
You’ll find the time again.
X
Beautiful trip, but poor Tater! I’ve been there myself, extracting quills from my dog. I think it hurt me as much as it must have hurt the dog. Hope he’s better!
Do I think about how different this earth once was? Only every time I pick up an arrowhead, find a potshard, or see the petroglyphs carved into a rock face. Was it a struggle for survival, or a simpler time? Maybe a little of both. 🙂
Tater was better as soon as we had the quills out. He has an unstoppable spirit.
I love the way you live your life- so wish I could join you all on the river- in my daydreams I do- so much wonder and glory where you live!! It was a golden day, wasn’t it? Just full of yellow honey beauty!! Thank you so… sharing opens my world so. xo
Wish you could join us too!
And yes. It WAS a golden day. That is one of the words I would use to describe it. The sky was honey. I’m always glad to have you here, Eileen.
X
My own heart had a workout while your words calmed me down. What a time on the river! Cold, cold water, exhilerating and yet so peaceful. A rock hand picked from your pop! A gift from the land, for his own lovely girl, a gem for his gem.
And there you are in that pea coat, going back into time, thinking of how things used to be.
Boy, if this isn’t the perfect time to say, sometimes I feel I was born too late.
But, I never want to take for granted that I’m here, and breathing and able to read such an uplifting and gracious story, and to root you on in your future voyage from the Teats to the northwest waters.
“…sometimes I feel I was born too late.” I say that all the time too. Have you seen Midnight in Paris? I love the moral of the story of that film…or at least, the main message I took away from it. We always think the glory years are in the past, but they aren’t. We have to find the glory in our own years, in the time we are living and seeing and breathing. They are glorious too. 🙂
oh, what a beautiful day!! and to share it with your parents, well, that’s just over-the-top special! that you were gifted the agate treasure seems so appropriate.
hope your feet have thawed out and you’ve got toasty warm toes once again, that tater’s poor face is healing up, and that your memories keep kindling your inner glow. thanks for letting us enjoy the spectacular details of your day!
xx
We are all healed, warm and brimming with joyful memories!
It’s just so wonderful to read about your trips! I love it when it’s cold and breezy and you take long walks. It’s so rejuvenating. It clears your mind!
I’m about to take one of those walks right now! Thanks for being here, Angeliki. X
Oh man. I have a yen for wilderness right now something fierce and these images are a total balm to my soul and a tease. Thank you for sharing them. What. Magic.
I know what you mean, Milla. Sometimes I feel like a wolf in a box, here in town. I just want to take off, shrug the world off my shoulders and go chase an elk herd.
~to be wrapped in the arms of nature is golden…a gorgeous and fulfilling adventure it seems you and yours had…much love light and blessings~
It was fulfilling. Gorgeous too. XX
Such a beautiful post. Thank you.
Thanks for being here, Ryan.
FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY going to make a trip back to Wyoming come Septemeber. Your posts like this one are keeping my heart flowing until I can get back home to the mountains. Beautiful day for you. Such joy – even with poor Tater’s quills!
Yeah, girl!!!!
Tell me when.
Maybe we can meet in Soda Springs for a cup of tea at the old hotel.
I would Love that! Will be in JH for a solid week – 15-21st. We should hold that thought!
Sweet sweet post. I love that river and reading this brought back just how much I miss it. This summer perhaps…..
x0
I love the Snake too. It’s so impossibly lovely, bendy and long.
Come on over, put your hands in the water, and be home.
I can’t stop gazing at your pictures… keep coming back to marvel in the colors. What beauty in winter!
Thanks, Karen!
Put your feet up and stay a while, you’re welcome to linger as long as you like. X
Like everyone said, this post just took my breathe away…thank you thank you thank you for your wonderful words, pictures and daydreaming…. 33 bald eagles! I too am often found wondering what this place I call home looked like 100, 200, 1000 years ago.
Jessie,
Thanks for being here.
And thanks for being a daydreamer, too.
X
<3
I was just thinking of you! XX
😉
Burning ears.
HEE HEE!
I cherish those trips in northern saskatchewan with Mr.L. My love of paddling and the Canadian Shield stems from his infectious joy of the entire experience, from waking up to the first cup of grainy coffee to sitting around the campfire under a starry sky with friends.