I sketched and painted rapids as I studied the texture and flow of cold mountain water. Colors and sounds change continuously.
Floating is a wonderful for contemplation. My brother and I floated stretches of a creek on simple air mattresses; walked a mile or so back upstream and floated down again. I learned to read flow over and around rocks, had a few close calls with powerful currents, and began to appreciate the character of a stream.
The sight and sound of flowing water can be soothing, but the possibility of rising water deserves respect. Just after we exited one of our downstream rides on a sunny day we watched a wave of muddy flash flood water flow over the clear water that preceded it like a tidal bore flows into narrows. A storm at higher elevation sent a sudden increase in volume downstream. I've seen angry arroyos during the monsoons in southwest deserts and the power of 100-year floods and 500-year floods in water courses along the Colorado Front Range.
I recall special memories of Passage Creek in Virginia's Massanutten Range, the Crystal River below Marble and upper Rio Grande above Creede in Colorado Rockies, and the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Having floated for days on some of Earth's great rivers: Amazon, Nile, Yangtze, Danube, Rhine and Colorado, I appreciate that a conveyance larger than an air mattress is increasingly appealing for watching Nature, history and culture and for accessing more places to hike.
A Colorado composite cropped from a larger image. Styled with palate knife and oil on stretched canvas. Indian Peaks, upper Frying Pan River, trees and boulder from other highcountry locations. © 1966 SAMiller
