The Rain Filter

The nearby rivers would be scratchy with the low tide and a morning start was necessary to avoid the mid-day heat.  "Trees" sounded like a good idea - something with a chance of shade.  And, of course, most anyone can tell you that trees are the best of company.  They are well known for their ability to listen, and those that have done their homework know that trees do have remarkable things to say, it's just that they are quite discerning in who they use their words on... trees are good people.

The local excellent FM station was on a nautical theme while I was packing up.  The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald played as I loaded the canoe.  

It began to rain just as I arrived at the put-in.  Fishing boats were trailering out in a mad dash to avoid getting wet while I took shelter, not so much from the rain as from some distant thunder.  Rain is just rain, but thunder means calculating the risk.  It rained hard and steady for a half hour.

I put in and headed out of the little cove.  Rain is one of the best filters there is and other than a couple widely scattered fishing boats I had the cove and big river to myself.  A mile out it started to rain again, lightly at first but slowly building up.  I took shelter under the trees along the shoreline, again not as much to be out of the rain but more to avoid being the path of least resistance between the long rolls of thunder overhead.  For a few minutes it was dry under the trees, but soon the trees could hold no more and it rained just as hard there as out in the open.  I sponged water out of the canoe and eventually saw, from under the hood of my cheap rain jacket, that the rain out in the open was decreasing.  I headed out as it would continue to rain hard for another fifteen minutes under those trees.  It is quite an interesting effect to be paddling in dry air while listening to a full on rainstorm just twenty feet away.

A quarter mile down river was a mature Bald Eagle that sat out the rain in a tall snag.  It looked soggy.  It crossed the river as I approached.

The storms moved off to the east as I continued downriver staying just close enough to shore that I could look up into the rugged hillside of the forest.  There's a trail back in there that I am familiar with, but today I hear no one...the rain filter.

I cross the river above the dam and follow the east shore scaring up a couple of Great Blue Herons, but with otherwise nothing more to report than that it is a fine and quiet day.