There is nothing quite like a river walk…

The manicured walkways that have smoothed out the rough edges…  The stumps of old pilings that once supported a dock, or a pier that denotes what once was a thriving business from the1800’s or later… There is history there, etched into the clay,  sediment, and swirling muddy water that has survived the transgressions of floods, droughts, human intervention and neglect. Rivers have many tales to whisper into the ears of those who are open to hear their story.  It is a quiet, serpentine hiss…

And then… there are places like Reid or Prevost Harbors on Stuart Island, part of the San Juan archipelago. Two of our favorite anchorages in the San Juans.  Settled in the late 1800’s. Still off the grid. Solar + wind + generators, well water, a few dirt roads. Inhabited by a handful of year round dwellers, supplemented with summer only folk. Access by boat only.  Nirvana for some. Prison for others. History stretching from the past, that has become the present and will morph into the future.

There is nothing quite like a river walk, unless it is a stroll down a Pacific Northwest beach strewn with the eccentric boulders and gravel left behind as the glaciers melted. Endless waterways… pathways to Thither and just a bit further… one might encounter Yon. A dense history of indigenous peoples, early European explorers, followed by trappers, loggers, traders, fishermen, farmers and builders. Desire and a pursuit of the means. History leaves rotting pilings and abandoned piers in its wake. The present is in flux. The future… well, it’s being worked on…