Black River Bottoms

"I hid the canoe in a small stream near the river, and covered it with tree branches. I knew that Pap would not be able to find it. When I returned to the cabin, Pap noticed my wet clothes. I told him that I had fallen into the river. Then I cooked the fish for our breakfast."  – Twain, Huck Finn

There's plenty of trouble to get into down on the river. You can watch it for hours from right above any bank and it is pretty to look at, that is for sure. The bay back here doesn't have any current – it's sealed off from the main channel of the Black River, and so unless there is wind, it looks like brown glass really. The pontoon boats have to approach the dock slow and easy because there is no wake signs all over the place. I remember watching out there one morning and a fisherman in a sleek boat didn't take the no wake very seriously and busted out of the back of the bay at about fifteen miles an hour and by the time he got to the other end of the bay three different men from across the bay had jumped right out of their back decks and raced to the shore sending out hand gestures to that fishermen and he quickly slowed down. During spring at least six eagles perch along the edges of the shores up in big limbs to watch the free fish wash up to shore or take the little ones off the shore. Pelicans swim in small groups back and forth scooping up the same fish. It's a nice peaceful looking place, something right out of a painting I guess you could say.  But once you get out onto the open river, either the Black River or fifteen minutes down to the main channel of the Mississippi, there are all kinds of things that are likely to get you in trouble. We hear all the time from the older folks around here that living around the river in the old days was a big part of many lives. They used to push logs all through here and you can even see some old stations of places like mills along the black river. When I get out there on the kayak and paddle around some of those back sloughs, I'll be the first to admit that I like to think about those older days when there would have been folks fishing or trapping, pushing logs, or even encounters with the Winnebago before all that. Think of it for a minute. Canoeing down there along the Petibone Island, all that wild life flying around, minks, otters, beaver, fish jumping all over the place, and then to slowly float past a group of Winnebagos who had probably lived in this area for thousands of years. In my mind, I always hope I would run across them at the right time and not make anybody mad. I see them standing around a fire maybe skinning a deer or working on hides and doing nothing more than nod at me as I skim past and that is that. I'm glad to move on. The mysteries back here in these waters started with all of that -- me thinking about life way back in the old days, when there was no loud highway noise like there is now. It's all quiet back here and you are kind of on your own. My dad didn't want me this far, past the bridge, and back up into these sloughs because it was sort of out of reach for anybody to stay in contact. Sure, you could bring a phone back in here, but after I lost my first one in two inches of water, dad said that is that. Dad is police chief over here on French Island. It's not a very big island, only two other officers, and I tend to even run into dad here in there on boats or on my kayaks. I've made a small business back in through here by doing some netting and clamming. Dad thinks it's pretty odd but he says he has also seen much worse that kids do all day so he allows it as long as safety is maintained. The day I found that dugout was as accidental as it was ever going to get, I will say that. I couldn't get Mack to come with me that day. Mack is Corey's last name, but Mack is the one he prefers. He won't even look at you if you say Corey, that kind of thing. I was on my own. I don't like going deep into the slough bush at any time really – poison ivy and mosquitos makes everything miserable but I had been following an inlet under trees that I had never seen before. The high water opened up all kinds of places back here. I stayed on kayak all the way up to a big patch of timber that had uprooted.