Discovering the beauty of an urban stream

As if we don't paddle upstream enough every day, last Saturday, I decided to paddle against the current on the Wolf River in Memphis. The reasons were many. Anything to keep from having to shuttle, first of all. I needed the exercise. And I didn't have all day. That's what it takes to do a proper run on the Ghost River portion--a large investment of time and the logistical planning of shuttling cars. So, my wife and I put in at the Walnut Grove bridge at Shelby Farms where a very nice ramp, sadly, has been completely overtaken by deep, shifting dunes of sand.

The traffic overhead was steady and noisy. But the river beckoned with its primordial whisper. We found the current stiff but not overwhelming, and we began to make headway against it. To our immediate dismay, there was a lot of shoaling in this section, out in the middle. The lower water levels that come with the Fall season didn't help either. But we picked our way through the deepest parts, usually near shore, and once we passed under the Greenway footbridge, shoaling was no longer a problem.

The going was slow. Paddling this way isn't about covering great distances. It is about paddling until you are tired, then pulling up on one of the big sandy beaches and having lunch.  We weren't going far, but we were a world away, surrounded by green water and a dense line of trees on either side.

At first we could hear the traffic on Humphrey's Blvd., but soon that fell away as the river hooked to the left. In its place we heard the warning cry of a hawk perched on a branch above us and the almost motorized call of a kingfisher getting ready to dive. We saw a pair of mallards keeping to themselves and a large pileated woodpecker flying in the blue shadows of the trees, it's white wing band flashing. And just before my wife could mutiny (the beatings will continue until morale improves), we turned about and floated effortlessly back down stream, the reward for our toil. It was beautiful. And it required no planning except to make a quick lunch, no shuttling, and no big commitment of time. In all, we were probably gone from the house about three hours.  And that is the real beauty of an urban stream.