Page 117 - "Mississippi in the 1st Person" - Michael James Stone (Demo/Free)

Noticing the water getting deeper I thought: “Cool, maybe the river finally begins” or so I
thought until I “got up around the bend.”

Just as I could see the bend, a little current tugged me right and I saw a large pool and an obvi-

ous stick dam that had to be built by a beaver.

Not that I didn’t know beaver dams. I had lived in Oregon and been the Manager of a fishing
resort in Chiloquin that had once been a hideaway “fly in” for movie stars who wanted to fly

fish and came to the pure waters of Spring Creek at one time
famous for it’s purity, clarity, and fly fishing.

Walking from the lodge to the boathouse on boardwalk a

couple of beavers could be found at night come out to eat and
swim in Spring Creek that seemed to have built a hideaway

under the walk way.

For a city kid from Los Angeles this was my first real out-
door experience with wildlife except for a Bald eagle who

swooped down in front of me and pulled a fish out of the wa-
ter and flew away.

Those images were burned in my mind forever…… This beaver dam was as appealing.

Watching the water from my seat I could see it wanted to go right straight into a “over flow”
that was letting water out from the dam.

BUT I ALSO SAW ALL THE SHARP TOOTH PICKED SPEARS STICKING UP IN THE
SAME PLACE

Sitting in the kayak feeling pretty good since today was mostly sun, I decided to float up side-

ways to the spillway and let the water lodge the kayak against the taller sticks. Then I could get
out in the pond and walk over to the dam and see what I was going to do.

Shrugging out of the PFD, personal flotation device, I wanted to be freer so I could pull

branches if I needed to.

Shifting my feet over the tube I made to stand in the pond and walk to the shore line a foot
away and ……….plop.

THE DAM BEAVER POND WAS DEEP ENOUGH I DIDN’T HIT BOTTOM TILL I SWAM

BACK UP

It was cold. It was deep. As stupid as it was, I didn’t have my personal flotation device on. I
have no idea how deep that hole really was because I came up sputtering and reaching for my

kayak.