Written for TSRA member Tom Christensen, to celebrate his triumph over cancer
Cold clear blue Hiwassee, listen to its song, wade and dip your hands for its blessing
Then settle into your boat, push off and ferry slantwise across the currents
All the way to the place where glassy waters ripple over long green stems
Then drift and spin and smile at the mountains rising around you like a caress
Sweep right to Cabin Bend, or left to catch Eddy Rock
Surf in the long rolling white and ferry and surf again
Feel yourself in the flow, feel the hot sun drying droplets on your face
Feel the water streaming through your mind, carrying away your troubles
And suddenly you’re galloping fast, fast, faster down through Double Chutes
Surf there if you’re brave, let the water’s electricity fuel your muscles
Let its quickness accelerate your thought, let its sparkle ignite you
And don’t forget to watch for bald eagles perched in the tops of dead trees
Teaching Spot comes next, named for all the beginner classes
Where students first learn how to eddy and peal out, how to ferry and turn
All of which you’ll need in the serpentine riffles just below
Where you eddy quick to catch the pour-overs and let the surf waves pull you in
Then try if you can to thread the needle at Bigny’s Rock
Plow right toward it with all your strength and keep the line and don’t stop
Till the very last second when you pivot fast and drop through and laugh
But watch out for the wicked eddy that follows with its hungry boiling line
But look now, far across the wide river where the great blue heron lifts off from an island
Watch him as you whirl in bouncy blueness, ride the wave chains, ease through lazy grasses
Around islands and bumpy shallows and gaggles of Canada geese
Watch an osprey fish, and catch a butterfly on your sleeve
Then line up for the rousing white splash when you dive over Oblique Falls
And on and on you twirl and dance and talk to your friends, always talk, and talk some more
Then pick your course through the long winding staircase called Lunch Stop shoals
Pull to shore if you’re tired, and say hello to the little brown snakes who sleep along the bank
Below this place, you have a choice, go left or go right around Little Rock Island
Choose left for a playful foaming drop into glorious waves and hydraulics
Then turn through the narrow tree-roofed lane between isles where the river’s song is hushed
Or choose right for three wide surf holes, the Three Bears, and naturally Baby Bear is most fun
Onward you glide, and take any path you like through the Chutes, tricky or trickier, fast or faster
The swift water rinses you clean, your ears, your nose, your mouth, your hair and skin
Till you feel purified and whole all the way through to your spine
A clean you can’t come by anywhere else in the world but on this river
And now you begin to feel that happy sadness as you watch the sun decline
So you stop again to make it last, stop in the mouth of Big Lost Creek where the water’s warm
Rest a while and look at the wildflowers, maybe practice your roll, or maybe just breathe
Because the last and best is coming, the rollercoaster thrill of Devil Shoals
Those high standing waves bounce you like a baby, and once is not enough
So you circle back and work your way upstream, ferrying through currents, fighting higher
Till you turn downstream just to feel that last bouncy ride all over again
And after that, all is drifting and dreaming and watching the clouds
Calm now, letting your boat have its own way, turning to look in every direction
Saving everything up in your memory to make it last till next time
Because all at once you’re at the take-out, draining the water from your boat
And feeling your own energy drain out of you, and feeling divine
