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This and the next two series are for someone who is far, far from home.

This is our put-in at Stokes Bridge. As you can see, we had quite a high bank to deal with to get the boats into the water. 

This is looking on the other side of the bridge in the direction we are going to head, downstream. 

These pictures were taken on April 4, 2005. But as anyone who has traveled this river knows, they might as well be timeless. Seasons change. Water levels change. But at one time or another, the river will look like this again. If I took this trip on this same section a week from this, it would have looked different. Two weeks farther on, and it would have been different again. Which is why this river is so fascinating. No two trips ... even on the same section .. will be like the last.

This trip was just myself and Charlie Bear I think. For those who are just looking at these for the first time or so, Charlie is my bosses' bosses' boss. But out here we are equals. Charlie is very unpretentious. 

One can almost tell by the colors of the greens it is springtime. And here we are, one year later in time. How lucky we are to be able to kayak on this beautiful river. 

Most of you know by now my fascination with sand patterns. And the St. Marys' has lots of sand. White as snow and as fine as sugar.

We have no idea what caused these tracks. Regardless, pretty neat.

We will definitely have to revisit this section of the river. 

This has got to be heaven on earth.

A kingfisher.

This was pretty interesting. Obviously quite a while ago in the past someone had carved an  X  into the tree with some dots. Someone else came along recently and highlighted it with paint. Intriguing. 

You can see Charlie between the trees further downstream.

Dang! We definitely have to go here again. This is as pretty as it gets.

This was a 'snake ball' we came across. We thought it was water moccasins, but most current thinking is, brown snakes. There were three snakes here. Needless to say we gave them a wide berth thinking they were moccasins. 

This section has some very long straight stretches as you can see.

We sort of take turns leading and following. Most often I am following because I stop and take a lot of pictures.

This is the section of river we did, from Stokes Bridge to SR 2.

I hope you enjoyed another section of the St. Marys' River. More to come.

Jack Woodward      mailto:  jackwoodward66@hotmail.com

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