I spent my boyhood living next to a creek that was a half mile up stream from it's confluence with the Rogue River. Exploring on this creek and it's flow into the river was the greatest. Somewhat reminiscent of Tom and Huck, without Injun Joe of course. Although passing through some backyards on the way to the river did require some stealthy tactics. The rewards outweighed the risks though, as near the mouth of the creek it entered a 75 foot deep, narrow gorge, covered in moss and ivy with a total canopy that let in little sunlight. Over the millenniums, nature carved ledges in the sides of this narrow gorge. With the help of some sturdy vines and exposed tree roots, we could get to some of these ledges. Once we did, a fort was in order. I think now about the geology that must have been exposed on those walls but, Hey.... fort was the only thing that came to mind back then.

On the far side of the river was a gravel bar, perfect for spawning salmon. Kids + big fish + shallow water, well, you do the math. Getting to the salmon was the challenge. At one point we actually built a raft with logs and vines. It didn't make it across. Inner tubes were the preferred mode of transport but were not always available and didn't seem the manly thing to use, when you had vines and logs just sitting there. We could have swam across the river and did many times but you would never catch Tom and Huck doing that. Floatation in hand we proceeded across the river with spears in hand (pointed sticks). We was gonna gets us some dinner. Now keep in mind these salmon, of good size, three to four feet long, had just finished a sixty five mile journey from the ocean to the exact place they were born. They had one thing on their minds, propagate. Two ten year old boys with pointed sticks were not about to deter them. Upon arrival at the other side of the river, the chase was on. With water and broken sticks flying we came out of it with something..... Welts, lots and lots of welts, with a distinct shape, something like that of the tail fin of a salmon. CRAWDADS....... yeah. Much smaller and we could catch them, we did before. Boil them up and add a little butter they were pretty good. Who wants salmon anyway.