The following is taken from a journal entry made on August 23 2005, the morning following my first exposure to Whitewater Canyon via a canoe float trip. But, it has nothing to do with Whitewater Canyon. I had camped at a remote Faraway Farm "brook" campsite two nights and this was written after the second night there. The Rock Column is on the river bluff on adjoining property downstream but is always a hi-lite of treks along the bluff.
6:05 AM
Must be a catbird nearby. Sure sounds like a cat! No need for a headlamp now. Morning has broken!
I think I'll get up and go have my bottle of grape juice and a Vegan breakfast thing (I've had it for a couple of years - well, one year, anyway) over at the Rock Column. Heavy dew but my old, black, too small Asolo boots should keep my feet dry.
6:45 AM
Awesome here at the Rock Column! Mist is rising from the Mississippi River shoreline below me and then swirling in streaks northeastward across the river. I had to look up to be sure I was not seeing a reflection of cirrus clouds overhead, but the sky is perfectly clear. Water is perfectly smooth. Across the river, mist is hanging at the various levels of trees; a fish jumps occasionally; and the sun is rising down river! The river here IS more eastward than southward!
The mist movement pattern is amazing! Like a kaleidoscope with the spreading concentric rings on the water surface beneath where fish are surfacing.
Sheez!! 2 miniature hurricanes are swirling! Now 3. It's like there is a front of two air masses about 1/3 way across the river and swirls keep erupting along that line. Mist is coming this way from the far shore. Just amazing what beauty and spectacle nature can create!
6:57 AM
The "airmass" of foggy mist from the far shore has won so the swirling front has been pushed out of view of destroyed near the shore below me - now only streaky swirling mist is coming this way and weakening as sunlight warms the mystical dance.
On the far shore, there seems to be a line--oh, it is a shadow line due to the low sun. On this side of that line there is a reflection of the far, tree-lined shore!!
WHOA! 3 more mini-hurricanes of mist have erupted below me! I see nothing like this upriver.
It's as if this spectacle is being produced just for me! I need a video camera--and I don't even have my regular camera. I wonder how soon I will forget about this dance of the spinning ballerinas of mist! I gotta get here more often! I can still remember the patterns on river ice I saw from here quite a while back--so maybe this mistical revue will stick with me for some time, also. I hope so. Almost too good to be true! I had two dark chocolate Doves and two dark chocolate and peppermint candies on the way here--maybe I am hallucinating on dark chocolate caffeine! :)
The "Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookie Breakfast meal", dairy-free, all natural, high energy... tastes pretty durn good. "Baker's Breakfast Cookies, Inc.; Baker's Healthy Start." It goes down really well! 18% of fiber, too? 13% of sodium.
So, with the Welch's 100% Grape Juice given the American Heart Asociation seal of approval, I am off to an unusual health start for today! 100% Vitamin C, too.
Jeepers! More hurricanes! Two just converged from their opposite spinning directions. (My sketch showed a clockwise swirl for the one on the left; a counter-clockwise swirl for the one on the right.) Cool!
7:25 AM
Well, I already have stuffed the sleeping bag and rolled the pad in the tent, but I better get back; take down the tent, pack the backpack and tree trimming tools, and head for the house. My grandkids may be coming at 9 AM.
While the mist on the river is much thinner now, swirls are still being generated at times as the general drift of the mist is downriver. Fog looks much thicker upriver at Dubuque--and just now a breeze has come up and mist is streaming downriver faster. Leaves are rustling. Nature at play! Wow! Well, I see one more "hurricane"... but, I gotta go!
Back at the camp before I begin to take the tent down: As I walked back, a mist was rising from the river and almost engulfed the higher ridge beyond the bluff top in a fluffy white shroud--and with the waning gibbous white moon hanging above! Also, quite a breeze had developed just as I left the Rock Column and mist was coming toward the near shore and rising. No breeze here at camp.
7:44 AM
GOTTA get moving! Dew is very thick. Glad I wore my boots. They are soaked! Don't wanna leave, but grandkids are cool, TOO!! Good reason to be on my way.
6:05 AM
Must be a catbird nearby. Sure sounds like a cat! No need for a headlamp now. Morning has broken!
I think I'll get up and go have my bottle of grape juice and a Vegan breakfast thing (I've had it for a couple of years - well, one year, anyway) over at the Rock Column. Heavy dew but my old, black, too small Asolo boots should keep my feet dry.
6:45 AM
Awesome here at the Rock Column! Mist is rising from the Mississippi River shoreline below me and then swirling in streaks northeastward across the river. I had to look up to be sure I was not seeing a reflection of cirrus clouds overhead, but the sky is perfectly clear. Water is perfectly smooth. Across the river, mist is hanging at the various levels of trees; a fish jumps occasionally; and the sun is rising down river! The river here IS more eastward than southward!
The mist movement pattern is amazing! Like a kaleidoscope with the spreading concentric rings on the water surface beneath where fish are surfacing.
Sheez!! 2 miniature hurricanes are swirling! Now 3. It's like there is a front of two air masses about 1/3 way across the river and swirls keep erupting along that line. Mist is coming this way from the far shore. Just amazing what beauty and spectacle nature can create!
6:57 AM
The "airmass" of foggy mist from the far shore has won so the swirling front has been pushed out of view of destroyed near the shore below me - now only streaky swirling mist is coming this way and weakening as sunlight warms the mystical dance.
On the far shore, there seems to be a line--oh, it is a shadow line due to the low sun. On this side of that line there is a reflection of the far, tree-lined shore!!
WHOA! 3 more mini-hurricanes of mist have erupted below me! I see nothing like this upriver.
It's as if this spectacle is being produced just for me! I need a video camera--and I don't even have my regular camera. I wonder how soon I will forget about this dance of the spinning ballerinas of mist! I gotta get here more often! I can still remember the patterns on river ice I saw from here quite a while back--so maybe this mistical revue will stick with me for some time, also. I hope so. Almost too good to be true! I had two dark chocolate Doves and two dark chocolate and peppermint candies on the way here--maybe I am hallucinating on dark chocolate caffeine! :)
The "Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookie Breakfast meal", dairy-free, all natural, high energy... tastes pretty durn good. "Baker's Breakfast Cookies, Inc.; Baker's Healthy Start." It goes down really well! 18% of fiber, too? 13% of sodium.
So, with the Welch's 100% Grape Juice given the American Heart Asociation seal of approval, I am off to an unusual health start for today! 100% Vitamin C, too.
Jeepers! More hurricanes! Two just converged from their opposite spinning directions. (My sketch showed a clockwise swirl for the one on the left; a counter-clockwise swirl for the one on the right.) Cool!
7:25 AM
Well, I already have stuffed the sleeping bag and rolled the pad in the tent, but I better get back; take down the tent, pack the backpack and tree trimming tools, and head for the house. My grandkids may be coming at 9 AM.
While the mist on the river is much thinner now, swirls are still being generated at times as the general drift of the mist is downriver. Fog looks much thicker upriver at Dubuque--and just now a breeze has come up and mist is streaming downriver faster. Leaves are rustling. Nature at play! Wow! Well, I see one more "hurricane"... but, I gotta go!
Back at the camp before I begin to take the tent down: As I walked back, a mist was rising from the river and almost engulfed the higher ridge beyond the bluff top in a fluffy white shroud--and with the waning gibbous white moon hanging above! Also, quite a breeze had developed just as I left the Rock Column and mist was coming toward the near shore and rising. No breeze here at camp.
7:44 AM
GOTTA get moving! Dew is very thick. Glad I wore my boots. They are soaked! Don't wanna leave, but grandkids are cool, TOO!! Good reason to be on my way.