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Trinity Canoe Trip

           Last Wednesday, our Honors class made our first nature excursion together on the Trinity River. We met up at the Rec center and piled into the vans hauling the canoes and other floating supplies. I grew up kayaking and canoeing with my Dad at our farm and around Arkansas, so my excitement to try out a new river grew as we got closer to the take-in spot. I actually used to be quite good at kayaking-I got to where I could do Class IV rivers at one point!-and some of my funniest memories are of my friends and family canoeing together down the Buffalo River. I have not yet done the outdoorsy activities in Texas that I usually like doing in Arkansas, like hiking and canoeing, so I was interested to see what this experience would be like.

Wednesday was the first time in a long while that I had carried a canoe from the trailer to the river, and I must say my arms were extremely out of shape for such an activity. It was probably a comical sight to see Reilly and I, the two smallest human beings in the class, opting to partner up and struggling to carry our canoe down. But luckily we made it after taking several breaks on the way.

The thing that struck me most once we got on the river was how still the water felt. There were no ripples unless a mysterious creature from underneath brushed the surface of the water. A couple of times I did see smooth gray fins flap softly just at the water’s crest. The stillness brought peace and I was grateful that we did not have to stress about navigating rapids, but it also made for some tired arms to keep us going on our way in a timely manner. 

I realized that the differences that I noticed between this canoe trip and the canoeing I have done in the past stemmed from the fact that this experience took place in an urban setting. I had only experienced being on a river from the perspective of a rural setting, in which the nearest civilization is a few miles away. This was the first time I had canoed within a city’s limits, and it made for an interesting observation of nature and metro. I did not notice particularly abundant wildlife, but I saw evidence of fish, as noted above, and several times I saw a heron stoically watch us paddle by and then leap up and flap downstream. For a period of time we played a graceful sort of leapfrog with a heron, approaching its spot on the river and then falling behind as it established a new spot on the horizon. I never thought I would relate to a bird, but I appreciated its appreciation for personal space. All this occurred while hearing cheers from a little league baseball game happening over the bank. Sadly, however, and I think this was noticeable to everyone, trash spotted all areas of the Trinity. Water bottles, lost soccer balls, and containers streaked along the banks, but occasionally a wrapper would float along the middle of the river too. No view of the water was free from at least three pieces of trash at any time. This canoeing did not make me feel the usual natural, earthy, satisfactory type of dirty, but more like the germy, disease-y dirty, like I was afraid to accidentally touch the water. The giant broken concrete slabs on the side of parts of the river didn’t help my feeling that we were paddling down a sewer. I wondered how the fish could breathe, and what junk the heron got along with every meal. Water is a natural cleanser, dissolver, flusher. I realized this was the consequence of pairing civilization with nature. This area’s flat landscape probably hindered the river from flowing fast enough to ease its burden more. 

We made our way along, taking in the evening air as the sun set behind us, and came upon the best view of Fort Worth I have ever seen. The glittering buildings rose up from the ground as we came around the final bend. I am so glad to have paddled the Trinity because now I feel like I have experienced a side of Fort Worth that is always present, but is seldom seen. 

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