The sporting life
It's hard to appreciate beauty by just reading about it. Even pictures are limited in what they can capture. But I couldn't let my weekend at Starved Rock go without a mention.
For those who may not read Dale Bowman's superb outdoors coverage, Starved Rock is a state park about 1 hour, 45 minutes from Chicago.
It felt like a world away.
The weekend started with a canoe trip down the Fox on Saturday morning. As my friend and I came around a bend, I could see a couple of canoes had stopped about 100 yards ahead. I saw a large bird fly above the tree line and wondered if it was an eagle. Dale had said there was a good chance we would see an eagle, so I brought my binoculars. Not only was it an eagle, but there also was a huge nest with another adult and two young eagles. It was breathtaking.
We stayed at a pioneer cabin in the state park. No TV, no phone, although having another unit attached to the cabin and the Harley convention in the nearby parking lot diminished the "pioneer" atmosphere.
But the sandstone cliffs and waterfalls were just two of the sights that made me wonder how something so beautiful could be so close to Chicago and still maintain its natural purity.
I realize the more people who know about Starved Rock will mean more traffic and pollution, but the effect it has on the soul could help change the human condition in the big city. At least for a day. At least to the smallest degree. At least it did with me.
Comments
Went canoeing once in Dayton. Flipped over a couple times, which was cool. It was two of us in the canoe. I can't remember, but I think we flipped because we weren't paddling at the same speed. I was in the back. The friend in the front was a canoe expert; he did it growing up in North Dakota. I was a novice.
The moral, I guess, is that you should canoe with someone who is as good
(or bad) as you are.
On the sides of the streams were rock formations. Holed up in some of them were black snakes, who were as afraid of us as we
were of them.
Lanky D
Posted by: Anonymous | June 6, 2006 01:19 PM