A River Runs Through Us
A boatload of Seubolds
About this time of year, especially if we’ve had a long, cold winter, my family starts hearing a river calling our names.
My husband, Frank, first got acquainted with the South Canadian River as a teen-ager when he hunted geese and ducks there. In the mid-’80s, when the two of us and our five children moved back here from the Midwest, Frank started taking our sons hunting and fishing on the Canadian. Eventually, he introduced all of our family to one of his favorite places in the world.
With its ever-shifting sand bars, shore lines and water levels, the Canadian can be a challenging place to navigate and visit. It helps to have an experienced, sharp-eyed captain like my husband in command of a boat big enough to safely transport a bunch of family members of various sizes – and an outboard motor that can keep going through water depths that can change from 10 feet to 5 inches at any given moment.
We access the river from Kerr Lake by launching our 20-foot, flat-bottom at the Sequoyah County Wildlife Refuge. Most folks we see on the lake, especially those preferring speedier boats and faster-paced activities, would no doubt find our river outings boring. But to us, the South Canadian is a serene and beautiful place that restores our souls. It’s a place where we and our children and grandchildren can relax, swim, fish, sunbathe, look for rocks and fossils and just basically goof off
.
Granddaughters Emma and Maile, who happily splash and swim in the chilly river’s shallows and warm up in its sand bar “sauna” pools, have dubbed their river swimming holes “Mermaid-topia.” But we see plenty of wildlife besides our little mermaids.
Eagles, otters, deer, ducks, geese, turtles, raccoon, fox, coyotes, and, for awhile, even an escaped ostrich are just a few of the critters we’ve enjoyed watching on the Canadian.
There are a few drawbacks to all this remoteness, though. Cell phone reception is spotty and we always have to be sure to bring plenty of gas, food, water, life jackets and emergency equipment – especially oars. Anything you forget to bring you just have to just live without for a few hours. Vian is the last town we pass before we reach the boat ramp, and there are certainly no stores or marinas there or anywhere else we’ll be on the river. Once we’re off, Kerr we can usually count the boats and people we’ll see on one or two hands.
This year, it may take three boats just to get all of us up the Canadian if we’re lucky enough to have all our kids and their kids get together at one time. There are four new toddlers in the family – Ava, Sarah, Remi and Reese – who haven’t experienced the Canadian yet.
I’m especially looking forward to our first family outing on the river this year.
Last year, there were none. In February my dad’s health began deteriorating and he died in May. Not long after that my husband had a stroke and in the midst of therapy and making a great recovery, he broke a hip.
Now making great progress in therapy once again, Frank is working hard toward being able to lead our river excursions again this year. He vows to soon be able to get back into his boat, even if he has to “fall” into it. “It’s OK to fall into your boat,” he joked recently, “you just don’t want to fall out of it.”
Sounds to me like it won’t be long now before our family’s back on the Canadian.
Linda Seubold, editor of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine, can be reached at lindaseubold@efortsmith.com. Read her archived columns and articles online.
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