My friend Buddy took this picture of me on the Sabine River in 2009. I hadn’t seen it in years, but I found it yesterday when going through files on my old computer. Here’s the story behind the photo—one of the weirder episodes from my first book, Running the River: Secrets of the Sabine.
About a mile from the boat ramp, we came upon a waterfall gurgling over a rocky ledge, into a sheltered green pool beside the river. The cavelike walls of the cove were painted green with moss. Sunlight reflected off the water and danced like currents of electricity through the shadows. I had never seen anything so pretty on the Sabine.
“We might have to go swimming later,” Buddy said, and I agreed.
Not far beyond the cove we came to a strange scene: an unmanned boat floating in the middle of the water. It sounded like the engine was running. When we came closer, we saw a long, white hose extending from the boat into the river. At one spot a few feet away, we noticed air steadily bubbling to the surface. Just then a man’s head bobbed up from the brown water, wearing a scuba mask, goggles, and a breathing apparatus.
“Looking for mussels?” I asked.
The man affirmed my question by lifting his bag of shells out of the water. But my camera and questions aroused his suspicion. “Are y’all from the FBI?”
We said no, and when we boated past, the diver sank beneath the water. We eased a little farther downriver, through frequent rapids where the flow quickened and the boat scraped over rocks and gravel, and we passed the many abandoned concrete and wooden oilfield structures that I had marveled at during my earlier trip with Jacob. I watched the shoreline for signs of hogs, but my attention soon began to wander, and I started to imagine the view of the riverbanks from two hundred years ago, when the first settlers arrived.
Today, East Texas is scrub country. What land has not been paved or plowed is choked with thorn vines and brush. But at one time, the forest canopy was so thick it blocked the sunlight from the undergrowth, and the smaller plants that did manage to survive in the dark forests were cleared by occasional fires, leaving trees so large and well established that early travelers called this place the Pine Barrens.
“They say the pine trees used to be so tall in East Texas, you could ride a horse for miles, fall asleep in the saddle, and never hit a tree limb,” I said to Buddy as we drifted downriver. “There used to be huge trees here on the river, too. Just think how much prettier all this would be if we hadn’t cut everything down.”
Buddy glanced up from the trolling motor and studied the brush on the bank. “You can’t think about it that way,” he said. “It’s still pretty. East Texas is still pretty. Just be thankful you get to see it the way it is, because someday all of this will be gone, too.” He had a point, but I hoped he was wrong. Growing up, I had never given a second thought to this wild river running through my hometown. Now that I had spent some time on the Sabine, I didn’t want to lose what remained.
Buddy and I never saw the hogs, so we turned back. The flow that had seemed so calm when we floated downstream was now a force we hadn’t reckoned with, and we spent most of the journey trudging through the water and fighting the current as we dragged the boat upstream. At times the water came only to my hips, sometimes up to my chest, but then I would step off a precipice and fall into a deeper channel. I learned to use my foot to feel for the firmness of the riverbed before committing my weight to a step forward. Before long, I forgot about my fear of being swept away by the river. As long as I stayed alert and moved slowly, I didn’t have to worry so much about drowning after all.
When we returned to the waterfall and the pretty little cove, we parked on some boulders at the entrance and jumped in. The water was cold and deep here and stunningly clear: I could see the bottom some eight feet below. Above us, the clearwater creek had worn the ground away to the eroded rock, cascading through a series of precipices, before tumbling into the cove. Buddy swam over to the waterfall and let it pound his back and shoulders. “It feels just like a back massage,” he said with glee. “You gotta try this.”
I did. It felt great. “Man, I could even bring a woman here,” I said.
This was the discovery of a lifetime, the kind of place that Buddy could enjoy with his wife and kids for years to come. We swam for a long while, then waded out of the cove and into the river. The water was much warmer here, around waist deep, brown, and muddy. Our toes sank into the silt.
When we returned to the cove a few minutes later, something had changed. “Wasn’t the waterfall a lot bigger when we first got here?” I asked. Instead of gushing over the ledge, the water had narrowed to a trickle. Then, as we watched with increasing horror, it began to grow again. Within minutes, the waterfall was surging at full strength. It was like someone had flushed an enormous toilet. Oh no, that was it! We were swimming in sewage—the discharge from the wastewater plant in Gladewater. No wonder the cove was so cool and clear. No wonder we kept smelling that faint odor of chlorine. I spit what I could out of my mouth.
We climbed out of the cove and then ascended a steep, grassy bank to see where the creek led. We came to an even bigger waterfall and then a series of smaller ones. We walked as far as we could through a leafy forest to a barbed-wire fence, then returned to the river and stood for a moment on the big gray rocks beside the beautiful cove.
“I don’t even care,” Buddy said. “It might be sewage, but they treated it first.”
We jumped back in. At one point, Buddy even swam under the waterfall, where he indulged in another back massage.
Excerpted from Running the River: Secrets of the Sabine by Wes Ferguson and Jacob Botter and published by Texas A&M University Press.
4,843 responses to “A Sheltered Cove”
Music started playing as soon as I opened up this website, so frustrating!
Díky moc!|Hej, jeg synes, dette er en fremragende blog. Jeg snublede over det;
I’ve noticed that fixing credit activity must be conducted with tactics. If not, you are going to find yourself endangering your rating. In order to realize your aspirations in fixing your credit ranking you have to take care that from this moment in time you pay any monthly fees promptly in advance of their planned date. It is significant simply because by not necessarily accomplishing this, all other steps that you will choose to adopt to improve your credit standing will not be helpful. Thanks for revealing your tips.
Such people actually welcomed France’s surrender to Nazi Germany in June 1940.
Hey there are using WordPress for your blog platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and create my own. Do you need any html coding expertise to make your own blog? Any help would be really appreciated!
Community investing projects are small and local and often focus on affordable housing, small business startups, improving community facilities and empowering minorities.
Typically extra energized than organized, retro rooms have a way of humor and so much to say; in spite of everything, every object comes with a narrative of discovery.
He was a World Conflict II veteran and a farmer.
Then I heard a message by Kenneth Copeland on sowing seed and giving your seed an task!
A different issue is that video gaming became one of the all-time largest forms of fun for people of nearly every age. Kids enjoy video games, and adults do, too. The XBox 360 is among the favorite video games systems for many who love to have a huge variety of games available to them, in addition to who like to learn live with people all over the world. Thank you for sharing your opinions.
It means, high dollar has positive in addition to adverse impacts on financial system.
It is also known for having one of the very best public highschool graduation rates within the nation – 92 in 2018-2019.
I?d should check with you here. Which isn’t something I normally do! I enjoy reading a submit that will make people think. Additionally, thanks for permitting me to remark!
It’s neat that you simply get to go digital.
information.|My family members every time say that I am killing my time here
Hello my friend! I wish to say that this post is amazing, nice written and come with approximately all vital infos. I would like to see extra posts like this.
That is why you should create a budget.
This web site doesn’t display correctly on my iphone 3gs – you may want to try and repair that
I appreciate the depth of research in this article. It’s both informative and engaging. Keep up the great work!
Very useful content! I found your tips practical and easy to apply. Thanks for sharing such valuable knowledge!
Hello, i think that i noticed you visited my website so i got here to ?go back the choose?.I’m trying to find issues to enhance my web site!I assume its ok to use some of your concepts!!
hello!,I like your writing very much! share we communicate more about your post on AOL? I need an expert on this area to solve my problem. Maybe that’s you! Looking forward to see you.
I’m amazed, I have to admit. Rarely do I come across a blog that’s both educative and entertaining, and without a doubt, you’ve hit the nail on the head. The problem is something not enough folks are speaking intelligently about. I am very happy I found this during my hunt for something concerning this.
M?žete mi doporu?it n?jaké další blogy / webové stránky / fóra, které se zabývají stejnými tématy?
Hello, Neat post. There’s an issue along with your web site in internet explorer, could check this? IE still is the marketplace leader and a big section of other people will omit your fantastic writing due to this problem.
Thanks for your tips. One thing really noticed is that banks along with financial institutions understand the spending behaviors of consumers and also understand that the majority of people max away their real credit cards around the vacations. They sensibly take advantage of this specific fact and then start flooding your own inbox plus snail-mail box using hundreds of Zero APR card offers immediately after the holiday season closes. Knowing that in case you are like 98 of American open public, you’ll rush at the possiblity to consolidate credit card debt and transfer balances to 0 interest rate credit cards.
Thanks for your write-up. I would like to opinion that the first thing you will need to conduct is find out if you really need credit restoration. To do that you simply must get your hands on a replica of your credit report. That should never be difficult, considering that the government necessitates that you are allowed to obtain one no cost copy of your credit report every year. You just have to request that from the right people. You can either check out the website for the Federal Trade Commission or even contact one of the major credit agencies right away.
Thanks for your blog post. Things i would like to contribute is that personal computer memory ought to be purchased but if your computer can no longer cope with that which you do by using it. One can deploy two random access memory boards containing 1GB each, for example, but not one of 1GB and one of 2GB. One should look for the company’s documentation for own PC to ensure what type of ram is essential.
I was just looking for this info for some time. After six hours of continuous Googleing, at last I got it in your site. I wonder what’s the lack of Google strategy that do not rank this kind of informative web sites in top of the list. Generally the top web sites are full of garbage.
Please let me know if you’re looking for a author for your weblog. You have some really good articles and I believe I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d really like to write some material for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please send me an email if interested. Kudos!
Greetings! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I really enjoy reading your blog posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same topics? Thank you!
According to my research, after a property foreclosure home is sold at a sale, it is common with the borrower to be able to still have a remaining balance on the personal loan. There are many financial institutions who try to have all rates and liens paid off by the subsequent buyer. Having said that, depending on selected programs, restrictions, and state legislation there may be many loans that aren’t easily fixed through the exchange of financial loans. Therefore, the duty still remains on the borrower that has had his or her property in foreclosure process. Thanks for sharing your opinions on this blog site.
It contains fastidious material.|I think the admin of this website is actually working hard in favor of his site,
The German designation for the LVF was Infanterie-Regiment 638 (“638th Infantry Regiment”) and it served below Area Marshal Günther von Kluge, commander of the German 4th Army.
I have seen that rates for internet degree experts tend to be an excellent value. For example a full College Degree in Communication in the University of Phoenix Online consists of 60 credits with $515/credit or $30,900. Also American Intercontinental University Online comes with a Bachelors of Business Administration with a whole education course feature of 180 units and a tariff of $30,560. Online learning has made taking your higher education degree so much easier because you could earn your degree in the comfort of your home and when you finish from work. Thanks for all the other tips I have really learned from your web-site.
Neither helps us produce residence-grown meals, which surely is the easiest way to reduce our carbon emissions and ensure increased requirements of production.
A person essentially assist to make seriously articles I’d state. This is the first time I frequented your web page and to this point? I amazed with the research you made to make this particular submit incredible. Great process!
Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular post! It is the little changes which will make the most significant changes. Many thanks for sharing!
Bht club is a colour trading platform
Wonderful blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News. Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Many thanks
Bht club is a colour trading platform
Bht club is a colour trading platform
Fantastic post! The information you shared is really valuable and well-explained. Thanks for putting this together!
Hey very nice web site!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds also?I am satisfied to search out a lot of useful information here in the submit, we’d like work out extra techniques on this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
Good web site you have here.. It’s difficult to find quality writing like yours these days. I really appreciate people like you! Take care!!
Everything is very open with a clear explanation of the challenges. It was truly informative. Your site is very useful. Thank you for sharing!|
Its such as you learn my mind! You appear to grasp a lot about this, like you wrote the e book in it or something. I think that you just could do with some to drive the message house a bit, but instead of that, this is excellent blog. A great read. I’ll definitely be back.
colour prediction app
Fantastic post! The information you shared is really valuable and well-explained. Thanks for putting this together!
Try 66lottery now