A magic, moving, living part of the very earth

“A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself.”

Or so wrote Laura Gilpin, an American photographer who ironically had my same birthday, April 22, but way back in 1891.

Gilpin, I’ve discovered really had it right.

For the better part of the past 40 years I have been wedded to the moving water of rivers. It’s also as long as I have been married.

Not long after our wedding my wife took a trip to Portland, Ore. to visit her college “bestie.” She returned home with a gift, a book called “Oregon River Tours.” Little did she know I was introduced to a rival suito...