Subject: surprising conclusion of thames sawanabori<br/>
Date: Jun 07, 2004 @ 01:42<br/>
Author: Michael Donner (&quot;Michael Donner&quot; &lt;barbaria_longa@...&gt;)<br/>
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<br/><br/>
<div id="ygrps-yiv-1570001390">thanx to another coincidental errand that practically delivered me to the <br/>
target area again<br/>
some 2 hours from home<br/>
i returned once again to the upper end of sawmill brook this afternoon <br/>
without effort or expense<br/>
but<br/>
due to an unexpected logistical glitch & cosmic joke<br/>
also without my carefully prepared maps<br/>
without slogging shoes<br/>
& without a camera<br/>
<br/>
but my mental map was sufficient to get me there<br/>
& my bare feet were fine as usual in the woods & mud<br/>
& i always have more fun without a camera anyway<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
immediately found the jeep trail to the mouth of cedar swamp<br/>
which is a small black pond or large puddle surrounded by muddy woods<br/>
& easily bushwhacked the several hundred feet down sawmill brook from there<br/>
as the veggies were thinner than expected tho the bugs were thicker<br/>
until i found the confluence of the unnamed top fork<br/>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=42.0535&lon=-72.2911">http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=42.0535&lon=-72.2911</a><br/>
<br/>
& no doubt about it<br/>
sawmill brook was bigger than this tributary stream by about double<br/>
even after a light rain<br/>
<br/>
this surprised me because it trashed all my careful measurements & <br/>
calculations<br/>
but at least vindicated my extreme care<br/>
& it meant the sawanabori could proceed directly back up to cedar swamp<br/>
at least<br/>
& beyond it if any inflow into it could be found<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
but there was no noticeable inflow anywhere that i could see<br/>
& judging from the rate of overflow<br/>
i guessed the swamp to be fed more by springs than drainage<br/>
& to be probably the truest available source of the thames except in a <br/>
downpour<br/>
<br/>
so i returned to the exact dropoff point of the largest of the overflow <br/>
trickles that run across the jeep trail<br/>
where the stillness of the swamp water begins to glide down the main stem of <br/>
the brook<br/>
& declared this singular point to be the head of thames<br/>
& kissed & drank a handful of the dark orange water that was running across <br/>
it<br/>
<br/>
didnt taste bad<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
i had to leave right away on another timed errand<br/>
or would have scaled the adjacent heights too<br/>
called peck hill<br/>
as i imagine the true japanese shower climbers might have done just for good <br/>
measure<br/>
but i have long considered drinking at the wet flowing source the true <br/>
sawanabori<br/>
<br/>
still what do i know<br/>
<br/>
i even spell it wrong<br/>
deliberately now<br/>
following the mistake made by schultheis<br/>
just to suggest it might not be the authentic traditional japanese format<br/>
<br/>
but as far as i am concerned<br/>
i invented this ritual myself 40 years before i ever learned its wrong name<br/>
& half a century before i finally learned its true name<br/>
<br/>
back then<br/>
when it was the elizabeth rahway passaic hackensack or raritan river that i <br/>
was impulsively following<br/>
i just called it<br/>
doing rivers<br/>
<br/>
& now<br/>
as the cosmos has run out of errands for me<br/>
i consider this river too<br/>
officially<br/>
done<br/>
<br/>
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