Wafting on a sunday morning

Oct 5, 2002

Erin and I went last Sunday morning for an enjoyable excursion on the Eno River, which winds by Durham. River Dave has been leading Wafting on the Eno trips for 13 years: he takes groups of people out on inflatable canoes for two hours of leisurely paddling on the mill pond. River Dave stopped us along the way, gathering the canoes under a sycamore tree or at the end of a tributary creek, to talk about wildlife and clean water and traditional herbal remedies. I felt like the quintessential Zuiker as I paddled with Erin, taking in the glorious day.

I love water, and I love being in, on and around rivers and lakes and oceans. Last week’s wafting trip got me to reminiscing these past days about other waters: paddling my dugout outrigger canoe over the pristine waters off Paama island; slipping down the Bruhl River with my dad and brother, Chris; whitewater rafting in West Virginia during my freshman year at John Carroll University. On that West Virginia trip, our raft passed mist-shrouded hillsides on which a train whistled past, and only at the end of our trip did my group’s raft tip in rapids, tumbling me under and sending my favorite hat, a brown Greek fisherman’s cap that reminded me of Frank the Beachcomber’s blue fisherman’s cap, down the river toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Anton Zuiker ☄