What is a River? people on top of Mt Tammany
Looking west over the Delaware Water Gap toward PA from Mt Tammany
Braided streams in a rock outcrop on the trail
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This picture was taken at over 14,000 feet in colorado on July 25th. As you can see there are many patches of snow that remain on the mountains. Not only do these snow chutes look like a bunch of rivers, but they actually turn into rivers as the melting season continues. Each one of these chutes creates there own little river as they melt, and the melted snow feeds into bigger and bigger rivers. These “little rivers” are the backbone of some of the major rivers in the west.
While I was having a conversation with my roommate about his hometown, La Jolla, he mentioned something about living on the coast of California that I thought was really interesting. For context, he was about to leave for New York City, and I was telling him about its grid pattern and how it’s quite simple to navigate. He then mentioned that he always figures out directions to places in La Jolla based on their position along the coastline. He thinks about which way he has to drive in relation to the coast. I certainly use “checkpoints” to help me figure out directions in my hometown, but I think it’s very interesting that he uses the ocean for this purpose.
My experience over the weekend while hiking at the Delaware Water Gap was amazing. It was a new environment and I was able to see a new part of a place right near my home. I can’t imagine what the river and its surroundings would look like if a dam were to be built right along the park. I will make sure to come back here another time with family and friends to show them these beautiful views.
Heading to the Bacon Festival in downtown Easton this morning, I intentionally past the Bushkill Creek, hoping to relieve pressure from school. The creek indeed looked vigorous, energetically flowing forward to a destiny of its own. This vitality of the stream transferred its energy to me, encouraging me to keep pursuing my personal goal. What is more, I found something different from this. The flow of water in the creek is flexible – it had different speeds and forms at different places.
Beneath the Bushkill street, the water was rapid; along the Bushkill Drive, the water became so tranquil that it seemed to stop moving at the moment; approaching the dam near the Bushkill Curtain, the water began rushing and made me felt powerful. These different states of water reminded me of a quote from the “Analect of Confucious,” a collection of Confucian ideas in ancient China. “The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills.” Wise men are as flexible as rivers – by the ability to see the nature of things, they could adapt themselves to changing circumstances without adhering sturdily to some fixed standard or rule.
The other day walking around the campus, I saw all of the leaves blown into the corner of the road. It filled the same area that water would be if it were there. It gave the feeling of a stream of leaves.
Rivers on campus. After the big rain storm we received the past week I was walking back from dinner and found a river in the middle of campus.
While searching in the ArcGIS gallery to find some inspiration for the Story Map Project, I read the article about the history of Maine River that the librarian showed in class. Humans in different periods in history react to the same river in different ways, but they all depend on the river. I found this means a lot. Many years ago before Europeans came to colonize this place, native American settlers in Maine utilized everything in natural surroundings to canoeing on the river to survive. Around the 19th century, the famous writer Thoreau wrote a book called “The Maine Woods” to narrate his three canoe trips in central Maine. Nowadays, canoeing on rivers in Maine becomes a recreational activity for people and provides business opportunities for organizations that offer trips.
While walking to class by way of the Quad, I noticed I had a temptation to cut across the Quad to shorten my trip to Pardee Hall. This experience reminded me of something similar to what Eddy Harris experienced while traveling down the Mississippi River in the book ‘Mississippi Solo’. There was a part of his journey where he thought cutting across the river’s meander would make his trip shorter and was tempted to do so.
The other day I was biking on the Delaware Canal and I passed by the Delaware Canal state park office. To my surprise I found the kayaks that we used on our trip! I just thought it was cool to see them again.