D is for Dagger Falls

After some hesitance, I finally gave in to my dark side. I admitted the possibility that this blog challenge could indeed resemble an exercise in travel blogging, narrowly centered on cool places in Idaho and Montana, of which there are simply too many to count. I'm OK with that. In a happy collision with other goals, a travel blog covering Idaho and Montana also serves the master of "background for New Grass Growing" equally well. New Grass Growing is a story from Idaho. Cale and Dana and Lane and Myra and the rest of the family, take you though parts of Idaho most people never get to see, including stretches of the Middle Fork, a place and space that once seen is simply never forgotten. Flyover country leaves a strong mark. You've been warned. I was lucky enough to live in this space for a few years. Half a lifetime later, other than wife and kids, this place ranks close to the top in memories.

And so begins the lurid tale not often associated with the letter "D". This is a tale rarely heard, for even whispering the phrase "Dagger Falls" strikes fear into the hearts of rigid shell boaters. Only soft shell boaters dare go further into the darkness of this memory.

A few miles past the back of beyond, downstream about ten miles from the joinery of Marsh Creek and Bear Valley Creek, one finds a strong constricted flow in the valley of the Middle Fork. At this point just above Boundary Creek, one finds the only Category V drop on the Middle Fork - Dagger Falls.

Salmon on occasion do leap it. Boats on occasion do descend it. People view it and walk away with pictures of Nature's fury. Except there is no fury there, only the unquestioning subservience to nature's fundamental laws of physics. Gravity. Flow. Start High. End Low. Nature reduces even the mightiest crag to the grain of sand. Once you see Dagger Falls flexing its muscle you will no longer question nature's abilities.

I've stood on edge of Dagger Falls. Filled with the thunder of noise moving by. Awed by nature's power and might. There's no question here, at least for me. This is a near perfect example of old Ma Nature flexing her muscle and daring you to dance. She leads. You follow - and live to tell about it if you are lucky. Actually, there's a ton of water moving through a smallish space. Odds are you would wash out fairly fast, but it's strong and the ride would be not soon forgotten. I've never run it. I freely confess to being nervous just standing by and watching it. Hells' Half Mile below it, as an introduction to the Category IV Velvet Falls is plenty for me.

River guiding on the Middle Fork is a life well worth living. Once in a lifetime on a one of a kind piece of American Beauty.

I hope you will join me tomorrow for one more entry sponsored by "E", about yet one more magical place on the Middle Fork.

B is for basketball

Such a humble entry. Don't be fooled though, this simple word is an entry point for big themes within this book series. At least one anyway. For me (the author) a fierce internal debate rages over how much of a reveal this blog series should be. The more I write here, the more plot spoilers are going to pop up. Grrr.

New Grass Growing is about "next steps in life" that the characters begin taking. I have to confess the great bulk of my reading falls in the thriller/adventure/action/suspense genre. In that broad category, action is non-stop as the MCs rush from cliffhanger to world ender to life threatening fight, etc. There's no break and virtually no look into life beyond their current crisis. Fans of this genre are quick to point out that nonstop action is critical to maintaining reader interest. While mostly true, I am asserting that this is not an absolute. Maybe it is for the Mitch Rapp-inspired thriller genre. For me, after a long diet of thrillers and suspense, my mind is wandering a bit, looking for more dimensions to the characters that I like.

In looking back on what I have read over the years, Clive Cussler provides an interesting example of this additional character dimension and complexity. CC provides numerous other examples as well, but my point here is that CC takes his main character, Dirk Pitt, off in other directions as the years pass in Dirk's fictional world. I was somewhat thrilled to realize this as my own world building aged and broadened. If CC does it, then I can too I guess.....

My point? as I wander ever further from it....

Amongst a myriad of other worthy subjects, at the end of River and Ranch, fate lands Cale in Salmon for the year with his new-found daughter, Sabé (btw New Grass Growing picks up where R&R left off). This kid turns out to be an athlete (OK so I revealed one spoiler, but so far am managing to conceal a couple others). She's a ninth grader and quite the basketball player. Ultimately Cale and Lane, now virtually "retired" from their clandestine globe trotting rigors, become the girl's basketball coaches at Salmon High School. Once again do I weave a somewhat tortuous trail, but I do arrive at the word for the day. Basketball serves as a segue for introducing more characters and possibly more themes to the River and Ranch family.

In another digression, I have to give much credit to Sherman Alexie for his writing, of which I have (re)read much, as well as for his thoughts on writing about Native Americans. Indians for short. Mr. Alexie brings up the theme of colonialist writing in referring to white guys like me writing about Indians. His observation (greatly streamlined by me) is that "outside" writers tend towards stereotypic themes when writing about natives. Feather in hair, tall savage, noble, etc. Literature does seem to bear out his observations on this. With Coeur d'Alene/Spokane blood flowing in his veins, his writing, as you might expect, veers well away from these stereotypes. And he does veer. In many big ways. His point about colonial writing is a good one and one that I take with me as I work my way through the new characters and themes in New Grass Growing (hopefully that is merely a hint and not a plot spoiler).

That about wraps up today's rambling discourse. Tune in tomorrow for the letter "C" and more in the ongoing drama that is 26 days of New Grass Growing......