The river has changed so much this year. Some of the old, familiar gravel bars have been completely washed away, and there are dozens of new “screens,” debris piles in the river and on the banks, deadwood tangles 40 yards across and 10 to 20 feet high. A new side channel appears as we drift down, in a place where no channel ever existed before—right through the woods. A good bit of the river diverts through it for a quarter mile. As we paddle down the main body of water, I count more than a hundred fresh giant spruces swept downriver,... read more