Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-10-02


at MaSSanutten, where we had decided to
camp over Sunday, after severe ten mile
cruise which embraced the formidable
Columbian falls, which are scarcely infe
rior to Kemple's falls, in roughness and
difficulty of navigating and are mile anC
a half long. 1t was relief to us to reach
this half way point in our cruise to River
ton. for we were over the worst of the river
the remaining half, while rough and intri
cate enough, being not nearly So much SO
as the half over which we had just cruised,
We spent a pleasant. quiet Sunday here
where we were by this time quite well
known as we had camped here twice before
and we were kindly treated by Mr.. Strick-
Ter, MI. Brubaker and others. 1t rained
pretty much all night on Sunday night and
MI. Brubaker, before the storm came on
urged us not to tru st to our frail tents but
to stop with him in his large and handsome
new residence, but we thanked him and de-
clined, assuring him that our quarters
were weather proof.
We had rainy days cruise pretty much
all day on Monday, but the well equipped
canoeist never gets wet by SO small a mat
ter as rainy day, and the numerous show,
ers caused us no detention nor special in
convenience.
This exciting days cruise down rapids
and falls was brought to a fitting close to-
wards evening by our shooting the heavy
perpendicular cataract that does duty for d
shoot in the high dam at Goodies mill.
where the water rolled breast high in asolid
sheet clear over our canoes from stem to
stern as we pumped down, bow first,
into the big foam crested waves below the
fall, but where, owing to our tight matches
and waterproof aprons, neither of us ship
ped pint of water. There is a steep,
rough, three OIL four foot fall over a ledge
just below the dam, with an ugly mass OF
rock squarely in front of the only practicable
shoot over the fall and scarcely a boat Is
length in front of it, and in making pow
erful sweep of his paddle to avoid this rock
the unfortunate Beall-who, with the
muscular strength of a four-year-old steer
snapped another paddle squarely off. Prof
iting by his mishaps, 1 made no useless eff
fort to dodge the inevitable, but by reach
ing ahead with my paddle caught the rock
and eased the blow all 1 could, and as my
canoe came up against it with smash, l
quickly sprang out into the water to still
further lessen the force Of the coils ion.
Then lifting my uninjured boat clear of
the rock, 1 pushed it ahead of me down the
shallow rapid until deep water was reached,
when stepped aboard again and rejoined
Beall, who was leisurelY workinghis canoe
along with half paddle, fishing as he pro-
ceeded.
We camped for the night at our old camp
ground at Cedar Point, just below the res
idence Of MI. Fleming, and by 1920 next
morning Beall was equipped, thanks to
Mr.. Fleming's kindness and handy tool
house, with his third paddle, and the cruise
was resumed.
seemed to grow clearer as we proceeded,
and our last two days cruise was made
over water most exquisitely pure and trans
parent, rivaling the trout streams of the
mountains in clearness, of greenish blue
tint, through which the reefs and rocks
which everywhere constituted the bed Of
the river. could be seen at any depth. The
lovely water, combined with the perfect
weather and the unrivalled, ever changing
fascinating mountain scenery, made of these
| +xro douc or vi oI, do q
fitting finale to a pleasant, successful
cruise, and one which we will not soon for
get. While the fishing well, we simply
laid our rods down in the cock-pits of ou1
canoes with the reels at our feet and the
tips projecting over the stern, at the ends
OF which trailed fifty feet of line with a
collar of flies attacled-We had no use for
the squirming minnow, the Shiny angry.
thomas, the vicious, repulsive helgramite
OF other forms of disgusting bait. We pad
died slowly and steadily along, taking in
our tackle when shooting the frequent falls
and rapids, and the fishing took care OF
itself-a sharp jerk, the whiz of a line, the
rattling click of a reel and the paddle would
be dropped and the rod taken up and the
sport would begin.
1t was an ideal fishing trip. We took
bass much as we were accustomed to take
trout in the mountains; some times two al
time. We had bass on our bill OF fare
almost throughout the entire cruise, bass
for breakfast, bass for supper, until we
were fairly Surfelted with bass. Beal
capped the climax few miles above River
ton by striking fish which took him fifteel
Oh twenty minutes to land, and which
weighed three and half pounds. 1t wa
not an uncommon occurrence for some Ma
tive OF other at our different camps along
the river to remark, oval, ther' used to b.
heap O. fish in tn river before these ye
dad-blamed Internal bass got in an dru1
'em all out.' Inquiry developed the fac
that the fish SO highly priced and much la
mented by the natives were suckers. VIZ
found the bass quite good enough for us.
With a cOmmendable discretion we de
clined the barbarous looking shoot at the
) Blakemore dam, sliding the canoes over the
} crest OF the dam instead; and by P. M. o.
w euueSudy we WtIe SHuSly eHSCoHCtu vi
our old camp groung at Riverton, an(
Thursday morning found us speeding VI
the N. & W. R. R. homeward bound, afte
the most delightfully."- pleasant and success
full two weeks cruise we have yet taken.
i F. r. WEBB.
Real Estate Transfers.
W. T. Rush, Ex'r of R. G.. Bickle, to J
E. Whitmore, house on Water street occu