gone on the river
I took some time off from paddling today to hike up to see some of the mounds that indigenous people built thousands of years ago in this place.
It's a familiar thing, for me, because I grew up just across the street from Mounds Park in St. Paul, which preserves several intact mounds. I've always found them fascinating, and now even more so. This place, with its high bluffs overlooking the river, is so powerful, so iconic. I can absolutely understand people gathering here to honor their beloved dead, creating these lasting memorials. I can't help but look out from the overlooks and imagine the river as it was then: no train tracks, no dams to make it navigable by powered watercraft, no cities nearby. Just the water, the floodplain, the bluffs and their forests. A beautiful place to say goodbye.