The Narrative Image

Evidence was piling up suggesting that the Lower Umpqua River was an excellent smallmouth bass fishery. Youtube videos showed happy fisherpeople struggling to hold up stringers laden with fat fish which was enticing, but also multiple pontoon boats careening towards various dubious underwater ends which looked all too probable for long kayaks. Uncle Rico and Kip shifted gears into research mode and before long had analyzed the serpentine path of the river and come up with a figury-eightish route (if 'eights' had 3 or more loops) that only required advanced technical paddling prowess for two water obstacles over an otherwise negotiable 27 miles of drifting. Photo courtesy Google Earth The accumulated Covid-19 death toll for America had only just topped 100,000 at the end of May, just a week after 10 Oregon churches had sued the governor for mandating masks and public distancing. While these kinds of reactions established that the United States was not responding well to t...