I smelled a “river spring” a few days ago , for the first time , its a smell I remember so well as as a child living on  the North Arm of the Fraser River in a floating  scow house !  .  Wow this smell is still alive and well as it fills my lungs with a loving Spring Scent of the river ! Today it is all along Salish Trail in Pacific Spirit Park . Many joggers and walkers pass by and do not recognize the   smell of the first shoots of Prairie Grass or Carex Limbye marshes plants pushing through the mud of the Musqueam Marshes of Point Grey ! Its a great historical early spring  smell , that I remember from my Float house  days ,  down on the C. M. E. Log Booming Grounds , on what we called  the River Flats of Wreck Beach !

The fresh awaking smell of the marshes  comes up from the river on a south  west wind , climes over top of the cliffs and pores out into the park , as it follows through the network of  trails there !   It is fresh and awaking , to the few people that recognise its distinct and wonderful aroma  .  My spring friend from the river does not seem to last very long on the wind ! When the sharp  Westerly wind in the trees , becomes just a gentle spring breeze , it is gone for awhile , but it will be back ! Yes  when the rain stops and the wet weather is  followed by a good Westerly Wind along  with a breaking to a welcoming Blue Sky , the smells of a new growing spring marsh , will be waiting to visit with you and your nose once again , on many of the trails in Pacific Spirit Park  !    

Terry

It was boat moving day from moms garage on 28th ave. and this piece of Dunbar, Southlands marine river history had to go some where , but where ? She was not water tight and her repairs were not finished , so into my truck she went ! The girl was sticking out a long way passed the tail gate and the police friend of mine said it was best to move her in the early morning. to avoid a possible hassel by the local authorities.

Yes I think she was a wooden 12 foot Greenwood Packer Canoe with a unique hour glass transom ! This Fraser River boat building family historically made red cedar strip boats on West Woods Island , in the mouth of McDonald Channel or now slough , on the North Fork of the Fraser River ! Grand Dad remembered a community saw mill there , probably where the boat building people got all the first growth pencil cedar cut , to build boats ! My river family knew where the boat building shed and house was located on the island and as a young boy went exploring in my row boat in the 1950ies ,looking for what was left of the mill and shed ! I found what was left of the islands history under the cover of dredged up sand , on this Island that now does not exist at all ! There were numerous wooden canoe building forms and pieces of the shed , I great place to explore !

So where does this lovely boat really come from, who owned her later on in her life? , Its a strange story of a real estate agent who just wanted to dump the old girl that she found or maybe owned ! The boats life may have been ended in a dumpster ! No , No , I looked her in the gunnels and fell in love with this great wooden lady from the past ! Her outer hull was clad in green paint soaked canvas, like the top of a old gillnet or trolling boat cabin and the cracked canvas had rotted in places ! For sure she was a boat that would not float ! The close together spruce frames and cedar inside planking of the hull was varnished and shone like a new penny ! Gosh she looked great ! Yes right away I had this dream of flying the Union Jack off her stern flag pole, dressing up in a muskrat hat and rowing up river on May Day with the incoming tide of course, to New Westminster !

Yep fisher people are wonderful dreamers , but the boat that would not float , just hung from the rafters of my moms leaking garage for over 15 years and was a home for the local roof or river rats . Moms old Dunbar house and leaking garage sold the other day for a big Sea Mans Chest full of money and the garage full of salvaged row boats, ya there was more than one, had to go some where ! No one wanted the old lady from I think was Woods Island , but at last I managed a old “Fisherperson to Fisherperson Trade”. My dream , oh she was my dream and in the end I had to traded her for 3 large bags of interior of B. C. Organic Potatoes ! Well I piled her into the back of my truck yesterday , with a tear in my eye and left early in the morning , to try to avoided the authorities on Marine ! She is waiting now at a old 100 year old house in New Westminster and when the potatoes arrive, she will hopefully start a brand new life , some where on a lake in the southern corner of B. C.

Terry ” From West Woods Island on the North Fork of the Fraser River”