On this, the longest free-flowing section of the Catawba, otters slide playfully down the banks and bald eagles soar overhead, our national bird gliding so low over the shoals you can see the yellow of his talons.
Here the river flows much the way it has for millions of years, before man built so many dams and lakes and houses. Wind soughs through the trees, sun dances in tiny sparkles across the water, and cormorants float in the distance like a row of black buoys.
It is so peaceful and natural -- the way you expect a river to be -- you can easily forget you're on the other side of a dam holding back Lake Wylie and some of the most polluted water on the Catawba.
Then around a bend, the reverie is broken. The thunder of Interstate 77 drowns out the whisper of the river.
And so it is down this beautiful stretch of the Catawba. Just when you think you're far from humanity, humanity intrudes:
Trash streaming down from Charlotte by way of Sugar Creek.
Water the color of weak tea bubbling up where a paper company empties its treated waste.
Smelly wastewater from a sewage treatment plant splashing out of a galvanized pipe.
I am amazed by the power of the river to cleanse itself.
About 14 miles down
Like many people, Beckee Garris rarely sees the Catawba except through her car window as she rushes above on the interstate. A break in the line of trees, a glimpse of rocks in the water below, and then it's gone.Unlike many of us, Garris feels a kinship with the river, a connection dating back hundreds of years. She is a Catawba Indian, one of the Ye Iswa, or "people of the river," who consider the Catawba sacred.
I met Garris at the cultural center on the reservation outside Rock Hill, a 15-minute walk from the river. She is a potter and digs for clay with other Indian potters at a secret spot beside the Catawba.
"I don't want to sound poetic," Garris said, "but the river was our blood. As long as the river flowed, we got our food from it, and the clay to make our pottery. It was our means of travel, our drinking water, our bathing water."
We are all people of the river now.
It is still our drinking water, our bathing water, our lifeblood. Yet there's so much trash in it, Garris said she no longer eats fish caught in the Catawba.
If you paddle this section, you'll find plastic bottles, basketballs, just about anything imaginable that could float down from Charlotte -- and some things like bowling balls that you might not imagine would float. I saw a bed quilt tangled in the rocks, a car tire stuck in the mud, a bright yellow tennis ball bobbing through the shoals.
Mostly I found beauty and serenity.
24.5 miles down
The Rocky Shoals spider lilies were blooming in May at Landsford Canal State Park, and family and friends joined me along my last few miles down this stretch of the river.
I had heard about the lilies, but descriptions didn't prepare me. Here on the Catawba, the largest known colony in the world thrives, despite so much pollution from upstream.
How, I wondered, do the flowers survive?
Al James, who manages the park, said the shoals act as a natural filtration system. Sediment, he said, poses a greater threat than pollution. If this stretch of the river is developed, he warned, silt from runoff could choke the lilies.
Storm clouds threatened as we lowered our kayaks into the water. We quickly paddled down the channel, skirting rocks and shallows until we saw an improbable garden in the middle of the Catawba. Delicate white blooms waved like spider legs, and sturdy green stalks seemed to sprout from the rocks.
It would have been easier to stay in deep water, but the lilies beckoned and we kayaked into their midst, surrounded by dainty paper-thin blooms, acre upon acre, as far as we could see.
It was magical, the way I felt when I hiked to the Upper Falls near the river's source 150 miles away in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Here, less than an hour from Charlotte, wilderness again cradled the river.
29.7 miles down
The lilies thinned out and we found ourselves in deep water, an easy 3-mile paddle to the boat ramp beneath S.C. Highway 9. From there, the river flows through Fishing Creek Reservoir toward what once were the Great Falls.Saturday: Bruce Henderson goes to see a town pinning its revival on the Catawba. Day 6 of 8
Understanding the Wild River
Though this part of the Catawba is mostly undeveloped, it is feeling the growth in Charlotte and Rock Hill. It's a fun part of the river to paddle, but access is limited to a few places, including Wylie Dam, Rock Hill's River Park and Landsford Canal State Park near the town of Catawba.
THE LOOK
You'll see few houses and factories.
DISTINCTIVE FEATURE
The river is habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife.
CHECK THIS OUT
See the Rocky Shoals spider lilies bloom in late May and early June at Landsford Canal State Park, www.southcarolinaparks.com. You can rent a canoe or kayak from Catawba River Expedition, 803-327-9335, www.catawba-river-expeditions.com.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
• The Katawba Valley Land Trust preserves land with significant natural, historical or archaeology value. www.kvlt.org.
• Nation Ford Land Trust is dedicated to the preservation of open spaces, natural beauty and the scenic heritage of the York County, S.C., area. www.nationfordlandtrust.org
River Docs: A Catawba River Narrative
An exhibit documenting our connection to the river. WHEN: Nov. 15--Feb. 22.
WHERE: The Light Factory, Spirit Square, 345 N. College St.
TICKETS: Free.
DETAILS: 704-333-9755, www.lightfactory.org COMING TO S.C.: The exhibit will be at the Museum of York County in Rock Hill, beginning in March. 803-329-2121. www.chmuseums.org.
The Series
Sunday: The source
of the threatened
Catawba River.
Monday: The
struggle to save
Lake James.
Tuesday: A
developer's
plan for his land
around Lake
Norman.
Wednesday:
Protecting
Mountain Island
Lake, Charlotte's
water supply.
Thursday: A
lakefront landfill
at Wylie.
Today: At Landsford
Canal, a surprising
water garden.
Saturday: A revival
for Great Falls, S.C.
Sunday: At Lake
Wateree, how
many demands can
one river take? Day 6 of 8
