Life on the Russian River

And a love affair with redwoods

The journeys documented in this newsletter first began with a big move we made in 2017, from our home on Maui to a little town (population 1190) called Monte Rio on the Russian River in California.

We lived there for five years, and it’s a fascinating place.

I fell in love with life on a river through my experiences on the Skeena River in British Columbia, and it was amazing, in hindsight, how directly those experiences inclined us to choose a little red cabin overlooking the river.

The view from our hot tub overlooking the Russian River wasn’t bad

The  Russian River has moods. Originally known by the Southern Pomo Native Americans of the area, it was called Ashokawna (“east water”) or Bidapte (“big water.”) As the season warmed and the rains ceased, the boomerang of water flowing outside of our window changed from the swollen, churning chocolate brown of imminent disaster to a jade-and-silver shimmer, chuckling around sandbanks of smooth gray pebbles and pierced by insouciant cottonwoo…