The Wilson boat launch sees trips every day, all summer long – from scenic floats, to fly fishing trips to writing workshops. Well at least that was the case last week — the raft slid off the trailer and into the cool blues of the Snake as workshop participants pulled PFDs over sunhats — their notebooks and pens close by.
Matt Daly leads Jackson Hole Writers and invited river guide, writer and his childhood friend Bridget Crocker to instruct the class. Both grew up in Jackson.
“Bridget and I have known each other for a long time and the fact that this is happening feels extraordinarily special,” Daly said.
Crocker’s writing workshop centered on connection.
“Connecting with nature, connecting with yourself and connecting with each other,” Crocker said.
Crocker feels a strong connection to the Snake. It’s where she played as a kid and learned how to guide — a job that’s since taken her around the world.
“The river was my refuge, it was the place I went to to feel comforted, to feel nurtured, it was like my mother.”
Fittingly, she titled her soon-to-publish memoir, “The River’s Daughter.” She read passages and challenged participants to braid their own personal stories with nature through extended metaphors.
For some, that meant comparing the swirls of eddies to the stalls of life, the rush of rapids to the busy pace of life and fallen debris as the navigable barriers of life.
The raft bottomed out throughout a shallow stretch and most had to exit the boat to relieve the weight.
Some participants had to lean on each other — literally — to get across the river rocks and back to their seats. With everyone safely on the raft, Crocker turned it into a lesson.
“We need each other as writers and as humans too to navigate the hard things,” she said.
As the trip neared its end at the South Park boat ramp, Crocker said she knew the stretch well. It’s the setting of a scene in her memoir. She grew up in a trailer home nearby and lamented on the times she used to run among the cottonwoods on the Snake’s banks.
For Crocker, connection is on the Snake.
“I had a little moment at the take out where I was like mama I’m home, and was just able to connect in that way.”
Jackson Hole Writers have a number of events throughout the rest of the summer and into the fall. You can view them at jhwriters.org.
