John 'The River Guy'

From a water quality perspective, Little River in Mentone, AL. is one of the healthiest swims one can take. With the fortune of having a business account up that way, I have good reason to conveniently, with a purpose, use it. Yes, there are pontoon boats. There are kayaks and canoes, yet their pace is so slow that the danger is negligeable. It’s the type of place that can make a Monday feel like a Thursday. It’s whisper to your solitude makes that solitude feel benign. With the tannic acid of so many leaves that have fallen, the water is a tea- colored wonder. It’s a place where fall comes in a month earlier than the valleys of the rest of the state. It turns Augusts into Septembers with no effort at all.

On lookers have a laissez- faire culture about them as well when you swim by. No gawking or light harassment out of insecurity. Just friendly folks saying hello from their piers or boats. Or summer camp sessions at Camps Laney and Skyline, where kids and lifeguards hardly recognize you as anything other than another trout swimming by in the summer breeze. From the falls up to near Moon Lake is where my destination leads to and back. Only being able to swim most of the 1 and 1/2 mile route from the falls to the HWY 117 bridge, until this summer, I’d never reach the camp grounds, yet get to the 1/2 mile mark. In essence, it’s the only ‘fall’ swim which feels like fall no matter what time of summer and spring you submerge.