Home at last...

Phew!  We made it.   580 miles on the Columbia and Snake rivers.  14 days.

The boat performed admirably, never hesitating, splashing through windwaves as easily as cruising a glassy, lake-like river.  It was exciting, beautiful... frustrating and exhausting at times.  Both Glen and I have quite a few bruises from living day-in and day-out on a boat that was meant for 4-hour rescue calls staffed by 20 year-olds.  Our knees are creaky, but we're glad we did it.

It's good to be home.

Choppy river

Happy Birthday, Cap'n Glen!

We started out early from Umatilla this morning and into a nasty headwind on the Columbia.  Choppy all the way to Boardman.  I mean white-water, 10-foot spray choppy.  Tough way to start the day.

But we're here at Boardman, 9:45am, and having a late breakfast and second-tea.  It's a nice facility, with a walking trail we are about to explore...

Smacked by a beaver

One of the great joys of this trip is all the wildlife we've been seeing.  Many, many pelicans, osprey, geese, jumping fish, muskrats and more.

Our first day out of Lewiston, we decided to overnight in Lyons Ferry.  This time, we went to the north side of the river, and explored the Palouse River estuary.  As we sat on the side deck of the boat, our feet dangling over, we saw a beaver swimming across the reed pond.   A few minutes later a second one appeared, and we watched them climb the bank and then dive back into the water.  

The larger beaver swam towards our boat, watching us, then did an abrupt u-turn.  Several minutes later, he came back, came within 15 feet of us, and did another u-turn.  Then we thought he'd gone.  

All of a sudden, we see a streak come from under the boat and pop up just 5 to 8 feet in front of us in the water. It's Mr. Beaver.  He looks at us sideways and swims off with his head high above the water, making a sound like heavy, huffy breathing.  Just as he reaches the end of the boat… SMACK goes his tail in the water.  

We just got severely chastised by a beaver for being in his territory.  (At least I think that's what went on.)  I don't think he appreciated our laughter of delight at his warning.

Making Lewiston

Thursday the 29th.  Our goal is reached!

We left Boyer Marina Thursday morning and within 30 minutes were inside the lock at Lower Granite Dam.  It was the easiest dam yet.  Well, the easiest on the Snake, anyway.

Shortly after that we spied our friends Joe and Garla.  They'd been trying to meet up with us at Boyer, but the hour grew late and the round-about-route meant they'd arrive pretyt late, so they went on to Clarkston ahead of us and found a hotel there.  Then they drove down the river-side highway looking for us Thursday, and we found each other!

Glen took the boat onto the bank, gently bumping it up against sand, boulders and driftwood (what a guy!).  After yelling back and forth for about 20 minutes, I invited Joe aboard.  We FINALLY used that tender we'd been towing all these day, and got Joe into it and aboard.  He made the final leg of the upriver trip with us clear into Clarkston/Lewiston.

Joe found a great dock for us at the Quality Inn so we were within walking distance of downtown (both downtowns) and had great resources nearby for restocking the boat.

We're staying two days in Lewiston, leaving Saturday.  I declared to Glen that I NEEDED SHORE LEAVE!  :)

So, here I am using the hotel wi-fi and catching up.

Boyer Marina & Little Goose Dam - River Trip day 6

So we left Fishhook, and headed for Little Goose Dam.We began to see more and more driftwood in the water, and even had to maneuver around some inside the lock itself.

The boat is happy running day after day, even occasionally at 1350 or 1400 rpm.  I'm told that those old 471 Detroits are just happy as can be at that speed, so no worries.

We're taking pictures and video along the way, and will post those as soon as we can.

Little Goose dam entry was rocky and rolly, but Glen managed it as beautifully as could be.  The river is like glass on the up-side of the dams, and we cruise at near 8mph for 10 to 15 miles afterward.  The weather is settling into a nice blue-sky pattern, so that helps.  Less and less wind every day, more and more sunshine.

We made it to Boyer Marina and park, and what a nice surprise that was!  Another lovely Corps of Engineers park, hosted by very wonderful, welcoming concessionaires who run a nice restaurant and inn on the site (Almota Inn).  The dinner we had was FABULOUS!  The chef, Leo Haas, was trained in fine schools in Salzburg and elsewhere in Europe.  He and he wife chose to take on this park last December, and are steadily upgrading the facilities and making the place a destination.  Which is saying something since it's a VERY difficult place to find and get to.  (I think you have to through Colfax.)  But I highly recommend it.  A nice little RV park with big, beautiful trees, a swimming beach, access to fishing, etc.  It sits almost at the foot (2 miles away) of Little Granite dam, so the fishing is pretty fine.

Lyon's Ferry - River Trip Day 5

And here we are at Lyon's Ferry.  Thankful for wi-fi and the chance to catch up here.

We had a great laugh at Lower Monumental Dam today.  (Beautiful day on the river before then, by the way.)  It was a bit rougher than we'd like going in, but nowhere near as tough as Ice Harbor.  But we get there, about 20 minute out, and we radio in for passage.  No answer.  Try again, no answer.  We've NEVER not had an answer at a lock!  Still don't know if our radio wasn't transmitting properly, or if the guy was just on lunch break, but... we get through the "rapids" below the spill gates and into the pool at the lock gates, behind the breakwater, still with no contact about when we can transit the lock.

So I says to Glen, I says, "There's a sign over there.  Can you read it?"  No.  So I get my binoculars out.  And I read.  And I blink.  And I read again.  "For lockage: 1)  Pull the cord below..."  YES REALLY.  It said, to request lock, pull the cord.  A rope hanging down from the concrete wall, like a bell pull."  I read it out loud to Glen, and he says, "you're kidding me."  Well he used different language than that, but it's not polite to type it here.  Then we do read "or call on Channel 14".  Which is what we've been doing for over half an hour.  Tried about 8 times.

So... we pull the cord.  Glen carefully guides our 36-foot boat over the the wall that's designed for small 10 foot craft and such, and I reach out and pull the cord.  We hear massive buzzing noises from the control / observation rooms above the lock.

So, yes, it was a dam-sized doorbell.  I kid you not.  We have the pictures to prove it.

River cruise 2014

Well, the 2014 adventures are underway, and so are we.  

We have been cruising the Columbia and Snake Rivers since Friday the 23rd.  Fifth day, and this is the first one where we've had wi-fi access to post.

It's been a grand DAM adventure.  We knew, of course, that we were headed up river at a time when there would be a high flow.  Spring runoff and all that.  But I don't think I've ever seen EVERY spill gate on EVERY dam open.  At least it looks like it.  The flow has been extremely strong right below all the dams, making for a rough ride, and lots of tense muscles for Glen.  (At least he gets the bonus neck rub at night before turning in.)  Naomi steers, too, just not in the white-caps water just below the dams.

Our usual speed of 7mph (measured over the ground, slows to 2 to 3 mph for the two to three miles below each dam.  And it's rough, swirly, twisty water.  More than we bargained for, but we're toughing it out.  Above each dam, we make great head-way in beautiful, lake-like water.  Yesterday we got to relax, put the top down (yes, like a convertible) and sit on the back cabin top steering with the emergency tiller.  Whee!

We expect to be in Lewiston by Thursday afternoon now.  

Fishhook

Gorgeous park!  I highly recommend Corps of Engineers parks in general, and this one in particular.  What lovely people.  And did we ever appreciate the hot showers at this point in our trip.  Yay!  Some of the best treescape I've ever seen, with a least 9 different varieties of trees for every season, very resilient, gorgeous, shady....  but I digress.

Visitors upon visitors, until Glen's voice gave out.  We realized at this point that we should never, NEVER take the boat out without our photo album and a bit of info / history about the boat.  Handouts would be nice.... ;)

One CoE employee said he would put pictures on their Facebook page.  I'll see if I can find the link.
Try this: https://www.facebook.com/iceharbordam

Ice Harbor Day...

Others may think of this as Memorial Day 2014, but for us, it will always be Ice Harbor Dam(n) day.

We left Kennewick in a wicked wind at 9am.  A brief jaunt back down the Columbia to the entrance of the Snake and we motored into unknown territory.  I'd warned Glen that, even just looking at the charts, entering Ice Harbor in the spate was going to be tricky.  Made him PROMISE not to pass judgement on the Snake until AFTER we'd done this.  Good thing I did that!

It was nasty, brutish and LONG!  Within minutes of entering the Snake River, our speed dropped to below 4mph (ground speed).  As we entered the narrow channel that leads you through the shallow rocky sections, the dredged-out depths made the current run even faster.  We slowed and slowed, making most of those miles at 3 knots.

We got within view of the dam, and kept going and kept going and kept going.  The closer we got, the slower it got.  Like a calculus curve, never quite getting there.  Well, we did, but WAY slow.  After I'd called into the lockmaster that we'd be there in 30 minutes, our speed dropped to 1.6 mph.  Glen had to crank the RPMs up to 1450, near red-lining it on our poor 60-year-old diesel.  And it still took us nearly an hour just to reach the lock gates.  We were both tense, and Glen's shoulders were locked up.

Good thing we hadn't figured on going any further than Fishhook park, because we couldn't have made it any farther.  The boating above the dam was beautiful, and enough to make us want to continue, but we just needed to rest after that morning.  And rest we did.

River Trip Day Three (Part two)

So we stopped for lunch at the Walla Walla Yacht Club.  It's private, but the friendly people there welcomed us to their guest dock, and we had great conversation.  After all those years of driving by it and thinking, "why would anyone put a marina here?" -- well, NOW we understand.  Thanks, guys!

We enjoyed seeing the many sailboats out in the now-perfect weather.  The rest of today's trip was pretty idyllic.

We ended the day at Clover Island marina in Kennewick.  Party Central on Memorial Day weekend, and we understand next weekend there will an even bigger boaters' party there.  Those who know us, reading this, will understand that's not exactly our "scene", so we were grateful when things quieted down in the late evening.

River Trip Day Three (Part 1)

Before taking off from Umatilla this morning we had great conversations with Dennis of the CG Auxiliary and retired coastie Bob.  Not to mention Dennis' wife and, of course, DeeDee the Dog, who wanted a ride.  Great meeting you all!

First thing, we had to dash across the river from the south side to the north, through the intense outflow from the dam's spill gates, to reach the pool below the lock at McNary Dam.  Rockin' and rollin'!!  Woohoo!

While Glen was fighting the wheel to get us there safely, I was oohing and ahing at all the lovely pelicans.  Lots and lots of pelicans.  Whenever we manage to get our pictures uploaded, you'll see them.

River Trip Day Two

One of the few days without a dam to transit.  

Cruised from Arlington to Umatilla with a lunch at Crow Butte State Park.   We've always loved the Arlington Marina.  I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to walk into town and spend more time.

Crow Butte we've seen before, from the highway side.  It was Glen's first stop on his cross-country bike ride back in 2004.  I drove the trailer to meet him and we enjoyed our stay.  This time we got to see if from the dock side.  

Lots of nice people asking about the boat at every stop.  A shout-out to Alan (and friends) who were very helpful to us when we arrived in Umatilla.

River Trip Day One

Left The Dalles mid-morning and transited both The Dalles and John Day dams.  Despite predictions of great weather, IT RAINED.  Of course it had to rain!  We were on our boat in the Columbia River.  It's just fate!  

A significant wind created a following-sea type of condition, even though we were headed upriver.  We had waves pushing us from behind, and quite a bit of corkscrewing action that made steering an exercise in exercise.

Despite the blustery wind, we made it to Arlington's marina and slept the peaceful sleep of the very-tired.

Coming Soon 2014 adventures!

So, we've been a little quiet this winter.  The boat has been snuggled in for the winter, but Glen & Naomi have not been idle.  Glen just recently returned from the East Coast where he did a bit of consulting -- evaluating the restorability of a 36-footer recently discovered in a marina yard.  Fun, exciting stuff.  Met lots of wonderful new people, and growing that network of rescue boat enthusiasts.

More to come soon!

   -Naomi