[Paddlewise] A Crisp Day on the Columbia with a friend

While my wife, Sue, was battling snow and storm at Snoqualmie Pass with a
busload of Royal City band students, Pam and I were planning a paddle on the
Columbia River at Richland. Sue and the kids made it across and the next day
(Saturday) dawned crisp and clear in central Washington and the Columbia
River was calm and beautiful in the morning sunshine as I motored along next
to it on the 2-lane highways that criss-cross the desert.

My path to Richland took me through Beverly and Mattawa where I stopped to
recover some election signs I had put into the ground on an earlier (and
warmer) trip. Alan had lost that election and it wasn't any fun putting them
in my trunk. So I had a trunkfull of "VOTE FOR ME" signs in the Kia when I
drove across the bridge at Vernita and skirted the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation on my way to the Tri-Cities. This area has fascinated me because
partly because it's forbidding country - sparse and barren - but also
because it's forbidden territory hosting the facilities that produced the
plutonium for most of America's nuclear arsenal. It also borders the last
free-running sections of the Columbia River east of the sections below
Bonneville Dam. I tried to catch glimpses of the buildings standing in
patches as I drove by on the highway at 65mph.

In a little while I was alongside the Yakima River and watching for eagles
and hawks but mostly seeing seagulls and geese. And not far after that I was
entering Richland and driving through the neighborhoods of "alphabet houses"
which were constructed for the workers at Hanford in World War II. The plans
for these houses were given letters of the alphabet ("A", "B", "C" and so
forth) and portions of Richland resemble the residential areas of military
bases. An interesting drive for a guy whose parents were WWII participants.

Pam and I had arranged to meet at Amon park's boat launch which has good
parking, docks and is happily free of charge. Once on the Columbia we
battled the current north and made our way into the main flow of the river.
Almost nowhere along its route is the Columbia narrower than 1/2 mile and if
it weren't for the current (about 1-1/2 knots) you'd think you were on a
lake. Houses high on the bank of the opposite shore look out over vistas of
Richland and north to the reactors of the nuclear reservation. Pam led me on
one of her workout paddle runs north and close by the eastern shore of a
sand island beset with herons, geese, and ducks.

This part of the Columbia is a wildlife refuge and signs on the island ahead
announced it was "closed". Pam said it was never "open" to humans.

Even with the bright sunshine and the visibility the Columbia River is never
to be taken lightly and especially during the late fall and winter when
southerly winds blowing against the southerly current can kick up a nasty
sea of closely-packed whitecaps. (Currents are normally named for the
direction towards which they run while winds are named for the direction
from which they come; not all that logical perhaps but we're stuck with it
now.) This morning there are few whitecaps but lots of "rollers" of about
2-feet or a little more. Giving us a chance to surf against the current.
Somewhere on this vast river there were some big waves because these looked
to me like the leftovers of wind-driven waves that had made the turn around
a bend and were now spending their energy going north.

Once through the slop we cuddled close in the eddies along the sandy shore
of the island startling at least one great blue heron minding his business
in the grass. I watched him take off and fly away; sure enough, in the same
direction we're headed. Why they don't fly around us and back the way we've
come is a mystery to me. This guy, perhaps smarter than most, did that the
second time he got nervous at our approach.

A few miles later, at the northern end of the island and in the shadow of
one of Hanford's reactors, we turned across some swirls and small rips and
began our trip back downstream. The current divides here, as it does at all
islands blocking the water's flow towards the sea some 250 miles further
west. And where current meets any obstruction you can depend upon
interesting water. The low sandy shore extended northwards into the water to
form a shallow bank and we had to cross this bank with enough speed to get
us around and safely headed south again before the current set us onto the
shallows. As it often does on rivers, the wind had shifted from southerly
through westerly until at this crucial point in our trip it was helping the
current by blowing out of the north and onto the bank. We poured on the
steam to get around and we were soon pointed back towards Richland.

The trip back to the boat launch was pleasant and uneventful for us but not
for the hundreds of geese which, panic-stricken at our approach, beat the
water ahead of us to a froth taking off. They departed in waves and while
they didn't exactly darken the sky for us as they did for the Lewis and
Clark party who entered the Columbia just 5 miles south of us on their epic
journey to Dave Kruger-land, they were certainly noticable. Our history, out
here in the northwestern corner of the USA, isn't as long as some places but
that makes it easier to think about. Pam says that some places have too much
history and should learn to ignore parts of it.

Back at the boat ramp I discovered that Alan's election signs made good
padding for the trunk protecting the paint from the bottom of the Nimbus as
I manhandled the kayak up to the rack. After loading our boats onto our cars
we headed towards a small Italian restaurant for hand-thrown pizza and a
long chat about paddling and life. Certainly not an epic trip but for me it
was fun to get out on the water in a new place with an old friend.

Next weekend, with all the snow in the mountains, will be the start of
cross-country skiing! WooHoo!


Craig Jungers
Royal City, WA
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************