PNC Days 90-92 – The end of Lake Roosevelt

After several days on the 130-mile long Lake Roosevelt, this stretch took us past the reservoir and into the beginning of what we’ve deemed the “dam section” of the river. We’ll have to portage around many dams over the next several hundred miles. We paddled through Colville, Okanagan, Spokane, Sanpoil, Nespelem, Methow, & Ktunaxa ɁamakɁis ancestral lands.

Day 90 – CR Mile 608.0 – House boats

Today we had a resupply shipment to pick up. We had sent it to a post office in the town of Hunters, but that would have been a mile off the river. To avoid the extra walk we looked up a marina right on the river a few days ago (Seven Bays Marina), called them to confirm they would accept our package, and then forwarded it there. As we got closer and closer, we saw TONS of house boats on the water. It turns out that the main thing the marina does is rent out house boats. It looks so fun… we love the wilderness and human-powered sports, but after days and days of endless paddling, the house boats seem dreamy. There are endless sandy beaches along this part of the river, so folks just beach their house boats in private coves and play in the water and sand all day. Then at night they go to sleep with air conditioning, a fridge full of fresh food, and soap! Maybe we should do it some day…

But back to real life, we picked up a package and had a great time chatting with Payton and the rest of the staff at Seven Bays. They learned about our trip and were super excited and supportive. They also gave us tons of coffee. Thanks!!! We got back in the boat and had strong winds and big waves for a bit, but they were mostly at our backs. Then they died down and we had a calm, but very hot, paddle for the rest of the day. We found a campsite past house boat country, back in cattle country. We are surrounded by cow poop. But other than that, it’s a pretty campsite and a beautiful night. We are halfway through the paddle! Over 600 miles down, and about 600 to go. For dinner we had peanut butter pasta. Yum!

Day 91 – CR Mile 650.3 – Grand Coulee Dam

It was quite smoky when we woke up today, and the smoke stuck around all day making it feel a bit gloomy out. We started canoeing a little before sunrise and heard some sort of motor noise. All of the sudden ~20 bass boats came cruising full speed around a bend in the river. We might need to pick up lights for the canoe! They probably couldn’t see us very well at dawn. Turns out they were all in a fishing tournament. Fun. We paddled to just before Grand Coulee Dam, which generates more power than any other dam in the USA. We then portaged the canoe 2.4 miles around it. It was hard to find a spot to put in below the dam because the shore was covered in big rocks, or “rip rap”. We found a spot that wasn’t too steep and decided to go for it. We were able to walk/hop across the rocks balancing the canoe on our backpacks above our heads to make it to the river. We put in and enjoyed a bit of a current for the rest of the day. We paddled past two fish farms in the river. They were interesting to see, but they were quite smelly and left a residue on top of the water and pieces underwater (dead fish parts? fish food?) for a mile or two downriver after the farms. -R

Day 92 – CR Mile 687.3 – Showers!!!

We hit the water at dawn and enjoyed a slow but steady current all of the way to St. Joseph Dam, about 17.5 miles into the day. With the help of the current, we were able to keep our average about 0.5 mph faster than it would have been on a lake — nice 👍 . The portage went smooth, but the put-in below the dam was harder than we had expected. We had to descend a steep, rocky hill, then skirt around a bit of poison ivy, then paddle around some rocks and put into the river. Shortly after launching, we pulled off in the town of Bridgeport to pick up a resupply box and do some grocery shopping. Bridgeport was tiny and didn’t have fuel, so we also had to stop in the next town, Brewster, and run into the hardware store for fuel. All of the stopping went smoothly though. Toward the end of the day we called somebody named Scott, who is involved in a group that supports long-distance paddlers on the mid-Columbia. He told us about a riverside campground in the upcoming town of Pateros with showers. Woohoo! We prefer finding a secluded riverside spot, but we haven’t showered since early in the paddle, so we were both excited. Sure enough, Pateros has a beautiful campground right beside the river with showers, power outlets for our devices, and even picnic tables. We enjoyed the luxurious amenities while having creamy spaghetti for dessert. Yum! -T