We are in Pateros Wa.

June 20

We had a 54 km paddle today to the mouth of the Spokane River at Twin Rivers where we had a decent campground but NO casino.
What kind of organization closes their Casino/Restaurant etc on a day of 87 º F ( 31ºC)  with 150-200 Paddlers coming into the main campground area.? Twin Rivers Casino does.!
The headwind was pretty strong most of the day and we were all feeling it at the end of the day.
Besides only having about half of the facilitys available we all made do. 3 of the showers were broken but the toilets worked and that sometimes makes all the difference.I went down to the Spokane River and washed in the river. A fellow paddler came down ,she walked into the river screamed " It is very Invigorating " at the top of her voice and went back up the hill.I never had a chance to tell her it was only COLD for a few minutes until you got used to it. :-)
June 21 - The Solstice
Split the teams into two as we only had enough paddlers to make it a split. The first team (6 paddlers )did 18 km and then we met them at a very nice campground Take Out. We (6 others) then had a fantastic paddle for 22 km to Kellers Ferry. The National Park is absolutely beautiful, as is the entire Columbia Basin on both sides. We have seen small amounts of deer and actually saw a couple of Rattlesnakes in this camp. I never did see one but did hear about two encounters. On the previous day we saw a garter snake swimming in the river.Tried using Collect on a landline and my credit card was not allowed as I didn`t have a 5 digit Zip code.

June 22
Very Hot at 89 º F. I paddled 22 Km to the Grand Coulee Dam and we had another fantastic National Park Campground.We were there very early and basically had a very easy day. Several people went to town for the Dam tour several of us went geocaching and tried to teach a newbie about it.I do not believe we created a convert.We had fun anyway. Grand Coulee is a very nice town indeed.Snake was spotted here as well.
June 23
The proposed days trip was supposed to be hard paddling with a strong headwind and 73 ºF.We had to move the boats about 20 kms upriver to put in so we were up at 4:30 AM (the sun was up already) and we had all the boats in the water by 7:30.Taking down the tent and packing everything every day into a truck you can actually get fairly good at it.The people who run the grand coulee dam had a large amount of water coming out of Lake Roosevelt when we went by it, so we had a good current for the first +_ 20 KMs.With a good current and a tailwind we were scooting along very well. We got to the crew change and the other team never showed up so I got a 39 km paddle. The problem is that we have 2 canoes and only 14 people in camp. We have to move 3 vehicles so we need extra people. As there are 9 teams there are a lot of paddlers and sometimes we cannot get that extra person to help us move a vehicle.Hence we only get one canoe into the water.You have to have 6 people minimum in a boat as anything less is just too hard.We are averaging 50 - 60 strokes a minute so when it gets hot we need to stop about every hour for a small break.

We are in Inchelium and off to Two Rivers Tomorrow

We had a beautiful day with overcast skys, not to hot and pretty darn Skookum paddling. We started at 7:30 Am which means we were up at 5 AM and tearing down our camp.I finally have everything in one Hockey bag and have sent much extras home with Monroe and Ellen Kinloch. The new people took to the boats with a zeal today which helped as we did a fair day at 44.5 km paddle. When we arrived at this Indian Reservation they had the boats do the figure 8s with the black powder charges and the grand entrance. The Band had the drums and did an official welcoming and prayer. I have left the grandstand so I can blog this. I ahve NO camera as the camera lent to me finally broke down so I am out of photos. To bad because the drum and native dancers are going full tilt with the bagpipes and dancers doing their thing as well. We were fed venison roast and ribs(very tender and not gamey in the least)brown beans ,coleslaw,salad,potato salads and chicken (very tender) breaded and baked. Sorry Marilyn I ate the coating scolding my self all along the way. TWO brownies for desert and a bottle of water finished off a very hard day. Tomorrow will be harder with 54 km as the paddle length. I have no new pictures but I will see if I can upload something nice from before.The Columbia basin is absolutely beautiful all down this corridor.

Happy Fathers Day to one and all.

We are in Kettle Falls Washington

Wow What a great community. Lots of interesting things to see and do. Colville just down the road is the main centre with a Wal Mart etc. There is an interesting restaurant that I really like the name of. We are moving tomorrow with a 50 km paddle to Inchilin. The last two days have been nice with the tent set up and NOT being moved. As usual we went down to the lake (no falls here anymore ) to do a Brigade Paddle and the skies opened up...sigh That is about 12 days in the last 13 with rain. You kinda get used to web feet and damp sleeping bags. I got bit in the neck last night either by a spider or an ant. The rigors of tenting I guess.
The town had a BBQ for us last night with a breakfast this morning for $4.00. The supper tonight is BBQ pig smoked in a huge BBQ right beside where I am sitting in the light rain writing this.I really like the feeling when all the paddles are working in sync and the boat actually lifts out of the water. Yesterday we had an experienced crew and we got up to over 20 km per hour with a current going into Ione.

Jack Nesbit was here at the Museum again last night. I never get tired of listening to him. Proof is I own 2 of his books. One signed The Mapmakers  Eye when we were in Idaho. Tonight we are watching The Shadows of David Thompson and the director of the film will be here in the museum. 

Guess why I like this restaurant?

Cusick - Kalispel Band Drumming


Here is Stan with his new tent sheet!

I am having major issues with the internet and my laptop so no more pics today.

We are in Oldtown Idaho

We arrived in Oldtown today. The bridge is 100 metres away and we will be in Washington.The towns have stood on their heads to greet and meet us. Fabulous receptions and great party atmosphere. Last night we were in Sandpoint Idaho. We arrived soaking wet and cold and nearly hypothermic. The rain never stopped all day. Just about everyone booked into hotels and few people camped. Jack Nesbit the author  was at the
landing at Dover Idaho and gave a talk to the group on David Thompson.He was here tonight in Oldtown as well.

Take off at Clark Fork



Lake Pend Oreille in the rain

My Green Condo



Camp at Oldtown





Found a WiFi

I only have twenty minutes to tell you to go visit Thompson Falls Mo. It is as beautiful and friendly as Libby.

The Brigade Arrives

We had a great turnout yesterday as most of the town showed up for the parade and today they had people in boats. It was somewhat busy. They had a wildmeat soup and totally awesome [ very good from many sources] buns and to die for cookies. Included with the real frontier meal and woodsman ie: mountain man it was  a real treat.This guy above is a local but not the man who made the stew from beans wildmeat etc.

Linda Haywood wife of Local Author

The real joy is in the paddling and the Clark Fork is riding high which means easy paddling downstream.

I have to leave now...