Canoeing the Palouse River

Bryan (nicknamed "lame") texted me at 5 am on a Saturday morning to see if I wanted to canoe the Palouse River with him. He normally gets up at 4, so this is late for him. I, on the other hand, am recently retired and I responded to his text when I rolled out of bed at 9. 

We jawed back and forth about the suitability of flat water kayaks versus a canoe and eventually decided on the canoe due to my wimpy card board kayaks maybe not being tough enough to pound continuously on the rocks we were expecting to encounter. But before that I grilled him on his knowledge of the Palouse River and whether he'd actually floated this section before. He assured me he had but I couldn't shake the images of Bryan's past St Maries River debacles (yes, that's plural). I leave it to you to ask him about it. They're great stories and surely worth the price of a beer. Bryan, you should publish those.  

We scheduled a meetup at noon which somehow got later to the point where we arrived at the Palouse public park - the launch point - at about 1:30. I couldn't refrain from saying "We are gonna die." So often that I started to make Brian nervous about going at all. You see, the Palouse River was about 3 ft below flood stage due to heavy rain and melting snow, and the fact that it's January and 39 degrees, and a slight dunking in this water will leave us hypothermic, with miles of roadless land to traverse for help was causing me pause.

So we spent a half hour reconnoitering the first half mile of the river to allay my fears. It turns out that the biggest waves are right at the end of the park where the river narrows to go under a bridge. Once I saw how flat and wide the next mile was we decided to go. But all this delay meant we would be wise to shorten our trip from the original 8 miles to Elberton planned, to a measly 4 to the Altergott road takeout. It gets dark in 2 hours. Let's not make this any stupider than necessary. 

We each had brought a shorty wet suit, and since the bathrooms are locked at this time of year, we got to suit up in the empty parking lot. More clothes on top of the wet suit. If I'm going to be doing more dumb stuff like this, I better invest in a dry suit that fits me better. That shorty nearly cut off the circulation to my arms. 

The first waves were the worst and I got a bit wet in the front of the boat. The waves splashed straight vertically up the sides and straight down on my ankles. Not too bad. 

Here we are in the first calm stretch. We may survive this ordeal after all. Bryan didn't want me to post this photo on Facebook because he though he looked dorky. Of the two of us, I think I look far dorkier. Small consolation for him. 

The river is quite high and brown with the extra flow. In fact, we hit no rocks the entire trip. 

One of the reasons to float this river is the exceptional scenery. The vertical basalt walls in many locations on this stretch of the river make roads down in here impossible, so there is a 6-mile stretch between Palouse and Elberton that is completely solitary. The terrain down in here is incredible, but things were a bit brown and dark due to the early season. This would be better done in March or April, but the flows would be lower and at some point it becomes impassable. We went so early this year because Bryan didn't want to miss it like last year. 

The river coasts head on into numerous rock walls like this one. Often it is serene before the corner and just the other side you can hear water churning. You will not see any pictures of the corners of the river because I was always paddling there. 

Three inch thick ice shards litter the bank in places, remnants of the deep freeze this area suffered just last month. 

Interesting rock. I thought it looked a bit like Sid from the movie "Ice Age". 

Here is the longest straight, flat stretch on this whole section.

Plenty of time for photos. 

My job was to call out the river and where we should be on it. It went something like this:

"Big rock river right with the fast water line going right to left. We should point left and stay left of the fast line."

Bryan's job was to steer. I couldn't point the boat much but I would add power when necessary. 

Getting more comfortable with taking photos during a riffle. 

Low bank near the takeout. Good timing because it's starting to get dark. 

The river gets fast at the bridges because they narrow it to build the abutments to minimize the span for cost. At the takeout there is a small patch of backwater right next to very swift current. The hard turn to get into the backwater out of the fast current is tough. We timed the turn perfectly but the result is the front of the boat in still water with the back in the high current. Whiplash!  We were a bit off balance but we didn't dump. 

What do you know. We survived. 

Here is the mid point take out. It took us about an hour and a half and we're guessing 4 miles. But we measured neither. 

Here's Bryan tying the boat back on the truck. I failed to capture his confused look of a moment ago. 

Great fun, Bryan. Let's do it again. St Joe river next time?  

Who else wants to go?