Wednesday, 1 February 2017
Yakima River Day 5 May 28 2010
It rains all night. This is one of the driest places in the state... except now. It just doesn't matter to us anymore since we have been wet, at least to our knees, for most of the last 4 days. I cook up coffee and oatmeal in the rain and then we walk down to the Horn Rapids Diversion Dam. Maps show irrigation canals on both sides, so we have no idea of where and how far we will have to go to get back into the river. We are pleased to find a foot bridge just below the dam on river-left, an access to Native American fishing platforms.
We return to camp and portage down to the river. Then, a short paddle to the warning sign a hundred yards above the dam. From here, we do an easy portage to a spot below the dam.The day goes easy with no scouting, no lining, and no more portages. Nothing more than some ripples in the water comes our way. Birdlife is pretty good with pelicans, a couple types of herons, and some egrets. It rains several times and once, it rains very hard for over 40 minutes. It is a midwest rain and I tell Mike that I think it is a two inch per hour dumping.
At the mouth of the Yakima, the river broadens some. Mike tells me that we can call for a lift if I'd like... and I look at him and say, "don't you think it would be rather cool if we paddle right to your folk's house - they live just 3 miles up the Columbia? I mean, I've just paddled 148 miles, I think I can handle another 3." Well, that's what he was thinking too, he was just being nice. The mouth has cattails and tules and all of the other marsh stuff that it should. The Columbia, a big river, is calm today and we have to paddle out about a 1/2 mile to Bateman Island to get around the shallow sandbar of the Yakima. My favorite birds, the terns, greet us from driftwood by spreading their wings and screeching at us. A bird, the size of a small crow with the attitude of an eagle.
So, it is 4-1/2 miles upstream, easy with no wind and hugging the shore where the current is lightest, to the house.We shake hands.
It has been a fine trip, an unexpected adventure on a multivaried waterway that is seldom paddled and in parts, seldom visited. We approached it as explorers and got a real wilderness experience from a place that is never far from civilization. And we bonded and worked as a team, not just traveling together, but relying on each others strengths and abilities.
25 miles for the day.
Kiona flow rate - 3000 to 4000 cfs
Must portage Horn Rapids Dam.
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