Short update

As I write this, we are now well underway on our epic journey toward Astoria, Oregon. The weather has been a mixed bag of snakes with some sun, some rain storms, wind, and some clouds. While it sounds bad, it has been a lot of fun! Internet connections are few and far between so the Blog hasn’t been updated on a very regular basis. Hopefully this will change as we get further south and west.

The original crew signed on for the six weeks included Robert Allen. Sharon Colht, Denny DeMeyer, Ian Emmerson, Bill Erickson, Jim Halliday, Bernie Kilonsky, Nancy Kilonsky, Mark McGladrey, and Diane Gregory. Mark McGladrey and Diane Gregory decided to leave camp on 05 June and we were left scrambling for a few days. Mark did leave us with some great spreadsheets we could use for our finances. Other than that, we persevered and were very quickly back on track. Sue Duxbury and Steve Sleep left on 09 June and Bruce Clark and John Armstrong left on 10 June. Tony Bachman, Gordon Linnell, Stan Mrzygod, Dwaine Ronnie, Bob Runnalls, and Bill Weikel joined us on 10 June while in Thompson Falls and they left on 17 June in Kettle Falls, as did Bill Chapman. We were then joined by Lynee Forsyth, Mary McDowell, Jerry Franklin, and Phil Abenroth.

We had some rough water, fast water, and slow water to paddle through and sometimes it was exciting and challenging! We had a terrific response from all the communities we went through. Various meals and other social functions were put on for us. Since starting, the weather has slowly improved and we had some sun and mid to high 80 F weather.

There isn’t much spare time as we are up at 5 or 6 each morning and usually on the water by 7 or 8 and paddle until mid afternoon. Before leaving camp each day, we have to take down our tents, pack them up, make our lunches, have breakfast and then get all the team gear packed up, and be on the water. When we arrive in our new camp, we have to set everything up again, try to clean up, have supper, have the captains attend the captains’ meeting, have our team meeting, and then it’s time to hit the sack again.

Spare time is limited as is evident by this missive. It has taken twenty days to write it.