December 31, 1998

Forty Days and Forty Nights

Well, it was more like twenty, or maybe twenty five. Anyway, it finally quit raining and blowing like fury around here, and I got in two paddle trips in two days, after a too-long hiatus. In Tillamook they're portaging cows to high ground, and Hwy 101 is under water for a few days. Here, everything is wet, and the hooded merganzers don't know they are socializing in a mud puddle because it looks like a lake.

One trip was a 10-12 mile circuit in the islands, dodging waist-high mist with shotgun bloops in the distance as duck hunters cleaned out the remainder of the stupid mallards. Low-grade compass work made quick work of a beeline to an island off the shipping channel. As the mist cleared, I shot across the channel to the Washington shore. The main feature was a two mile gunkhole along a steep weeping wall shoreline, complete with red-breasted sapsuckers, and myriad waterfalls, culminating in cheese and bread on a quiet, sunny float in Skamokawa, WA. Nobody else thought to paddle that day, but the Refuge guys were out spying on critters to clean up the Xmas bird count. No, I can't join you, I only have neoprene booties to wear. Heavy rainfall made for swift current on the return.

The other was a solo high water exploration along the east shoreline of Long Island, Willapa Bay, WA, making the best of a 12 foot tide. All the dikes were awash, and all the backwaters were open. Only a couple lone buffleheads, one solid redtail, a handful of flickers, the usual gang of rowdy crows, and three dozen mallards were around. Where do all the other waterfowl go at high tide? Is it too deep for them? Too wet? Puff. Puff. Too much food. Not enough exercise. How did this sprayskirt get so tight? Must shrink in the wet. One solitary full-sector rainbow, internally backlit, as the rain shimmers down. On the return, mist in the face, and a grebe surfaces ten feet away on the starboard side, ponders my stroke, and plops down.

Where were all the other people? Too easy, and too much fun. Work returns next week.

Who needs 70 degree weather and shirtsleeves? Who wants solid water to slide over?
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Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR

Copyright 1998 by Dave Kruger.
May not be reproduced or redistributed without author's permission.
Originally posted on Paddlewise mailing list on 12/31/1998.
Republished here with permission.