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Test Paddling the Trident Ultra 4.3
I can count the times I've encountered towering waves that broke over the deck of my kayak on one hand (probably with fingers to spare).There was that time on the Columbiawhen Fred capsized at its...
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Karma, Statistics, Repetition and God’s Plan or, Even More Eagle Creek Images
This is Yolanta (not her real name). She’s from Kazakhstan (No, she isn’t). I know what you’re thinking. “Poor girl!” you worry, “With looks like that, how will she ever acquire a husband?” Fortunately...
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Test Paddling the Tarpon 160 (finally)
The problem with 'objectivity' is that it's usually 'subjectivity' cleverly disguised as objectivity.I've wanted the Tarpon 160 ever since I saw it sitting in the rack at the kayak shop. However, I'm...
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SPRING BREAK: SAUVIE ISLAND (AVIAN VERSION)
Note: Larger versions of posted pictures can be accessed simply by clicking on the images“Ladies and Gentlemen, I stand before you now because I never stopped dawdling like an eight-year-old on a...
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Test Paddling the Thresher 140
Wilderness Systems has broadened their sit-on-top offerings this year with the introduction of the Thresher (this includes a 14 and 15.5 foot version). The Thresher seems designed to bridge a gap...
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WALLULA GAP: Bottleneck of the Ice Age Floods
When you first hear about how 15,000 years ago, glacial Lake Missoula broke free of its ice dam and raced across the Mid-Columbia Basin – some 500 cubic miles of water traveling at speeds of up to 80...
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A Face Like a River...
...lies about its intentionssmooth skin over muscles underneathcovers the pointy thingspolishes objections into tiny pebbleshas forgotten your name, but keeps a straight faceA face like a river is...
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Road-trip to Cove Palisades and Beyond
Clouds, like insubstantial whales, drift almost inquisitively over the high desert plateau. Perhaps they taste the frosty tips of a sorority of mountains, or, rising on ephemeral flippers to test the...
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SPRING BREAK: SAUVIE ISLAND (AVIAN VERSION)
Note: Larger versions of posted pictures can be accessed simply by clicking on the images“Ladies and Gentlemen, I stand before you now because I never stopped dawdling like an eight-year-old on a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WALLULA GAP: Bottleneck of the Ice Age Floods
When you first hear about how 15,000 years ago, glacial Lake Missoula broke free of its ice dam and raced across the Mid-Columbia Basin – some 500 cubic miles of water traveling at speeds of up to 80...
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Infuriatingly Meaningless Cliches: A John Day River Meditation
Sang the catfish:When I was just a fry in school,I asked my teacher, "What will I be?Should I paint pictures"Should I sing songs?"Here’s what she said to me:"Que sera, sera,Whatever will be, will...
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Fabled Channels of Flowing Catfish
I told Kip and Uncle Rico about a magical lake that drains at low tide revealing channels of flowing catfish that you can catch with a bucket.So we set sail, testing the waters as we went......but the...
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ECOTHEOLOGY
Smoke from the Cougar Creek Fire drifts eastward, coloring a river of wind paralleling the Columbia Gorge. It meanders like the supernatural cloud that spread out fingers of death to claim the lives of...
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John Day River: Thirty Mile Creek to Cottonwood Bridge
"Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;"-Romans...
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"...but the overall trend is obvious."
"Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods,and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt..."William AllinghamWind whipping up white-caps on the Columbia.Obstinate trees do what they can to hold on...
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My Tenuous Connection to Water
In the summer I seek out shade.In the winter, I get in touch with my inner flower.If the winter sun should happen to poke a finger through Portland's perpetual cloud ceiling, and if the wind is not...
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A FEW MOMENTS I WAS IN (While Moving Furniture)
I helped Mr. and Mrs. P move some furniture to a beach house in LincolnCity. On the morning we were to load the truck, menacing rain clouds demonstrated their ability to saturate the earth at will...
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TIME TRAVELING
Thousands of years of human exploits ought to be recorded around here, but the roads that native Americans pioneered, or earlier, the 'highways' employed by whoever it was that thought traveling across...
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WILLEXIT
Kip showed up at the bar with a detailed river-keepers' map and guide-books that explicated his proposed route down the WillametteRiver. He had performed a careful analysis of the water route, marking...
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GALAPAGOS PILGRIMAGE - PART ONE
WHY THE GALAPAGOS?A blue-footed booby. This picture is inexplicably composed to exclude the signature bright blue feet.By then, I had already watched boobies ham-footedly seducing each other with...
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