We drove north to Pacific City and once again found no waves. We waited, hiked around to the sea caves, had acouple beers at the brewery, and then drug our boats up the huge sand dunes and slid back down. From there we drove west through Portland, and ended up a little ways east of P-Town. Camped along the river next to some fishermen, chopped some wood, made a fire, and had a good time. The next morning we were confronted by a ranger and she informed us that we had been breaking pretty much every rule we could have. There is a fire ban, she kind of called us out on not leaving money in the donation box, told us we were supposed to have river permits, and let us go anyway because she was a nice lady. We paddled, went into town to get cash and leave a donation at the Ranger Station and then hit the road. We crossed through Oregon, into the bottom corner of Washington and into Idaho by nightfall. Found a campground in Hells Gate Canyon. Camped for the evening, had some hot showers, and the next day made the push into Missoula. Paddled the Lochsa on the way and it was really good.
Made it into Missoula, set up base camp at Scotts sisters house. From there we met up with a bunch of good friends, paddled the wave, and the Gorge, did sushi and got to see a ton of people that I enjoy hanging out with. And Scott developed an addiction to Salmon Burritos. The wave is good, the Gorge is huge and blown out at 2200. Stayed 3 days in Zoo Town and then made it south about as far as the Wyoming border. Jen, thanks so much for letting us crash at your place, we had a great time and look forward to returning to Missoula.
Met up with Will, Tucker and the rest of the Flying Pig crew in Gardiner Mt. Played some wiffle ball, slept under the stars, paddled a good chunk of the Yellowstone, did the downtown thing for game 7 of the cup, and just had a really good time with a really good crew of people. You can check out the company at http://flyingpigrafting.com/ . Guys, thanks alot for the beds to crash on, we both apprechiate all of the hospitality.
We left MT today, drove through Yellowstone NP and saw some really cool sights. Within the first hour we had gone for a hike to see mineral springs, saw an enormous Bison a mere couple feet from the car, saw a Wolf trotting along the edge of the forest, and got into a brief roadside confrontation with this woman from Minnisota. We stoped at Old Faithful, waited...waited...and then saw her erupt. To be honest the 3 or 4 geysers surrounding Old Faithful were all going off prior and I think that was cooler than the Old Girl herself. Stoped at the ranger station to inquire about why you can hike, and climb, and fish, and do all sorts of other things in the park, but you cannot kayak. "Congress says so, and if you do, you are going to lose your boats" was the answer we recieved and for the time being that works for me. Its a tough pill to swallow considering the road follows the river and along some portions it is everything we can do to not quickly untie the boats, get into the river and go drop off some stuff.
We got into Jackson Hole Wyoming this evening, had acouple cocktails, got burritos, went to go see a movie, did some shopping and ended up with margarita makings, got a hotel for the night and now it is almost bedtime. It is pouring down rain, windy, and cold, and it just seems like a better option for the night to be inside. We are going to paddle the Snake tommarrow and then continue into Steamboat Springs Colorado. We'll let you know how it goes.
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