Messing about in boats

We broke a bottle of champagne over the doorknob of the new boathouse Saturday with a Grand Opening party and had all the traditional activities for the christening of a quonset hut – tacos, beer, gigantic scissors for the ribbon cutting with the mayor of Joseph, John and Deb Moro playing live music, free Winding Waters raffle items . . . good times.

Here’s the ribbon cutting with the giant scissors. Seriously, those scissors are so big the The Chamber of Commerce borrows them from a logging company when there’s a ribbon ceremony.

Here’s a panorama of the new world headquarters. From left to right: New sign is up. Mural. Boathouse Shop entrance. WWRE logo over the shop door. Beautiful mountains. My 1997 Toyota T100. Click to enlarge.

Here’s a closeup of the mural, with Water Rat, Mold and Toad simply messing about in an 18-foot Hyside raft and charging the rapids of Hells Canyon.

The whole quote from Wind in the Willows reads, ‘Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing –  absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

That nicely sums up the Winding Waters River Expeditions mission. If it’s been awhile since you’ve messed about in boats, Penny’s got copies of Wind in the Willows for sale in the book section of the Boathouse Shop. Best setting for reading river books I’ve found is on a river. I recommend Hells Canyon, the Grande Ronde and Lower Salmon River. All make for very nice reading lounges between the rafting, deluxe meals, hiking, adventuring and so forth. By coincidence, Winding Waters can take you to all of those places.

Todd Kruger and Tammy Knorr cruised down the Wallowa and Grande Ronde over the weekend with their trusty companions Indigo and Little Bear. Here’s Todd navigating Minam Roller above the State Park, and notice how calm and assured Todd is, as he very casually adjusts his cap as he enters some turbulence. That guy knows his way around a set of oars.

We’re heading for Hells Canyon next week with the graduating class of Enterprise High School for a 3-day trip along the edge of Wallowa County and always have fun with these young ladies and gentlemen as they make the jump from high school days to what’s next.

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