Winding Water River Expeditions

We’re coming for you, riparian areas

September 19, 2010
Jon Rombach

Two purple flowers are growing in a field of tall grass.
Launching tomorrow on a Forest Service botany trip, surveying encroachment on riparian areas in Hells Canyon. Leave those riparian areas alone, invasive species. How many times do I have to tell you? Jeez.

I’m looking forward to this one. Sure, it’s raining right now in Wallowa Valley. And there was thunder and lightning earlier. But the forecast is calling for better conditions. And these Forest Service folks are a pleasure to float with. They’re on a mission and they’re good at what they do.

I am breaking out the serious rain gear, however. This is verging on late season boating and that’s when you get out the yellow cod fishing pants. It’s no fashion statement, but it keeps a fella dry. Ayep.

A group of people are in a raft on a river
We’ve got Joanne going along as camp helper. She’s a wildland firefighter who rappels out of helicopters into burning stuff, so I’m fairly sure she can cope with river life. Seems like if you drop out of a helicopter on a rope you can adapt to other situations. We’ll see. I’ll let you know how she works out.

Thanks to all Winding Waters guests who floated with us this season. Could be just me, but seems like we had an inordinate amount of people who had an extraordinarily good time on the river this year, and, well….that goes for me too. And everybody else at Winding Waters. Even Baby Linden seemed real happy when I saw here earlier today when Paul, Morgan and I were getting boats loaded on the trailer.

So enjoy the rain, or whatever it’s doing in your local forecast area, and think of me and Morgan down there in Hells Canyon this week, hopefully avoiding the rain showers.

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