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Little Spokane Dinner Float

By Tracy Wilson-Burns

It's an easy job being Trip Coordinator with such great trip participants and such perfect weather! Not to mention the dining part of the trip, which we all know is a favorite club pastime coming in second only to paddling. (Or maybe it's first?) The dinner float on the Little Spokane River on July 19th went without a hitch, with 13 boats and 16 participants.

The shuttle began a mere 10 minutes after the designated meeting time of 4pm, at St. George's put-in, which is probably a club record. We probably also set a club record in rhyming names -- there were Larry, Mary, Mary, Jerry, and Barry among the group. Solo sea kayakers were club guests David Kramer and Barry Pauls from Bonners Ferry, and SCKC'ers Nancy Anderson, Jack Cady, and Mary Cady. Solo canoeists were Megan Roland, John Roland, Sheila Wagner-Harless and Jim Harless. Larry and Mary Wright paddled tandem canoe, as did Richard Everett and Jerry Plachy, Christine and Jeff Stevens, and Brian Burns and Tracy Wilson-Burns. We were on the water by 5pm.

We stopped in the shade at a grassy landing for our picnic dinner and enjoyed the treats that were passed around, such as Rainier cherries, Chocolate Chip Orange Zucchini bread, chocolate caramel candies and other licentious offerings.

While the float was uneventful, we came close to an event when Nancy tried scooting off into the river by climbing into her sea kayak with the stern floating and the bow still perched high on shore. With help from bystanders and a great attitude, Nancy avoided the "swivelled into the river" photo that SCKC'ers from past trips have dreaded seeing reproduced in the Eddy Line (I won't mention names!).

On the water again, the occasional cool breeze coming upstream was welcome relief from the hot day. And, just as we had promised Richard, we were rewarded with moose sightings! Two of them! (I couldn't have coordinated the trip better!)

We saw other wildlife... ducks, beaver, muskrat, osprey, hummingbirds...

We reached the take-out without incident and set a fairly expedient shuttle back to the put-in for the folks who had cars waiting for them at St. George's, arriving at the put-in before 9pm. Many thanks to everyone who participated in any phase of the shuttling!