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Crab Creek Odyssey

By Julie Titone

Dealing with howling headwinds is often the price a paddler pays for the chance to hear howling coyotes and see brilliant stars above Crab Creek. So it was on April 6-7, when Dick and Laurie Byrd coordinated the traditional SCKC springtime outing on the central Washington stream. This year, the wind was blowing as the 12 boaters launched at the railroad trestle near Royal City. It was blowing as they watched horses frolic along the shore, as they ducked under footbridges, as they navigated the shallow, winding channel. It blew as they pulled into the campsite, where -- just since last year -- cattails had nearly taken over the landing site.

They set up camp amid the sage and sculpted rocks of the channel scablands, tents flapping.

Everyone gathered in a circle for pre-dinner socializing, parkas zipped up against the gusts.

Blue skies and a glorious golden sunset were the evening's rewards. At least one of those coyotes brazenly wandered into camp, perhaps wondering why people had made a den in his territory.

The wind kept coming on Sunday. On the plus side, no one got snagged by a thorny Russian olive tree, no one capsized on the creek's only set of rapids, and everyone got a chance to develop their upper-body muscles as they pulled hard on their paddles. Sunday's lunch spot, like Saturday's, offered a good view as well as good company. Alas, motorcycles and ATVs racing around the sand dunes made for one unpleasant stretch of stream, with the wind and the vehicles sending blasts of sand into the paddlers' pusses and filling their ears with noise.

The fearless gang was greeted by whitecaps on the Columbia River, where the takeout was a welcome sight. Everyone was in good spirits.

Merit badges go to the Byrds, for their intrepid leadership and excellent cookies; and to Dick Sutter, who paddled his big yellow canoe solo against those winds. Kelly Russell made the trip in her touring kayak. Besides the Byrds, tandem canoeists were: Barbara Taketa and Clark Johnston, Bob and Jill Kassa, Bill and Joan Gundlach, and Diane Adams and yours truly