2023 Trip Report - Detour to Washington State

Detour to Washington State

Trip report and photos by Mignon Slentz

At the end of last month, my friend Robin and I flew to Portland to join twelve other Road Scholar participants at Skamokawa, Washington. The “Resort” had several condos, a small hotel, store, docks and the Duck Inn where we ate our meals.

We had four days of kayaking creeks and inlets that flow into The Columbia River. The two times we ventured onto the Columbia for a shorter paddle, we were met with rougher water, white caps and stronger wind. We had demonstrations on how to correctly get in and out of a sea-going kayak and how to help rescue someone who fell out and how to rescue yourself.

Several participants had never kayaked before but had no trouble keeping up. We saw eagles, herons, terns, river otters, white tail deer and various fish while we floated along.

We ate lunch one day at Rocky Point where Lewis and Clark camped one night.

 We went on several hikes and learned about various plants and trees. Old logs that were pounded into the water at low tide to form rows of posts for docks many years ago still stand partly submerged in fresh water. Over time birds have made “deposits” which in turn have become bush-like greenery sprouting up from the logs.

Evening entertainment ranged from

a lecture by an area author, a slide show by one of our guides, solo voyager Kyleen Stewart who paddled her kayak from Alaska to the San Juan Islands and several outstanding musical performances. Two of our guides were part of a musical group who performed wonderful ballads about the area and offered their CDs for purchase. We had a wonderful time and made new friends. None of us could correctly pronounce the little town we were in correctly. Ska-mok-a-wa!

I highly recommend this trip! ~Mignon