Canoe Camping in Eastern Washington.

Yesterday I went camping on the Yakima river with William Wilder. There were deer at the site when we arrived. They came back after dinner, when we were full and done fore the day, looking at fire in the dark.

In the morning it rained in Seattle as we drove east. The past few days of high heat had to end here. We crossed Snoqualmie pass and wondered if the weather would wander into the sunnyside. Sure enough the clouds cleared up just before little old Ellensburg, past Cle Elem, towards Yakima. Sunshine spread itself across the roaming rolls in the hillsides as we pass by at a breezy pace.

The actual canoeing was a more adventurous affair than usual. Real windy. A County Sheriff in Ellensburg told Will, "there's supposed to be fifty five mile an hour winds out there" on the river we planned to paddle. On our way in we asked where to put in and if hitching was legit. "It happens" he said, his dog waggin' its tail in the back seat of the squad car. A Cabelas lunchbox let me know he'd probably be out fishing if it weren't for hooligans like us. His directions led up to the upper (and free) Ringer road drop-in location where this morning I hitched a ride to retrieve my vehicle.

Parked the car, put the canoe in the water, and immediately felt relieved; floating away for a moment from any sort of responsibility. Literally floating away.

Half a mile downriver turns out the county sheriff was not joking. Said one, Will Wilder of Texas, "It was windy as balls."

Reporting from some river somewhere,

Sean

After a few beers and a walk down some train-tracks we returned and for a few hours floated freely easily, passing drinkers in their inner tubes, and drift boats full of old fat fishermen. Eventually we found a flat spot and set up camp for the evening. Now its nice out as the fire breaths away whatever words are left. The highway hummms across the river road across another valley. The warm smoke tickles my shins and toes and turns to go (whispering willows on shore say something softly)
A branch snaps.
echoes
SNAPS
"Did you hear that?"
In an essence it was nothing.
"It's kind of a bummer"
Do you believe that!
Its just dry wood it
burns the the fire.

And ya know
it's so beautiful out here. The
sunsets on beaches between rivers banks and land at my back
and I'd rise every morning to do it again.
It's something that...
You'd gotta be there
(had to been through that)
to truly better understand
where I'm at.

Today we reached the dam at Roza.
Got out and got on the road, thumb out, waiting for someone to pass by. Some local beer floaters drove me back towards Ringer and I walked one hundred yards to the car. It was still parked with the note Will left in the windshield. "Gone canoeing. Will return Wednesday."

Not bad, America. Free parking, free camping, free dom. Ya. God love the BLM.

Peace