Up the Columbia River

Sailing with Dummies (Seattle to The Dalles Edition)
Friday, April 24, 2009
by Mike

We started early this morning. Our goal was to get as far upriver as possible. That would hopefully allow us to get to The Dalles before dark on Saturday.

The Columbia is about four miles wide at Astoria. Within a couple of miles we found that the Columbia was only about one mile wide. The current was faster, too.










Generally we found that the further upstream we went the narrower the river got. The narrower the river got, the faster the current got. The faster the current got, the slower our boat went.








It was after dark when we got to the bridges at Vancouver, WA. One was a railroad bridge and the other was Interstate 5. The railroad bridge had to be swung open for us to pass. Interstate 5 bridge had to be raised for us to go under it. After we got past the railroad bridge they had to stop traffic on Interstate 5 between Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA. Then they raised the bridge for us. I’m sure a lot of Friday nighters were not too happy about that.

We went a few more miles upstream and anchored for the night. It looked likely we would make The Dalles before dark on Saturday.

Daily Cuisine:
Breakfast was fried eggs, toast, and cinnamon rolls. It was cold enough I wanted to have the oven and the stove burning. The rest of the day we consumed bologna sandwiches, chips, salsa, salad, crackers, cheese, and some other things. I suspect Weight Watchers would not approve.