Kayaking Alone: Nine Hundred Miles from Idaho's Mountains to the Pacific Ocean

244 Pages·2008·0.86 MB·English

by  Mike Barenti

Kayaking Alone
o u t d o o r l i v e s
Kayaking Alone
Nine Hundred Miles from Idaho’s
Mountains to the Pacifi c Ocean
mike barenti
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln and London
Chapter 3, “Henry Clay Merritt, on His 158th Birthday,” is reprinted
from River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfi ction Narrative 6, no. 2 (Spring 2005)
by permission of the University of Nebraska Press.
© 2005 by the University of Nebraska Press.
Chapter 10, “The Swallowing Monster on Pictograph Island,”
originally appeared in Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the
Environment 13, no. 2, (Summer 2006).
Chapter 11, “Watching Fish at Bonneville Dam,” originally
appeared in Ascent 28, no. 1, (Fall 2003).
© 2008 by Mike Barenti
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barenti, Mike.
Kayaking alone : nine hundred miles from Idaho’s
mountains to the Pacifi c Ocean / Mike Barenti.
p. cm. — (Outdoor lives)
Includes bibliographical references.
isbn 978-0-8032-1382-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Kayaking—Northwest, Pacifi c. 2. Nature—Effect of human
beings on—Northwest, Pacifi c. 3. Northwest, Pacifi c—Description
and travel. 4. Barenti, Mike. I. Title.
gv776.n76b37 2008
797.122'4—dc22
2007023925
Set in Quadraat by Bob Reitz.
Designed by Ashley Muehlbauer.
To Juliet and Syringa

Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Map xii
1. Sunbeam 1
2. Where the Marlboro Man Might Settle 18
3. Henry Clay Merritt, on His 158th Birthday 36
4. Into the Wilderness 51
5. Watching Fish in Riggins 73
6. Dragonfl ies and the Plant Migration 89
7. Into the Breach 107
8. Locking through with Smolt 129
9. River of Empire 151
10. The Swallowing Monster and the
Pictograph Island 169
11. Watching Fish at Bonneville Dam 184
12. Used Up by the Wind 201
13. Looking Back at Cape Disappointment 215
Selected Sources 229

Acknowledgments
Nobody ever writes a book alone, and without the help of many,
many people this book wouldn’t exist. I owe my biggest thanks
to my wife, Juliet. She encouraged me to take the river trip that
led to this book, drove what has to be the world’s longest shuttle,
and supported me while I was writing the book. I think she be-
lieved in me even when I didn’t believe in myself.
I also need to thank Michael Aquilino and Carter Mackley,
who lent me the whitewater kayak and sea kayak I used on my
trip. Even though I have a small fl eet of kayaks in my basement,
theirs were better suited for the demands of an extended expedi-
tion than anything I own.
A number of biologists, geologists, and other scientists pro-
vided me with information on everything from weeds to the cli-
mate of the Northwest and were then willing to read what I wrote
to ensure that I got the facts right. Some of those people are
named in the text, many are not. I’d especially like to thank Steve
Parker, with the Yakama Nation fi sheries department, and Dale
Bambrick, with the National Marine Fisheries Service. Both these
biologists were always willing to answer questions and spent
countless hours with me making certain I understood salmon
biology. If some errors have made their way into the book despite
Steve and Dale’s best efforts, the fault is mine not theirs.
I need to thank Kim Apperson, a biologist with the Idaho
Department of Fish and Wildlife; Dan Baker, the manger of the
Eagle Fish Hatchery; Janine Castro, a geomorphologist with the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Nathan Mantua, a research cli-
matologist at the University of Washington; Rich Old, a botanist