Friday, December 12, 2008

Skamokawa Center Farewell

From Skamokawa_081211


From Skamokawa_081211



I was very sad to hear that Skamokawa Center was going bankrupt. I really like all the people there. It's such a great spot to start a kayaking trip. You can do such a variety of interesting trips from there. Lots of great wetland trips on the sloughs. Much more open water trips on the Columbia. Journeys like paddling from Skamokawa to Astoria.

So the day before they closed I went down there to paddle from their dock one last time. The tide was flooding in the morning and would start to ebb about 1pm. So I headed toward Cathlamet and turned around with the ebb. I took a break on the beach just NW of Hunting Island.

It turned out to be a beautiful winter day. For awhile I had an east wind of maybe 5 or 6 mph that helped me (ever so slightly) paddle back to Skamokawa.

Once I got back, the folks at Skamokawa Center fed me freshly baked cookies. Yum...

I wish I had the wealth to buy the place. It already has a good team to keep it running. Just needs a bit more marketing to get a few more kayakers coming up there. I could live there and retire there!

From Skamokawa_081211