Lower Columbia River Trip - Day 4

The foghorn of a passing ship provided this morning’s wakeup call. I stumbled out of the tent to a pre-dawn pea soup, decided we’re not going anywhere quickly this morning, and crawled back into the tent for more sleep. We got up about an hour later and began packing as the fog lifted. We enjoyed a slow paddle down through Goble slough to the marina. We tied up to the rundown dock on the upstream end, and set off to find the Goble Tavern. It may be a little early in the day, but as a wise man once told me, “It’s noon somewhere”. Besides, we'd seen pictures on the Lower Columbia web site, and it looked right up our alley, even at 10am. Stopping in the marina store for directions, we encountered the owner sitting in a chair by the door listening to Jesus on the radio. After poking around for a bit, we talked with the man and found out the tavern was sold over the winter. The new owners are remodeling, so no luck. The next choice for refueling was down the way in Rainer so we headed back to our boats. The sun made its way out and we enjoyed the warmth. After admiring one nice little pocket beach, we came around a rock outcrop to a huge concrete tower with horrible grinding and booming noises. Unsure exactly what we were seeing, we nervously dubbed it the Tower of Doom, and quickly headed downstream. We found out later this was the remains of the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant. Things got even more fun as we rounded the bend toward Rainer, and found large pipes covering most of the river. With no signage or people around, we slid along the left bank past all the piping, and popped out on the edge of Rainer. Seeing a red-tiled roof from the river, we hopped out on a beach, then wandered into the Tapatio Mexican restaurant. Since we were still dressed in our paddle gear, we got a few strange looks for the staff & customers - “Are you out on a motorcycle ride?” After a filling lunch, we continued downstream, passing under the Lewis and Clark bridge. We saw a lot of seals, and Dai took to barking at them trying to keep their interest. We made great time, and passed up camps on Lord and Walker islands. Mid afternoon took the scenic route through around Fisher Hump, going past another funky collection of houseboats. The end of Fisher Hump has great park, particularly in the warm afternoon sun, but they don’t allow camping. I also found a sign explaining the pipes at Rainer - they are dredging the Columbia and the Cowlitz river mouth. The pipes were part of the dredge operation. Might have been nice to catch a notice on that upstream. Oh well. Leaving in the wake of a passing fregither, we cruised down to Crims Island. After a bit of searching, we found a nice campsite with a great view of Mt. St. Helens. As we headed into shore, large flocks of geese created a rolling thunder taking off and landing.
Soft pinks and purples filled the sky as we ate dinner and watched the darkening mountains. 26 miles, good day.

Next up - Eagle vs. Duck, live from the Elochoman Slough