Editor’s note: Local Robert Allen is off this Saturday on a six-week paddling journey to commemorate the travels of David Thompson 200 years ago in the Pacific Northwest. The following is a preview story on adventure and what Allen expects along the way.
The time has almost arrived for my big canoe journey. I think our team has everything under control and we are ready to rock and roll.
I left on May 30 at 7:30 a.m. and drove to West Vancouver to pick up my friend and team member, Bill Chapman.
We then headed out to the Vancouver Airport to pick up another couple that will join us from Hawaii. From there we drove to Blaine, WA, to pick up a travel trailer I am calling our chuck wagon as we will be using it to cook some of our meals in. I will be towing it with my truck and my friends Denny and Delores DeMeyer will be towing a trailer that will carry both of our team canoes.
On May 31, we headed further east and north to Libby, MT, and then on to Rexford and Roosville where we cross back into Canada eventually ending up in Invermere, where we will stay for a couple of days.
On June 3, we will start paddling in earnest. Our canoes are 25-foot north canoes that will carry 10 people, but we will only have six at a time in the canoes. Our North American Land Surveyors (NALS) Team has two canoes in the 10-canoe 2011 David Thompson Columbia River Canoe Brigade.
On the first day, we will paddle from Canal Flats north to Invermere along Columbia Lake, Columbia River, and Windermere Lake. The next day, we will drive back down to Canal Flats and put the canoes in the Kootenay River and then paddle south down to Wasa. The next day we will paddle to Fort Steele and the day after that to Kikomun Creek Provincial Park.
On June 7, we will paddle to the USDA/Canada border for a border crossing ceremony at noon and then on to Rexford, MT, in the afternoon.
On June 8, we arrive in Libby, MT and will portage on June 9 150 km to Thompson Falls, MT. Our entire journey is in commemoration of the world’s greatest Surveyor, map maker, fur trader, and explorer, David Thompson.
Thompson’s North West Company partner and friend, Simon Fraser, named British Columbia’s Thompson River after him. The town of Thompson Falls, MT, was named after him as well. At Thompson Falls, MT, there is another Thompson River that follows from the Thompson Lakes. Thompson was also called Koo Koo Sint (the man who looks at the stars) by the Salish people near Thompson Falls and David Thompson is further commemorated by Koo Koo Sint Ridge near Thompson Falls.
Our journey will take us along the Columbia River, Kootenay/Kootenai River, Clark Fork River, Pend Oreille River, and back to the Columbia River and is 1,600 km long — that is like driving from Vancouver to Fort Nelson.
We will arrive in Astoria, OR, on July 15, exactly 200 years to the day that Thompson first arrived there. When Thompson left Astoria about a week later he worked his way back up the Columbia River to Boat Encampment, north of Revelstoke, thereby being the first person ever to travel the entire length of the Columbia River.
Editor’s note: You can follow Allen’s trip at http://www.nalscanoeteam.blogspot.com/ or visit his website at http://www.skylark.ca/surveyors.html. He is also fundraising for Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue where people can donate a dollar a day (or more) for each day that he makes it through the 45-day trip. Find out more on his website or blog.
