Raked sand. Rock stacks. Tea candles a-flickering atop rock stacks. Paco pads doing service as yoga mats and there you have it – a riverside yoga retreat along the Salmon River on a new white sandy beach each day.

Winding Waters had the pleasure of being there for a birthday cruise on the Salmon with ultra-entertaining Seattle bartenders and entourage. Thanks for getting that group together, Elizabeth. And happy birthday. Hurry up and get older so we can go back and do that trip again. This here photo shows birthday cheer radiating from a blazing pineapple upside-down cake.
One novelty of this voyage was the romance novel purchased at a grocery store before departing on the trip – from which they read select passages each night after dinner. It was a pretty bad romance novel. Which implies there are good romance novels. I don’t know about that. But this one featured an alternate universe for one scene. Mm-hmm. An alternate universe. Oh, and lynxes. It had a lot of lynx references. But I will say it was pretty entertaining.

We had some exciting runs … the rapids are at a fun level for paddling kayaks and the third wave down in Lower Bunghole is especially attention-getting at this flow. I came in there with our new, little sporty Maravia and hoowee – not much for weight in my boat, which made for kind of an awesome episode where we squirreled around surfing for a few seconds, then popped a wheelie before going on our way.
Jason says he’s an adrenaline aficionado, and preferred that ride over roller coasters. Take that, Six Flags.

We had plenty of time, with a five day trip, so launched further upstream at Hammer Creek, rather than our usual put-in at Pine Bar. Adds ten miles, some interesting rapids and a cool pictograph site at Shorts Bar.

A few miles above Killer Goat Beach, aka Upper Packers Creek, saw a deer swim the river. We floated up as it was drinking, then boop, it hopped right in and crossed in front of us, swimming much faster than I would have imagined as there was a decent current running. Kind of impressive.
Morgan is out on the Salmon right now for a yoga trip with Jeff, Shannon and Todd – same crew I had for my yoga float last week….lots of yoga going on.

My next trip is with Fishtrap for Writing On the River with Annick Smith. Going to be a good one.

And here’s a baby update: I got to hold Linden yesterday. She’s still cute.

Linden Janet Arentsen, meet the world….World, this is Lindey. You two are going to get along great.

A great blue heron brought a little baby girl to the home of Penny and Paul last week. Six pounds, 13 ounces. One foot, eight inches tall. I saw her yawn the other day when Penny was holding her. Man, yawning babies are cute.


Here’s a conversation I think little Lindey is going to have a lot when she grows up:

Other person: “You grew up with parents who own a rafting company?”

Linden? “That’s right.”

Same person: “Your mom teaches classes in the mountains, backpacking with kids?”

Linden: “Right.”

Same other person: “Those mountains are right behind your house…plus you had horses to ride?”

Linden: “Morgan horses.”

That same person: “And your dad is a backcountry ski guide in the winters?”

Linden: “Yes, but tell me more about what it’s like to grow up in a cul-de-sac. That sounds fascinating.”

This kid couldn’t have nicer parents or be fixed up for a more interesting, fun upbringing. Linden, I know you’re focused right now on eating and sleeping, but later when you start counting, you’ll have lots and lots of blessings to add up.

The grownups who are peeking at you and saying how cute you are could probably count pretty high if they wanted to, but everybody’s kind of focused on just one blessing right now, Linden, and that’s you.

We’re all very happy for you, Arentsen family. You people couldn’t have happened to nicer people.

‘Mend!...mend!...’

Flyfishing is easily one of the hardest complicated simple activities I’ve tortured myself trying to get good at. It hasn’t been going all that well, but thanks for asking.

I am slowly improving, thanks to Jim Hepworth, who tutored me on the Grande Ronde River last week. Jim kindly (mend!...) offered advice and (mend!....) pointers while observing my casting and fishing attempts.

To mend a flyline is the act of adjusting its position on the water so you’re not dragging the fly across the water. This dragging tips the fish off that what they’re seeing is not food.
Apparently I don’t mend often or well enough. But I’m trying to mend that.

Jim is an English professor I met at Fishtrap, the writing conference held out here in Wallowa County. Here’s why I like the guy and tolerate him yelling at me to mend:

Years ago, I rode along with him while he checked in on local writers who had projects they were supposed to be sending him. Hepworth is also a publisher at a small press, aside from professing English.

So. The publishing industry is tough to break into. No surprise there. Writers try and try to get editors to look at their manuscripts, but many editors prefer manuscripts that come to them via literary agents. Literary agents desire writers who are established. Hence, much banging of heads on walls and talk of Catch 22s.

Getting an editor to consider your book is a coup. Hepworth was banging on the front doors of writers, yelling, “I know you’re in there…I’m still waiting for that book….”

Unheard of.

I should mention here that these were special cases and you should not flood this guy with book proposals. He’ll just tell you to mend, in my experience.


So we had an all-around pleasant float down the Grande Ronde. Oh yeah, and we saw some bears. Water level is getting down there. It was running in the 800 cubic feet per second neighborhood last I checked. That’s on the low end. Beyond that, you start dragging your boat over the skinny spots.

The GR is kind of our backyard river, close to home, and absolutely worth checking out if you haven’t seen the Wild and Scenic stretch with big, forested campsites and fun Class II and III rapids.

I look forward to getting back down there in the fall for steelhead season. And I’ll be ready to mend. Glad we squeezed in one last summer float, though. Thanks, Grande Ronde.

In this episode of ‘Behind the Scenes at Winding Waters,’ we catch up with rafting company owners Paul and Penny Arentsen at Wallowa Lake, where they’re taking their sweet vintage ski boat out for a cruise on the biggest glacial puddle in northeast Oregon.

The boat is a Century Coronado, which translates from Spanglish as ‘Awesome "On Golden Pond" Boat.’ The motor has a deep rumble and sounds like it used to power a factory – perhaps the naugahyde plant that produced the brown upholstery lining this luxury craft.

Penny has fond memories of the motor conking out in this boat during excursions as a child. That plaintive look on Paul’s face in the above photo shows him making a fond memory of his own as he feathers the throttle and talks the motor out of quitting in the middle of Wallowa Lake. I think he just needs to open the throttle all the way and burn the carbon out.

They’re water people, these Arentsens. No denying that. They’ll go charge Hells Canyon whitewater in an 18-foot raft, turn around and do a circuit through the lower Salmon River country, come home to fish the Wallowa or Grande Ronde, then unwind with a cruise on flatwater in the ol’ Coronado.

Another water person, Captain Morgan Jenkins, is out right now on another river expedition. And judging by the parking lot of river guide vehicles up at Winding Waters headquarters when I dropped a raft off last night, our whole bullpen of guides is out right now rowing the rivers.

I just got back from squeaking in a last float on the Grande Ronde, from Minam down to Troy. River levels are getting thin on the Grande Ronde, but we caught some fish and didn’t ground ourselves too bad. I’ll be back with a report on that trip – complete with real live pictures of real live bears.

Meantime, try to get some help if you can’t reach that one spot on your back when applying sunscreen.