Eagle feather

Check this out . . . Tim Roberts fielding a puff of eagle down that drifted off a bald eagle during a flyover.

If you tried to recreate this with an eagle drone, the combination of timing wind and river currents with the drift of the kayak and feather would make it a mighty good trick to get this little whisp to drift down pretty as you please into his hand like it did for reals. I mean, it looked rehearsed. That was pretty cool.

(Note to game warden: the wee feather was released into the wilds.)

Speaking of bald eagles, check out this little snapshot of Nature celebrating the 4th of July by shining sunbeams on another Grande Ronde River bald eagle. Good job, Nature.

If catching a bald eagle feather is good luck, I’m guessing these folks did not catch one the day this happened. What we have here is a sad portrait of a driftboat on hard times. Get a job, driftboat! Pull yourself up by your oarlocks.

This wreck is one of two driftboat crackups on the Grande Ronde in the past couple weeks. My sources say no one was hurt in either wreck. The boat pictured here chose to go left after Blind Falls, and would probably re-think that if it had a chance for a do-over.

The other boat is currently residing on a rock above Minam State Park. Whoopsie.

Wanna see a picture of a bear? All righty then.

This lil’ smoky was in the Wild and Scenic stretch of the Grande Ronde, taking a water break after a hard day of teaching kids about fire prevention.

Speaking of teaching kids, this little whipper-snapper here listened to a 30-second tutorial on how to row a boat, hopped in the seat and started working the oars like he’s been doing it for more years than he’s been around. That was honestly one of best demonstrations of natural ability I’ve seen since that Redford movie.

Also had a young gymnast on a day trip the other day, pulling off somersaults from the kayak.

We got on the water for a float on the Grande Ronde and I was chatting with the Steensma family on my raft and this young fella Kees here said he went to Jesuit High School. Had I heard of it? Heard of it? My cousin Gary Rombach coaches football and track at Jesuit. Wouldn’t you know it, Kees plays football.

(Confidential to Coach Rombach: I don’t know what his training schedule is the rest of the summer, but he definitely got a workout paddling the river the day I saw him. Have him do some pushups next time you see him to prove it.)

Been a great summer with lots of water, good times and better company. And the good news is we’ve got more on the way. Let’s go rafting.