Waterfalls, bald eagles, seals, and a 5 knot current

The boat finally left the driveway!  After months of working on the boat, making updates and waiting for winter to be over we went on a sort of shakedown/relaxation cruise. Since we currently have the mast lying in the driveway awaiting the install of a new LED anchor light we took Webfoot out as a motor boat. We just couldn't wait any longer. The forecast was for a beautiful weekend and we took advantage. Saturday took us half the day to load up and finish a couple of projects, and then we drove to Rooster Rock State Park to launch.  One of our guidelines for boating on the river is to always go up-river as we set out. The thought being that if all systems fail we can always float back down-river to where the truck and trailer are.

 

By 5pm on Saturday we were anchored in 3 feet of water just off Pierce Island within view of a Elowah Falls and Beacon Rock. After we cooked a nice dinner on the BBQ we played Scrabble until fairly late. 

Captain Mike and Beacon Rock

Elowah Falls is in that (seemingly) small valley

 
The next day was spent exploring the around the shoreline of Pierce Island and reading in the cockpit. The island is inhabited by a variety of animals including elk and deer. Currently, Pierce Island is managed by the Nature Conservancy and this time of year the island is off-limits to visitors to protect native species and ecosystems.

We had noticed that the river had been steadily rising since we arrived. This made for a fun ride back to the boat launch. When Bonneville dam rapidly releases a lot of water it can lead to very fast currents just below the dam. We had over 5 knots of current pushing us back. Along the way we came across some hungry seals and bald eagles fishing for salmon. Unfortunately they are too quick to photograph.

For you Twilight (movie) fans out there, here are a couple of photos of Cape Horn seen from below. In this scene Edward and Bella were in the tree canopy, overlooking the river and forest.

Note how small the fishing boat appears under the falls