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Love Found on the White Salmon River |  |
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| The following story was published in the book Bluelight to Pucker Huddle, Discovering Klickitat County. Love
Found on the White Salmon River The White Salmon River will forever be dearly loved. I was working at a vineyard in the Willamette Valley, and had been on my way to Joseph, OR for a wine tasting. My truck broke down along the way, and I waited in the hot sun all afternoon before I could get a tow and get back on the road. At that point, I had missed the tasting completely; I started to head home. By nightfall, I found myself in the town of Hood River looking for a hotel and trying to keep my spirits up after missing the event that was featuring the wine that I helped to make. After settling in for the evening, I decided that I was going to make the most of the weekend and go whitewater rafting. I grabbed a brochure from the front desk of the hotel, and called the Wet Planet Whitewater Center (looking for some Oregon and Washington Whitewater Rafting) far too late to expect an answer. To my surprise, someone picked up, and I scheduled a trip for the next morning. When I arrived at Wet Planet, I noticed that I had an eye for one of the guides who happened to be kayaking along with the trip. I did my best to avoid him, because he made me nervous – especially while I was walking around in a body hugging wetsuit! I couldn’t tell whether the butterflies in my stomach were from the upcoming whitewater trip, or him. Once we got on the water, though, all anxiety was lost and I was enthralled with the beauty of the Northwest. I still am every single day. The trip was phenomenal. One other couple and myself were on the trip, and we were the only people on the river that morning. There was a slight mist in the air, it wanted to rain, and the fog creeping across the banks to the river was breathtaking. Mergansers, and Harlequins flocked to nearby boulders as we floated along downstream, and an Osprey eyed us from its perch high above the river (I’ve since seen a bear and a bobcat in this river canyon). Small waterfalls cascaded down over the basalt cliffs, and the rapids drenched us in chilly glacier water. I was hooked. After the trip, I felt so peaceful and good
about myself that I decided to ask that good-looking kayaker out
for lunch. We’re getting married in August. June 17, 2005 |
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