RE: I'm talkin' 'bout pottering!

Eric Johnson (eric@theftnet.net)
Fri, 30 Oct 1998 15:48:19 -0800


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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> >
> > Hope you enjoyed my story ...
>
> I did. Great adventure and glad it turned out so well.
>
> On another note, one of my dream cruises is to sail whatever little boat
> I have at the time I get up the nerve, up the coast from San Diego to
> the Columbia River, and up the rivers to Spokane, WA, to visit
> relatives. And of course, back again. Is that doable? Any dams in the
> way? Bridges I can deal with. Are those rivers considered navigable
> through to Spokane? Or more precisely to Post Falls, Idaho?

Uh not at all. Not even close, in fact. :) The Columbia River is probably
the single largest source of hydroelectric power on this continent. Virtual
all power in the northwest is generated by hydro, mostly from this system
(and a few nuke plants). Even the Grand Coulee dam is in the way, and it may
still be the largest dam in the world. You'd have to cross Bonneville Dam,
The Dalles, John Day, McNary, Chief Joseph, and Grand Coulee (which doesn't
even have a fish ladder, let alone a lock). And those are just the federal
dams, there might be a few others. Some of the lower dams have locks, but
the uppers sure don't... I know there's dams on the spokane river as well.
So to answer your question, no, they're not navigable that far up.

You could (relatively) easily navigate into Seattle or vancouver or victoria
or something like that however.