Sailing, Camping, and Rock Climbing The Columbia River
I got to the Lincoln boat launch Wednesday morning about 8:30 and Art was waiting with the sailboat on the trailer. We soon had the mast up and backed it into the water. I loaded all my gear once it was floating and we were soon on our way down the river.
We headed down river towards our initial objective, White Stone, which we found to be a pile of garbage for free climbing. At least there were no cracks for us to climb. The thing is an 800 foot monolith with 200 to 300 foot deep water directly down the face below. It is wild looking down into the water and seeing the wall just disappear vertically.
So we motored around a bit and ended up finding this killer camp site. Picnic table, flat ground, shallows, fishing, AND a SHIT TON of rock right above the camp site.
Also across the river is a metric shit ton of amazing looking rock but it is bordering the tribal land.
We found amazing bouldering with some down right perfect traverses.
I brought my portaledge with and it's what I slept on suspended between a pair of trees. SUPER comfy and I slept all night with WAY fewer waking times than sleeping on the ground.
Sunset was badass and the most amazing display was put on by the bats. I've never seen them hit the water before.
There was well over 20 bats all flying right above the water and they would dip into the water catching bugs then fly around again and dip in to the water and fly around again. I've never seen bats hit the water before, they've always just been in the air.
The next morning the butterflies were having congress in the sunlight. These swallowtails on the beach.
Then this group were a bit rambunctious while they fought with each other.
We fished around the camp site for a while then headed out on the boat to check out the various rocks down stream. We found this thing that WILL be climbed. SICK roof crack over 100+ foot deep water. OUTSTANDING looking.
Not far down stream is a waterfall from a stream that sumps into a nifty cove.
I got to sail. I did a few miles up river against the wind and current. It was super cool. Main sail and jib sail and we tacked back and forth across the river.
Trolling a line and Art snagged a walleye.
We were out sailing and then motoring the river for a good while and it was rather hot in the glaring sun. I got myself a bit toasty in the sun but managed to not burn.
We got back to the camp and found the live trap with a small mouth bass had floated out so Art went out in the kayak and brought it back. He ended up letting the bass go for being a good sport.
Next day we went climbing. We found a really nice splitter crack and it was the first anchor installed. I got both bolts in in a few minutes and soon was rappelling down the face scraping moss and kicking dirt.
Art rappelled down and scrubbed more. I then got on the rope and climbed it my first try all the way to the lip where there dirt was too deep. Art then went up and climbed it as well.
Then we went just down the hill to the what we have dubbed The Solstice Stone and the Dark Crystal face. Art went up and put in the anchor from which we top roped the face after I scrubbed a ton of amazing holds.
The holds are in cut super perfect and all over the face. It make for a few different lines on one anchor. There is even a traverse across the lower part of the face.
Just around the corner is an insanely awesome crack boulder problem. It starts vertically then turns right and goes all the way to the face we sett the anchor on. I scrubbed the lower holds and kicked off some blocks before getting my shoes on and firing the line on my first try. IT WAS BAD ASS!!!!
So many variations on the face.
This is why we named it the Dark Crystal face. There are pockets with full on smoky quartz crystal points. The pockets are littered across the rock and each one has crystals in it.
As we sat at the picnic table in camp in the evening this bird fell from the tree above us and slammed into the ground a few feet away. I picked it up and it just looked pissed as it sat in my hand. I set it on the table for a while then carried it up on the rocks above us. A while later it bombed off the edge and put it back up. Then this morning we saw it flying around a little bit and the parent birds were around with it.
This morning we were up early and had the boat loaded and were headed for Lincoln. It was a bit brisk after we turned the point and had Lincoln in site.
We pulled into the dock about 9am and the lot was STUFFED with empty trailers. Before too long we had the boat loaded and out of the water. I helped get it all tied down then headed for home and was back before noon today.
We put up 4 climbs with potential for SO MUCH MORE!!!! It is boat in climbing only with no roads to it. Prime camping spot which goes into the shade early in the day since it is on the south side of the river. This is someplace we will be going back to and I know Art will take his family there to climb. The potential is astounding for new routes. It was a super trip.
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---|---|---|---|---|
HP | 30,000 | 26,568 | + | |
HBD Savings | 4,030 | 3,051 | / | |
Hive Posting Streak Days | 1681 | 1489 | / |
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Hell yeah man! That looked to be an awesome trip!
It was super fun. Crazy how deep the river is, 300+ ft in many spots but Grand Coulee dam is not too far down stream.
Whoa that’s crazy. The Columbia is a big river though so I could see it.
That’s a lot of fun and adventure
I’m sure you had fun!
You are one adventurous guy. What a great place to camp, climb, fish, and tool around in a boat. Having a boat gives you the opportunity to get to places that would be otherwise unreachable.
Great pictures surrounded by nature, what a wonderful time you guys must have had.
Yeah there are a bunch of boat-in camp grounds all along the Columbia. The trip helped light the fire for me to get my boat fixed up and on the water.
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