Columbia River Wallula Gap Trip

Hi all,

Thought I'd post some video and GPS track of a beautiful trip I took this last weekend through the Wallula Gap on the Columbia river. The goal of the trip was to benchmark how far I can reasonably travel down the Columbia in a day for a longer trip I plan to take from Richland, WA to the Pacific coast.

The total trip was around 37 miles and took about 7.5 hours— which is quite a bit faster than the 10-12 I planned for. I only had steady wind for maybe 3-5 miles of the whole trip, so I did a LOT of pedaling. Although I was extremely surprised at how good I felt after all that— the Mirage drives make it so easy.

Anyway, here is a 360° video I took for the small part of the trip where I had a nice steady downwind run (made the trip worth it alone):


(use your mouse to pan/tilt)

Here is the GPS track: https://share.garmin.com/JimHeising

Curious— any other AI/TI owners here in the area Tri-Cities area? Has anyone else made any multi-day trips in an Island down the Columbia (tips/tricks/warnings/etc.)?

Cheers and enjoy!

Nice to see some other footage from the PNW! I have thought of taking my TI out on the lower columbia, but I havent gotten brave enough. I bet the super high flows on the river right now made the trip a bit quicker!

Yeah, in the narrower parts of the river I could coast at 3-4 kts.

BTW, you're like the 3-4 person I've met who has mentioned "brave" (maybe "crazy" on occasion) and "Columbia" in the same sentence Am I missing something?

I admit I'm somewhat new to the area and river, but have read about the Lower Columbia Water Trail being a lot of fun. I know that the wind and chop can be pretty crazy in parts of the river, but it seems manageable if you keep a good eye on the weather.

Are there other hazards I should be worried about?

You just have to be careful I would say and know the conditions. In the lower Columbia (say below Ranier) you would want to start being concerned about tidal influence and currents. I have taken the boat out in the Columbia at PDX at the end of last summer (right when I bought the boat). Flow is at about its lowest and was no issue going upstream. Where I think would be really fun, but you would need to be really careful would be between Bonneville and The Dalles.

Excellent— that is great advice. Earlier in the season I could easily pedal upstream here too, so I plan on trying sometime in September when the flow has calmed a bit.