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| 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River http://www.hobie.com/au/en/forums/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=63881 |
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| Author: | alphamacaroon [ Tue Oct 16, 2018 10:32 am ] |
| Post subject: | 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
Hi all, thought I'd share a recent expedition I did down the Columbia River on my 2018 Hobie TI. One of the many highlights of the trip were the 4 dams I had to cross through massive locks (had them all to myself). Total Days: 10 days Total Miles Traveled: 246.2 Total Miles Down River: 190    More pictures at https://flic.kr/s/aHsmoaCoDs Happy to answer questions about the experience, gear, etc. |
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| Author: | dpstivers [ Tue Oct 16, 2018 12:01 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
Where did you begin and end? I went from Point Deception to Bonnyville Dam and back two years ago. |
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| Author: | dpstivers [ Tue Oct 16, 2018 12:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
Where did you begin and end? I went from Point Deception to Bonnyville Dam and back two years ago. |
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| Author: | stringy [ Tue Oct 16, 2018 1:22 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
Wow, what a trip AM and impressive pics!  Looks cold with that ice on the hatch. I enjoyed that video animation of your track. I was interested to see your packing arrangements and solar cell. For a 10 day trip you seemed to have a lot less gear than I would have. I was surprised you used the rear well for storage. I pack my TI the opposite, with all my gear in the forward well so I can use the paddle when needed. You had no problems with the the rear storage location? Thanks for posting. |
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| Author: | Zen Little [ Tue Oct 16, 2018 2:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
Thats very impressive! I love adventures like this having lived in Alaska 20+yrs. My first year foray into Hobie's ~ and out of Cincinnati. Maybe a trip down the Ohio soon. Love the graphic trail, that's also quite impressive, damn! Do share more! |
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| Author: | alphamacaroon [ Tue Oct 16, 2018 10:12 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
stringy wrote: Wow, what a trip AM and impressive pics! Looks cold with that ice on the hatch. I enjoyed that video animation of your track. I was interested to see your packing arrangements and solar cell. For a 10 day trip you seemed to have a lot less gear than I would have. I was surprised you used the rear well for storage. I pack my TI the opposite, with all my gear in the forward well so I can use the paddle when needed. You had no problems with the the rear storage location? Thanks for posting. Thanks! Actually it was pretty warm— you saw ice? Water temp was really nice too. Thoughts on gear: Solar Charger and Battery To get through the locks I was required to have a motor of some sort. So I built my own Mirage drive mounted Watersnake electric trolling motor and connected it to a 35ah AGM battery. The solar charger was mainly for charging that battery after use through the locks. Although after it was all said and done, I ended up using the motor so little that I probably could have done without the solar charger completely. But it was nice to have for the peace of mind. Storage Location I've debated back and forth on this. I really like the feel of sailing from the rear cockpit, but there are a few things that keep me coming back to the front seat: 1. Easy access to daggerboard and reef line. I know there are ways to make this work, but I found myself having to clear the daggerboard every 30-60 minutes due to fouling from water plants. So I was glad to have it within easy reach. 2. I'm always finding that there is just never enough room in the cockpit when you have a lot going on, so I really like to be able to temporarily throw stuff on the tramps when I need some space. Mostly the main sheet— it's so nice to be able to throw the excess line on the tramp to keep from getting tangled in it. I guess I've just sailed enough big boats where I'm paranoid about getting hung or cut by tangled lines that I like having the excess out of the way. This was also useful in the mornings when I just wanted to get moving— I would throw a bunch of stuff on the tramps, shove off, and pack a few things while I was under way (assuming calm winds and seas). 3. I knew I was going to have to be very mobile and quickly tie off in the locks. So I wanted easy access to the tramps to be able to hop over to the amas and tie off. I didn't want to be climbing over a bunch of gear to get to the amas. That being said, water access for the paddles is definitely a big issue, but I guess I felt it was the lesser of two evils. Although it has come back to bite me in the past. Amount and Types of Gear I think if I did it again, I would probably pack less. I had enough food left over for another 10 days easily. A few thoughts: Food Costco trail mix for breakfast and lunch. I had two big bags and only went through about about 3/4 of one of them. For dinner I had a bunch of Campbell's Ready Meals and a bunch of freeze-dried backpacking food. Honestly I would probably just go 100% Campbell Ready Meals for dinner in the future. It was really nice to be able to at least eat something that resembled food without having to boil water after a really long day on the water. And if you wanted them warmed up it was really easy to throw the pouch in some warm water. Either way, all you had to do was open the top and throw a spoon in it (or even squeeze it out in a pinch). Had a couple of cans of fruit and some beef jerky to round things out. And of course a nice big flask of whiskey (you know, for disinfecting purposes). Water I was pretty lucky being in relatively clean fresh water. I did pack about 2.5 gallons of water, but I barely touched it. My main source of water was a survival water filter that I would drop into the Mirage drive well and fill up a plastic water bottle a liter at a time when I needed it. This saved me from having to pack a bunch of water. I wasn't sure if this setup was going to work, but I ended up absolutely loving it— easy water on demand. Sleeping Absolutely loved, loved, loved my Teton Outfitter XXL popup tent. I also packed a nice big cot that I could set my tent on— I didn't want to ever worry about sleeping on wet sand, mud, and rocks. This was the single biggest piece of gear by far, but I think next time I would probably not bring it. Yes it was super comfortable, but it really took a lot of time to setup and take down and I probably could have slept almost as well on a really nice camping pad. But I must say it probably would have been nice if the weather was really wet (it was really great for storing stuff underneath at night). Biolite CampStove 2 Totally awesome when I needed it and saved from having to pack fuel— lots of wood and sticks everywhere. Chair This was probably my second biggest piece of equipment. I debated on whether or not to just use my Vantage seat on shore (after all it does have really nice little folding legs!), but ultimately I decided that it'd be nice to have a comfortable chair. So I ended up buying a cheap-ass walmart folding director-style camping chair with a little folding side-table and never regretted it. It was so nice to be able to pull up on shore at the end of a rough day and collapse in a comfortable chair. The folding side-table was a huge bonus as it gave me a little "desk" to hold things while I was preparing food or fixing equipment. I would definitely bring this again. Misc. Other than the big stuff, it was mostly just a bunch of smaller dry bags that would fit into the round hatches. I'll try to upload some more detailed pictures of how I packed things if anyone is interested. Hope that helps! |
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| Author: | stringy [ Wed Oct 17, 2018 1:47 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
Some interesting info there Greg. Thanks. I also have the Teton Outfitter tent and love how quickly and simply it goes up. I use it when sleeping directly on the TI. My bad about the ice! I looked closer and realised it was water droplets (pic above the Teton tent pic in your album. |
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| Author: | Lead Belly [ Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:08 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
Great stuff, thanks. Was dangerously impressed by the specs of the Biolite CampStove 2 -- hadn't heard of it before. |
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| Author: | Chekika [ Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:51 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
Great pictures. Thanks for posting! Nice you had those locks to yourself. The only locks I've ever done were on China's Yangtze River. Each of those was jammed with sizable boats. I was doing a Viking Tour, not on an AI/TI. Keith |
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| Author: | alphamacaroon [ Wed Oct 17, 2018 9:34 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
dpstivers wrote: Where did you begin and end? I went from Point Deception to Bonnyville Dam and back two years ago. I began in Richland, WA and ended at Beacon Rock just past Bonneville. Original plan was to try to make it all the way to Astoria, but the wind and current weren't cooperating and I ran out of time. But now I have the second half of the trip to look forward to! |
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| Author: | dpstivers [ Wed Oct 17, 2018 3:37 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
With the tides and the wind on the lower reach, it was almost as hard for me to go down river as it was to go up. Do you think you could just as easily have gone in the other direction on those upper reaches? |
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| Author: | alphamacaroon [ Wed Oct 17, 2018 4:35 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 10 Days, 246 Miles down the Columbia River |
dpstivers wrote: With the tides and the wind, it was almost as hard for me to go down river as it was to go up. Do you think you could just as easily have gone in the other direction on those upper reaches? Totally— going up river would have been much easier. This time of year the wind always blows (and blows hard) up-river and there is nearly zero down-river current. So it was like sailing on a big lake where there was always a headwind— I was definitely going the wrong way  In the spring I was able to tag along with a nice 4-5 mph current down-river which I was expecting to help me, but there is hardly any flow above the dams at this time of year. |
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