Pacific Flyway over Columbia

I had to laugh when I found myself playing golf at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort and sending a drive across the Columbia River. After all, not so many miles downstream and certainly just before the river enters the Pacific Ocean 1,214 miles away, the river is miles wide, not a few feet, Between Columbia Lake, its birthplace area, and Fairmont, the river is narrow, its rapids only feet wide there giving a preview of the roaring cauldrons (before dams) of rapids downstream. Before and after the charming little town of Invermere, though, the river is virtually a series of swamps. The river searches for a direction through many slow-moving channels lined by waist-high rushes

It's an ideal place for wintering birds, and summer birds, too. Indeed, clouds of birds fly overhead  frequently, in BC's Columbia River Valley as part of the vast north/south Pacific Flyway. I visualized getting a raft and floating through this tranquil stretch but didn't have time. Traveling the long, long river and searching the human history that surrounded it dominated my days. I had a year to write a book, so I divided up the miles into 100-mile increments per month. I was on or by the river each two weeks for 100 miles, gathering history from local and regional libraries, talking to people, and soaking up its essence. Then I went home to write for the next two weeks, returning to pick up my journeys the following month. As my year's deadline loomed, I was roaming Astoria and Pacific Ocean sites.