Evening canoe rides

One of my friends is enrolled in an "Appreciation of National Parks" class.  Apparently they study the history of national parks or how they're run, or something along those lines.  My friend had the opportunity to go on a field trip to Lake Roosevelt and bring along guests.  Perfect!  I'm always up for being on or in the water.

Now, Lake Roosevelt is a little further away than we realized...and you drive through what appear to be creepy small towns, like Reardan*.  However the other small town, Davenport, is a quaint, cute town from the little we saw from the road.

Anyway, a little singing, a little dancing, and friendly talking later, and we arrived at Fort Spokane to meet up with her classmates.  After the park ranger answered all of the 3,498 questions, we finally clambered back into our cars and followed the ranger down to the launch...only about an hour late...or maybe more.

Apparently the rangers provide a canoe tour of the lake every Thursday evening and Saturday morning, free to the public.  It was kind of fun, though I have the distinct impression that I have been in more canoes than the guide. (And probably know more about nature than the average person who comes on these tours...)

It was fun, though the ranger had a hard time getting into our canoe and we almost had to climb out in order for him to get in.  I ended up sitting in the middle, which, for some reason exempted me from having to actually row.  (Score one for me!)  We had a little bit of racing, we paddled up and down a little creek, checked out a waterfall...

It was a beautiful evening, and a tour that would typically be 1-2 hours ended up being about 30 minutes.  But it was worth it for the views...


If you ever have a free Thursday evening or Saturday morning, look into a canoe tour of Lake Roosevelt.  It's fun, easy, and free, with the exception of the cost of gas to get there.  And, hopefully you get a good park guide for your trip.

*I don't know if Reardan is a creepy place.  But driving through it, we could picture a psycho killer living there...why not?  It's always the small towns....with run down buildings and rough looking men walking around in flannel.