Check-In, dinner at Lucky Mud, evening program on the history of Skamokawa

Arrive To: You may arrive as early as 3:00 pm at your B&B. Upon arrival you may relax or explore on site before dinner. At 5:30 those staying at Crippen Creek will be driven by a guide to Lucky Mud for opening dinner. Dinners will alternate between the two B&B's.

Dinner: The dinner buffet at the Inn at Lucky Mud will include fresh salad from local ingredients, vegetables, a meat or vegetarian entree and homemade dessert.

Evening: The evening program will be a slide presentation on the history of Skamokawa by guide Andrew Emlen. Andrew teaches a course on the Lower Columbia River as adjunct faculty for Lewis & Clark College.

Lodging: The Inn at Crippen Creek Farm or The Inn at Lucky Mud

Meals Included: Dinner

Introduction to kayaking on protected Elochoman Slough. Paddle from Cathlamet to Skamokawa through the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge.

Breakfast: A hearty buffet breakfast will be served each morning at your B&B, including a variety of the following: cereal, sausage, fresh fruit, juices, homemade bread, farm fresh eggs. Breakfast is usually at 8:00. Each morning after breakfast a guide will transport you to the kayak put-in or field trip destination at about 8:45.

Morning: We will drive to Cathlamet for a one-way kayak trip to Skamokawa with the outgoing tide. We will begin with an introduction to kayaking in protected Elochoman Slough. We will paddle along the exact route of Lewis & Clark, who were led through this slough by Wahkiakum Indians who brought them to the village of Elochoman to trade. The area near the former village site is part of the wildlife refuge that still resembles the forest Lewis & Clark saw in 1805, including individual trees that were standing at the time.

Lunch: Each day we will prepare pack lunches that may include a deli sandwich, chips, fruit, or homemade cookie which will be eaten in the field. On Monday we will emerge from Elochoman Slough to a sand beach on the main channel of the Columbia.

Afternoon: After lunch we will have a short paddle on the main channel of the Columbia before entering historic Steamboat Slough, another protected section of the wildlife refuge dominated by Sitka spruce swamp. We will continue down river with the outgoing tide to Skamokawa. After returning to Skamokawa, the guides will present a demonstration of all the commonly used kayak rolls and rescues. There will then be an opportunity for any participants who want to try learning these skills to don a wetsuit and practice. There usually will be about an hour and a half of free time at the B&B's before dinner on this day.

Dinner: We will eat dinner together at the Inn at Crippen Creek, a buffet including fresh salad from locally grown ingredients, vegetables, a meat (often local grass-fed beef) or vegetarian entree and homemade dessert.

Evening: Historian Irene Martin won the 2000 Governor's Heritage Award for her work documenting the cultures of the Lower Columbia. Author of six books on the history of the region, she is also a gillnetter and an Episcopal priest. Her wide-ranging interests and intellect make for a fascinating presentation.

Lodging: The Inn at Crippen Creek Farm or The Inn at Lucky Mud

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Note: To take advantage of better tides or weather, itineraries of days 3 & 4 may be switched.

Breakfast: A hearty breakfast will be served at your B&B at 8:00, including a variety of the following: cereal, sausage, fresh fruit, juices, homemade bread, farm fresh eggs.

Morning: We will start along the historic waterfront of Cathlamet, including the 1868 Warren cannery. We will then proceed along the cliffs, formed 16 million years ago as part of the world's second largest basalt flows. Many interesting formations can be seen along these 90-foot cliffs, including the cast of a tree that was engulfed in lava and left an imprint of its bark before being consumed in flames. Multiple waterfalls cascade into the Columbia from the cliff top, and native wildflowers are abundant from April through June.

Lunch: Our pack lunch will be eaten on a tiny cobble beach tucked among the cliffs. The pebbles on the beach include rounded examples of quartzite and petrified wood carried from what is now Montana during the Missoula Floods of the Pleistocene, the world's largest freshwater floods.

Afternoon: Depending on time and weather, we may return to Cathlamet via Cathlamet Channel or cross the channel to Birnie Slough to paddle a longer loop through the homes and farms of Puget Island before crossing back to Cathlamet. After driving back to Skamokawa Center, we will walk across the road to the 1894 schoolhouse which has been lovingly restored as the River Life Interpretive Center. It serves as historical museum, bookstore and community center.

Dinner: We will eat dinner together at the Inn at Lucky Mud, a meal featuring fresh local ingredients.

Evening: The six-member folk band Willapa Hills will perform music by and about the people of the Lower Columbia River. Willapa Hills are known for creative arrangements using various combinations of voice, guitar, autoharp, cello, banjo, mandolin, mandocello, fiddle, piano and percussion. They are currently collecting local stories from long-time residents and turning them into songs.

Lodging: The Inn at Crippen Creek Farm or The Inn at Lucky Mud

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: A hearty breakfast will be served each morning at your B&B, including a variety of the following: cereal, sausage, fresh fruit, juices, homemade bread, farm fresh eggs.

Morning: We will be taking a break from kayaking to drive out to Cape Disappointment State Park, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. Along the way we will stop at Dismal Nitch, named (as spelled) by Captain William Clark, the small cove where the Corps was forced by bad weather to camp for days on giant logs that floated and pitched about at every high tide. When we arrive at the park, we will hike a two-mile trail inside the cape where the Corps of Discovery also was proceeding on foot. Here we'll explore a section of ancient temperate rainforest with trees up to nine feet in diameter and see landmarks described in the expedition journals.

Lunch: We will eat our pack lunches in a picnic area of the park near our trailhead.

Afternoon: We will visit the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. Perched on top of Cape Disappointment with a spectacular view of the river bar and ocean, this particularly well-done center was rebuilt for the Lewis & Clark bicentennial. Afterward we may take the half-mile hike down to Little Waikiki Beach on the outside of the cape or visit the Columbia Pacific Heritage Center in Ilwaco before driving back to the Inn at Crippen Creek for dinner. We usually return by about 5:00pm.

Dinner: Wednesday night is always pizza night at the Inn at Crippen Creek. The Speranzas know how to make real Italian pizza, of different varieties including meat and vegetarian options, along with salad, and, for dessert, a delicious panna cotta.

Evening: Guide Mark Whitaker will share his considerable expertise on salmon, the icon and lifeblood of the Columbia River region.

Lodging: The Inn at Crippen Creek Farm or The Inn at Lucky Mud

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Kayak around Welch Island of the Lewis & Clark National Wildlife Refuge

Breakfast: A hearty buffet breakfast will be served at your B&B, including a variety of the following: cereal, sausage, fresh fruit, juices, homemade bread, farm fresh eggs. To take advantage of the tide on this day, we will have breakfast half an hour early, at 7:30.

Morning: We will paddle across the main channel to Welch Island, the easternmost of a chain of tidal marsh islands that comprise the 35,000-acre Lewis & Clark National Wildlife Refuge. Some of the big old cottonwood trees there house active Bald Eagle nests. We will paddle around this 1800-acre island in the center of the Columbia before landing on another island for lunch.

Lunch: We will have lunch on a small sand beach on Tenasillahe Island. This island has a dike trail that will give us a chance to take a walk and look for wildlife before crossing back to Skamokawa.

Afternoon: We will paddle back across the channel to Skamokawa.

Dinner: Our final dinner at Lucky Mud showcases Columbia River salmon along with other fresh local foods.

Evening: Our final evening program features the musical duo Emlen & Reynolds performing "Corelli to Cruzatte: Music of the Lewis & Clark Era", in period costume. The first half of the program features classical music from Thomas Jefferson's library, and the second half features fiddle tunes and folk songs likely to have been played on the Lewis & Clark trail. Emlen & Reynolds have performed for many state and national Lewis & Clark bicentennial events and historical society events, and have been videotaped for the National Park Service archives.

Lodging: The Inn at Crippen Creek Farm or The Inn at Lucky Mud

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: A hearty buffet breakfast will be served each morning at your lodge including a variety of the following: cereal, sausage, fresh fruit, juices, homemade bread, farm fresh eggs.

Morning: Our program ends after the 8:00 AM breakfast at your lodging. No program is scheduled after breakfast on your final day, but you are welcome to continue sharing remembrances of the week. Check-out time is 10:00 AM.

Meals Included: Breakfast