On Saturday, February 20th we had a fun filled Winter Bash at the University Unitarian Church in Wedgwood. The festivities included a great potluck dinner during which we saw a slideshow of a trip Don Bottles, Joan Ostlund, Carol Beers, Gerry Eller, and Jim and Helen Lawton on the Wild & Scenic Upper Missouri River in Montana. They put in at Coal Bank Landing and paddled 109 miles downriver to Kipp Landing. They went through the White Cliffs and Missouri Breaks sections that were first noted by Lewis & Clark.
Steve Reutebuch showed slides from a 9-day trip down the Salmon River during last summer's wildfires, aptly the "Smoked Salmon" trip. It includes scenes of aerial supply drops for the fire fighters and some beautiful sunrises through the smoke.
We then had Trip Leader awards--the name each person who had signed up to lead a trip in 2015 was put in a drawing. Jenny Goldberg won the grand prize--a new Werner paddle! Next we saw slides provided by Bob Schneider of a solo canoeist running Lava Falls in the Grand Canyon--very cool! We then had a contest to see which table signed up for leading the most trips in the new 2016 Trip Schedule--the competition was fierce! The winning table signed up for 11 trips.
We then saw two entries in the 2016 PTCC Video Fest: Don Cheyette presented a great video of sea kayak surfing on a standing tidal wave but he was edged out by Howard Young's very impressive canoe run of the Rogue River in an open canoe, particularly the new route Howard pioneered "over" the Pickets in Blossom Bar.