I'm writing a short story for a class...it takes place in the Pacific
Northwest and I would really appreciate help with an answer to this
question:

Is it possible and likely for a small boat to paddle or row a great
distance up the Columbia River?
snip

Entirely possible from my perspective. The Columbia River flows west in that
area, through what is known as the Columbia Gorge. The Gorge, is a close to sea
level brake in the towering Cascade Mountain Range. Due to a number of things,
one of them being the proximity of the Pacific Ocean with it's prevailing
winds, and another being the geography (gorge), there are regular high winds
blowing upriver. I've been there many times, and don't know if I've ever seen a
day when the wind did not blow upriver (it is a windsurfing mecca). A couple
hundred years ago, before the era of the dams it would have been a much
different river than it is today. In the low water season it might have been
reletively easy traveling going upriver.

I'm trying to decide how a small group or early 19th-century
travellers might make it upriver from Vancouver, Washington to a
location near present-day Walla Walla, Washington...but I don't know
anything about paddling or rowing upriver on the Columbia. Would they
row? Could they?

Thanks in advance!

They'd probalby have had to do a combination of things, guiding their boats
around rock bars with polls or ropes, as well as paddling. Lewis and Clark did
it, 198 1/2 years ago.

Dennis