"Fred Klingener" wrote in message .com...
To get a party of ordinary
human beings up the Columbia would take an heroic fictional leap.

I think that if you Googled Lewis & Clark, Columbia River, and Hudson's Bay
Company travel for the era you're interested in, you'll be able to assemble
a plausible story that would satisfy all but an expert in the field.

Best, of course, would be for you to drop out of school for a year, get a
canoe and a pole, and travel the river.

Post your TR here.

Hth,
Fred Klingener

Thanks for all of the info in your post...I'll follow up on the Google
leads you suggested. Thanks also for the caveats about
plausibility...that's always the bottom line. In the story, the
travellers are a small party of experienced individuals w/connections
to the Hudson Bay Co....having some idea of the level of difficulty
was one of the first keys to making the story work. The information
you and others have given me has certainly raised the stakes for my
characters!

(If only I could drop out for a year and travel the river! But I'm in
Northern California, so a couple weeks is do-able...)

Thanks again!!!

It might be worth noting that the high water on the Columbia would not
necessarily have started with the coming of spring. Although the lower
elevations that feed the river would run off sooner, snowmelt in the higher
areas would not peak much before June, if that early. Lewis and Clark had time
for a spring run up the river.

"Paddlec1" wrote in message
...
It might be worth noting that the high water on the Columbia would not
necessarily have started with the coming of spring. Although the lower
elevations that feed the river would run off sooner, snowmelt in the
higher
areas would not peak much before June, if that early. Lewis and Clark had
time
for a spring run up the river.

Since the source of the Columbia is in the Canadian Rockies, where I paddle
(I've never actually paddled the Columbia, but I have paddled several of its
tributaries), I can feel confident in saying that while it varies depending
on location, peak flow tends to be late in June.

-Paul

"Paddlec1" wrote in message
...
It might be worth noting that the high water on the Columbia would not
necessarily have started with the coming of spring. Although the lower
elevations that feed the river would run off sooner, snowmelt in the
higher
areas would not peak much before June, if that early. Lewis and Clark had
time
for a spring run up the river.

Since the source of the Columbia is in the Canadian Rockies, where I paddle
(I've never actually paddled the Columbia, but I have paddled several of its
tributaries), I can feel confident in saying that while it varies depending
on location, peak flow tends to be late in June.

-Paul

I agree. I live very close to the headwaters of the Snake River which feeds the
Columbia, and May can look like Janurary up here. Since the Columbia basin in
what is now Washington State is desert and has very little if any runoff, my
hunch is that anyone traveleing upriver predams would have had a wide window of
opportunity through spring, and maybe even into early summer.

Dennis