Chapter 6 - A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. We were thankful to be out of Umatilla, but the times were pretty rough. We paddled up wind for the majority of the next day. My camp stove was out of fuel and we basically only have dehydrated foods. We paddled 10 miles to the next town in hopes of finding more fuel, but there was none to be found. 

We kept paddling, up wind the whole day and into the night. The shore was covered in thick vegetation and we really couldn't see. It was extremely rocky too, with rocks jutting out of the water and little islands here and there. I navigated using my phone and satellite imagery to a spot I found on Google maps. 

We had to cook somehow but the place was marshy and everything was wet. We finally got dinner made by 10pm and moral was pretty low. 

The next day the wind was in our favor! We paddled the first ten miles in no time. I joked to Sparky saying we should rig up a sail and he said he was down. So we pulled over on an island and found a driftwood mast. We tied a tarp to our extra paddles and strung it all up. 

We were both pretty sure it would work, but it was a pretty sketchy set up. We got her out on the water and sure enough we were cruising down the river. We couldn't paddle that fast if we tried. We sailed for a few hours, and with our hands free we kicked back and drank a beer.

We made it another 13 miles to the next town, beautiful little Arlington. They had a grain elevator with a big welcoming sign, a park with kids playing basketball, and a pretty little gazebo and covered bridge in the park. 

It was a welcomed change from Umatilla. Everyone here was so friendly. We ate pizza for the first time in forever.  It's my favorite little nowhere town in all of Oregon. Unfortunately they didn't have the right fuel either so we still might starve. Only 50 miles to the Dalles...