Backyard First Descent The First SUP Descent of the Spokane River

The Spokane River flows through the Western United States, linking Idaho with Washington State. Its 112-mile length has a long history, from salmon fishing and silver mines to wakeboarding and tubing, but no one had yet descended the entire river by SUP. Spokane-based photographer Jed Conklin shares his journey over dams, through lakes and rapids as he, Allison Roskelley, and Grace Robison found a new way to discover their backyard, nabbing the first descent in the process.

Words and Photography: Jed Conklin

It had taken four days of paddling to get here.We had paid the physical price for the 112 miles traveled. All three of us had numb toes, Ali and I had swollen feet, and blisters covered both Grace and Ali’s hands.The wildfire smoke was thick and orange with the sunset light. We had been fighting a headwind all afternoon, but even that wall of suffering could not dampen our explosive enthusiasm as we pulled into the Columbia River to complete the first SUP descent of the Spokane River. Earlier this year I had the idea to SUP the entire length of the Spokane River, so I did some research; discovering that nobody else had completed the task only made me more intrigued. A few phone calls later, and I had…

You're reading a preview of

Kayak Session (Digital) - 1 Issue, SUP World Magazine 2018

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.