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Cold morning paddle on the Cossatot River
11/23/13
The Cossatot River was up so I paddled it. My usual route is to hike the trail from Sand Bar Bridge to Ed Banks Bridge (washed out) and do the two mile section within. This is a beautiful class 2-3 run with plenty to look at and just enough whitewater to be fun. Breakfast choices are slim in Hot Springs. All the 24 hour restaurants are filled with gamblers and party types at 4:00 a.m. Waffle House is my usual stop when heading in this direction so a meal was had there on this occasion. The weather included clouds and a temp of 41 degrees. It rained most of the drive down but quit by the time the Cossatot area was reached. The USGS guage was at 4.4...a good level. I was on the river by 8:00 and did encounter a large group of boaters around 10:00 due to my time spent stopping and taking photos. Usually the river is all mine early in the morning. On the way out I stopped in at the state park area on Hwy 246.
