Deary man’s attempt to re-run Palouse River called off by snow

Kinziger holds up the waterproof map he used to guide himself down the twists and turns of the North Palouse River.

After a day and a half of paddling in 20 mph winds on the North Fork of the Palouse River, canoeist Mike Kinziger of Deary called it quits outside Colfax when Monday’s snow squall hit.

Kinziger was attempting a solo, 130-mile canoe trip from Laird Park, upstream from Harvard, Idaho, to Palouse Falls.

“I was shivering. I couldn’t see. My glasses were dripping with tears from my eyes,” said Kinziger.

He had planned to paddle on the river for four days.

Kinziger, 64, is a retired recreation professor from the University of Idaho. He has paddled on remote sections of rivers and lakes in the wilderness area of the western U.S. and Canada.

Kinziger has made many runs on the North Fork, and holds a unique claim. In 1997, he and Cameron Curtis, then a UI student, set what could be a record for making the Laird park to Lyons Ferry run.

According to a Gazette report from May of 1997, Kinziger, then 49, and Curtis made the same trip from Laird Park down to Lyons Ferry Park, 162 miles, in 36 hours and 17 minutes.

The duo carried their canoe around Little Palouse Falls and Palouse Falls to finish the trip at Lyons Ferry.

Fourteen years later, the Gazette caught up to Kinziger at the Colfax Taco Time, minutes after he pulled out of the river due to the driving snow and wind. Kinziger had already called his wife for a ride home.

He was nursing a hot coffee and looking pretty dry despite floating down the river in snow and rain since launching at 11 a.m. Sunday.

“When the snow started three hours ago, it was blowing west horizontally. It was blowing my canoe in circles,” Kinziger said.

Kinziger and his wife live in Deary. Kinziger calls himself a “solo canoer” and prides himself on his ability to take four or five week trips into the wilderness during the summer.

Kinziger left Laird Park Sunday with enough supplies for four days. He paddled on the river until 7 p.m. that night. He set up camp a few miles outside of Palouse. He was back on the water by 8 a.m. Monday morning.

But after a day and a morning of paddling through the snow and rain, Kinziger found himself clinging to the underside of a small bridge north of Colfax, just trying to stay warm. An abrupt snowstorm had hit and he couldn’t see to paddle. His nose and hands were very cold and he was having trouble seeing because the wind was making his eyes water. He rested for a half hour and then made the decision to stop.

“I knew I had to make it down here [to Colfax]. There’s no cell reception up there,” he told the Gazette. He pulled his canoe out above the flood control just north of Colfax, stored it and then walked to Taco Time.

All his supplies are kept in waterproof bags specially designed to withstand any amount of water- even when submerged.

His aluminum canoe chair weighs 14 ounces and folds up smaller than a backpack. For meals, he packs powdered mixes for soups or cereals, complete with all the spices he would need. For example, in one Ziploc bag he had the mixings for Louisiana Gumbo, to which he had already added extra spices.

He added powdered milk to his breakfast granola and kept the mix in a Ziploc bag. His stove runs on propane and folds up smaller than a man’s fist. A pot can rest on its three small prongs.

When the river is blocked ahead by a bridge, water fall or other obstacle, Kinziger must portage his canoe around the obstacle.

For portages, he carries the boat on shoulder pads mounted on the center thwart.

Kinziger said he has plans for another, bigger trip this summer.

“I go where no one goes,” he said with a smile.