"If you're anything like me, you look at Spokane River downtown and think, 'Oh, nice river.'  You take out-of-town visitors to Riverfront or Riverside State Park, and they take pictures. How often do you actually interact with the river? Most of us probably spend a scant few minutes even thinking about the river, much less actively seeking out its waters.
But a better question than 'how often do I interact with the river' might be 'How often does the river interact with me?' Do I drink water? Do I use electricity? Do I read the newspaper? Does the river not then interact with me almost every moment of every day? Should I not then be paying just a little more attention to that very important body of water? Furthermore, shouldn’t I teach my kids not to carry around the same disinformation (fear) that I do?" - Terry Bain

We have absolutely no idea who Terry Bain is (apparently he writes books about cats and dogs), but we couldn't be more thrilled to have come across his wonderfully written story about a recent experience he had rafting the Spokane River from Harvard Park to Plante's Ferry Park.  While Bain is obviously a gifted writer, and it was fun to read about his trip, we just kept going back to those opening few paragraphs where he got us thinking about how often the river interacts with us, and how seldom many people around here interact with the river.  While it would be impossible to reciprocate the level of interaction, it's an interesting thought.  And we've always held true that the more time you spend around the Spokane River, the more likely you are to be encouraged to help protect it.  So while Spokane River recreation season is winding down, make it a point to put on your to-do list for next year to get out and play on one of the finest rivers in the Northwest!

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