First Descent by tribal youth reaches conclusion at Pacific Ocean
The journey is over. The 310-mile First Descent paddle from the headwaters of the Wood River to Requa, where the Klamath Rivers pours into the Pacific Ocean, ended Friday when a group of teenaged kayakers from tribes living along the the river and its tributaries arrived at a spit at the river’s end. A gathering of relatives, friends and other watched as the kayakers broke through the fog and into view. … Along with congratulating the young paddlers and giving them words of encouragement, a recurring theme was celebrating the removal of four Klamath River dams and the return of salmon. Fittingly, the ceremonies, which moved from the spit to the road in Requa, were adjacent to what was intended to be a fish processing plant but is not operating because of the lack of salmon. Speakers also noted that weeks after the removal of the dams, salmon were seen beyond the John C. Boyle Dam near Keno.
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