Dan Hansen

Dan Dunn and 3-month-old Nelson search for family members while taking in the sights at Neighbor Days in Riverfront Park. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

1. Fishermen search for walleye in the Columbia near Northport in early June. The mountains of northwestern Washington rise in the background. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. A family motors from the Spokane River into the Columbia for fishing. 3. At Wells Dam, trout in the hatchery ponds await release into the Columbia. 4. Writer Hansen on the water. 5. A cotote watches warily from the rugged hillside along Rufus Woods Lake upstream from Chief Joseph Dam. 6. Golfers play at Desert Canyon Golf Course, which overlooks the Columbia near Orondo, Wash. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

The dam workers were expecting us and arrived at the boat launch about the time we beached. They loaded our inflatable boat onto their flatbed pickup, drove a half mile around the dam and the Wanapum Indian village at its west end and unloaded the boat on the downstream side. "You should have good current the rest of the trip," said one of the men.

1. Some fishermen tell tall tales, but at least one has photographs of 35 years of sturgeon fishing on the Columbia River. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. A pelican glides along the river.

Bighorn sheep scramble along the Columbia north of Vantage. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

1. Vantage point Ancient basalt cliffs flank boaters who travel into Vantage, Wash., on the Columbia River. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Bryan Stockdale has big plans for Vantage, but so did three generations of his family.

1. Orchardist Grady Auvil of Orondo, Wash., was a pioneer in growing Granny Smith apples. He's now emphasizing Fuji and Gala apples. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Former farm worker Portfirio Covarrubias now owns his own small orchard. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Fruit trees aren't all that's sprouting from the desert near Orondo. "Sun, sand, sagebrush and 7,500 yards of lush green grass," reads an advertisement for Desert Canyon Golf Course and development. Water sucked from the Columbia River - about two miles west of the course - makes the fairways and greens lush. Some of the water is dyed blue and pumped over manmade falls near the entrance. The course, a par 72 that opened last year, was rated second-best in the state by Golf Digest. That's good enough to draw plenty of wellheeled duffers from the coast.

1. (Photo of tombstone) 2. "Our people say the river must take someone, a sacrifice, every once in a while so the people will understand its strength," says Nez Perce John Grant, whose son, Johnnie Grant, drowned while fishing the Columbia. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

For 130 miles, the outboard motor had created our current on the Columbia River. Its throaty roar drowned out the water noises and sent wildlife fleeing, often before we knew whether a deer was a buck. But once below Grand Coulee Dam and its reservoir, we entered narrow, moving water. I ripped the starter cord and chugged to midstream before killing the motor. The inflatable boat traveled at river speed - about 4 mph - and spun with the whirlpools.

1. (This color photo appeared on page A1) Grand Coulee Dam atracts tourists from around the world. See story B3. 2. Grand Coulee Dam draws tourists from across thwe nation and around the world. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

1. The Columbian Princess, one of three ferries remaining on the Columbia River system, cut across Lake Roosevelt between Gifford and Inchelium. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Pilot Daryle Marchand at the helm of the Columbian Princess. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

By all means, bring your RV and your boat. Load up the kids and the fishing gear and head for Lake Roosevelt for the weekend. Just don't show up Saturday morning and expect to find a convenient campsite. Porcupine Bay, the National Park Service campground closest to Spokane, normally is full by Thursday night, said park ranger Terri Ray. Fort Spokane fills up by Friday afternoon. "Holiday weekends are a different story," said Ray. People will set up camp on Monday and pay for the whole week just so they'll have a place to stay on the weekend. The park service runs 31 campgrounds with 813 campsites in the Coulee Dam National Recreation Area. Others are available for groups only. Generally speaking, the farther a campground is from Spokane the less competition there is for space, said Ray. Boat-in campgrounds, such as Plum Point, Penix Canyon and Crystal Cove, offer fewer amenities than the larger drive-up camps. They typically lack running water or flush toilets - and are among the last to fill up. Beach campers can pitch tents anywhere below the high-water mark, as long as they are at least half a mile from the nearest developed campground. Fires are allowed only on portable fire pans or boxes that campers bring themselves. Ashes must be packed out. Some of the most remote campgrounds are on the two Indian reservations that border portions of the lake.

1. Water hazards Anglers from Port Townsend, Wash., get indignant with ranger Terri Ray, who fined one of them $95 for keeping an illegal walleye. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Park ranger Terri Ray pilots a Boston Whaler patrol boat on Lake Roosevelt. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

A harlequin duck feeds at Wilmont Creek near Lake Roosevelt. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review<

1. "We're the greatest fishermen in the world," says Bob Hannon of Spokane as he and Dan Smoke leave the lake. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Walleye are an important part of the Daisy, Wash., economy. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Echoes of a gathering. Pierre Louis of the People of the Falls Interpretive Center remembers Kettle Falls before the dams. "It's so quiet now." Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Choose 25 strangers with diverse backgrounds and widely divergent opinions. Tell them to meet at least once a week to hash out issues of great importance to a region. Ignore the group until it falters or makes an unpopular decision. Then

Spokane County freeholders, who were elected 2 years ago to make government better, finished their work Thursday. The final product: a 50-page charter - in effect, a local constitution - that would create one government to replace the Spokane City Council and County Commission. City boundaries would disappear.

A member of the panel that decides growth issues in Spokane is looking to expand his authority. Jim Kolva, a seven-year member of the city plan commission, announced Tuesday he plans to run for the City Council. In a four-page statement that is more philosophical than specific, Kolva promised "a commitment to hard work, balance, diligence, equity, open decision-making, teamwork and civility."

A taxing plan used to spruce up downtowns in Seattle, Portland and some 1,000 other cities is the best hope for Spokane's retail core, business leaders told the City Council on Monday. "Downtown business people can no longer compete with each other. They must band together and cooperate to promote business," said City Manager Roger Crum.

The Spokane City Council will hold a public hearing tonight on a proposal to bring parking meters back to downtown.

It may get a little more crowded, and a lot more dusty, out on the range. Spokane County commissioners on Tuesday tripled the number of livestock that can be kept on dry land. Under the new rules, up to three head of livestock can live on every acre of non-irrigated pasture. That's always been the limit for irrigated land, where lush grass helps prevent erosion and other problems.

Land use Spokane County hearing examiners will consider today whether to allow 179 houses where 58 normally would be allowed.