Duo Canoes from Wyoming to Washington

In a day and age when most multi-month canoe expeditions rely on sponsorship, it's comforting to know there are still a few Huck Finns who resist the corporate calling.

Such was the case last summer as Tom Delman, 25, and John Jolley, 27, took 80 days and just $2,000--including boat, gear, food and travel--to become perhaps the first people to canoe down the Snake and Columbia rivers from Jackson Lake, Wyo., to the Pacific Ocean. "We were doing it for our own personal glory," says Delman. "We did it completely unsponsored--although we did get a lot of help from people along the way."

For those who noticed and/or helped them, their lack of sponsorship was as obvious as the route to the Pacific. Apart from their Kevlar canoe and K-mart jackets, all of their trappings hinted of Lewis and Clark. They wore long-sheathed knives on their waists, fished for most of their food, cooked over an open fire in a cast-iron skillet, carried a rifle and a pistol, drank from a jug of whiskey, rolled their own smokes, and dribbled Bleach into river water for drinking. Documentation-wise, all they brought were two disposable cameras.

Naturally, onlookers gawked, and Delman kept a list of the things they were called along the way: crazy, certifiable, stupid. People on shore screamed warnings of their impending death, to which Delman and Jolley would smile and lean into another stroke. The farther they traveled, however, the more acrimony turned into awe. "I knew right away these were two good kids," says Don Mays, a Twin Falls, Idaho, outfitter who was guiding a raft trip on the Snake when Jolley and Delman tied up to his raft. "They had a goal and were fulfilling their dream."

To reach their goal, however, they first had to survive the Class IV-V Milner Mile and Murtaugh Canyon sections of the Snake. And neither of them had ever seen that kind of whitewater before (their first foray with water above Class II came Day 2 in the Snake's Alpine Canyon). After honing their skills--and through Lewis and Clark trial and error--they made it through Murtaugh in four days, lining only one rapid. It was in Murtaugh, at a wave called The Idaho Connection, where they had their first broach, spilling Delman into the Snake.

Hell's Canyon was "Disneyland" after Murtaugh, says Delman, although they punctured their canoe at Granite Creek during the trip's only flip and received a $200 citation from a ranger for paddling the canyon without a permit. The next 30 days were spent paddling against relentless winds along the Columbia. They portaged dozens of dams and paddled through endless reservoirs with ever-elusive horizons. They even survived the Cascade Locks just west of Hood River, Ore., eventually landing at Washington's Fort Canby State Park.

On the drive home, the two spoke little as exhaustion blended with a creeping realization of their feat. "We were sitting up on the hood of the truck at this gas station and a guy walked up and asked what we were doing," says Delman. "We kinda shrugged. Then he said, 'Where you guys been?' Then John just looked at him and said, 'Now that's a damn good question.'"