By Linea Jantz
Cover photo courtesy of Katelyn Scott
In July 2025, I attended the inaugural Paint and Paddle overnight canoe camping trip to benefit the Spokane Riverkeeper. The Spokane River thunked softly against the hulls of three Voyager canoes, each 28 feet long with hand-laid fiberglass trimmed with wooden gunwales, built by our guides Big River Canoes. A group of 15 river enthusiasts had gathered to paddle along the Lower Spokane River, learn some plein air painting skills, share meals and celebrate the river. At any given moment, someone was painting something that had caught their interest or swimming to cool off from the high summer heat.
On the shore, my bare toes snuggled into warm sand. I saluted the opposite bank of the river with my paintbrush as our artist instructor Megan Perkins had taught us, an exercise in perspective. I dipped my brush into a cup of river water, mixing blues to paint my favorite canoe, the one bearing a cast-iron kettle with the important job of brewing the coffee. A mug of this blessed beverage steamed next to me, lightened with a splash of evaporated milk.
After setting up camp, some of us paddled back to Detillion Rock. Braver members of the group climbed the rocks to leap into the river. I tread water and rocked in the cool of the currents. We paddled back to camp for salmon sizzling in cast iron, grilled eggplant, farm-fresh cherries and other delights.
Then we climbed back into the canoes. We paddled downriver a bit and roped the canoes together. Rocked by the waves, we painted as dusk settled over the hills. “This was my dream for planning this trip,” our guide PT Bruno said quietly. “That we could gather a group of people together to come onto the river and paint as the sun set.”
We would return to the boats one more time that night. By a stroke of luck, the Perseid meteor shower was active during our trip. We lit lanterns and paddled quietly out from the dock past the other camps. Once we hit open water, our guides called for us to match each other in 10 strong strokes, paddles pressing against the water, the stars streaming past, the other canoes’ lights in the darkness. Then we rocked in silence watching the sky as meteors dropped toward the horizon. When I crawled into my tent and curled into my sleeping bag, the ground continued to move beneath me like the waves.
In the morning, I crawled from my tent in the cool birdsong of first light. Brain fuzzy with a couple hours of sleep, I staggered to a camp chair with my paints and notebook. One of the guides brought me a cup of coffee like a true hero, and the camp dog Gus curled up a couple feet away. As the sun’s light began to bloom across the horizon, I painted a memory to bring home.
If you would like to experience your own Paint and Paddle adventure, join Big River Canoes and the Spokane Riverkeeper on July 25-26, 2026. If enough seats are sold to make a profit, a portion of the proceeds for this event will go to the Spokane Riverkeeper to support river protection, connection and restoration. Learn more and register at Spokaneriverkeeper.org.
Linea Jantz is an avid trail runner, flatwater kayaker and loves all forms of pedal-powered locomotion. This spring, you can find her getting distracted by cool trees or a particularly interesting lichen on a trail near you.
