WASHOUGAL — After seven years, three surgeries, 18 months of physical therapy and 1,000 miles of rigorous paddleboarding, Michael Curtis is about to complete the most ambitious journey of his self-described “adventurous life.”
Curtis of Washougal is finishing his journey traversing the entire length of the Columbia River on a stand-up paddleboard. The adventure is a fundraiser for Northwest Battle Buddies, a Battle Ground nonprofit dedicated to providing trained service dogs to military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
His journey has collected about $56,000 in donations for the group.
“It’s definitely been a rollercoaster,” Curtis said. “But it’s also been very physically and mentally rewarding. It allows me to pull away from the daily grind for a week or so and reset and recalibrate.”
On Aug. 10, Curtis set out on the fifth and final 150-mile leg of his expedition — from Black Sand Beach, about 3 miles south of the U.S.-Canada border, to Grand Coulee Dam in Central Washington. He completed the final stretch Aug. 17.
Curtis celebrated the following day at Chinook Landing Marine Park in Fairview, Ore.
“I’ll probably right away start thinking about, ‘What can I do next?’ ” Curtis told The Post-Record earlier this month. “I don’t know where to go from here.”
The expedition began in 2016, when Curtis and a friend, who had recently started paddling for fun, asked themselves over dinner and drinks how far they could go on a paddleboard.
“So we decided to take a week off work and go up to the Bonneville Dam and see how far we could make it downriver,” Curtis said. “There were lots of hurdles to overcome, not knowing what to bring, not knowing how to pack the gear, but we just went for it. We made it about 70 miles.”
In 2017, Curtis decided to give it another shot. He once again started from Bonneville Dam, but this time navigated 125 miles all the way to the mouth of the Columbia River near Astoria, Ore.
“At that point, I decided I was going to try to do this for charity the next year,” he said.
He began researching nonprofit organizations and came across Battle Buddies, which appealed to Curtis because he served in the U.S. Army, primarily as a communications officer, from 2000 to 2016.
In the summer of 2018, Curtis paddled from Umatilla, Ore., to Portland on a 190-mile journey.
“That one was a huge success,” he said. “I learned how to publish my location with an app so people could follow along. I posted as I went, and then I did some live feeds talking about the benefits of service animals to veterans struggling with PTSD. I set the goal for myself to explore the entirety from the Canadian border down to the coast.”
In 2019, Curtis navigated 198 miles from Wenatchee to Umatilla.
“With my wife as my support, we navigated around three dams and had a very successful adventure,” Curtis said.
Curtis took a year off in 2020 due the COVID-19 pandemic. His plan to traverse from Fort Spokane to Wenatchee in the summer of 2021 was halted due to wildfires in the area, so he decided to move downriver and regroup.
“I got caught in some really heavy winds, and I overexerted myself and collapsed the disc in my neck, which caused me to lose the ability to use my left hand,” he said. “It took me four hours to get out of the river.”
Multiple surgeries and rehabilitation sidelined him for the next 18 months. Curtis resumed his expedition in the summer of 2023, paddling 121 miles from Grand Coulee Dam to Wenatchee.
“You have ups, you have downs, you have days out there where you don’t feel good and your body hurts, and it’s 100 degrees outside and you’re sweating to death, sunburned, but you just keep driving forward,” he said. “ ‘Embrace the suck’ is what we say in the Army.”
Curtis, who admitted he “may never be 100 percent again” after his injuries, said he hopes that, by completing his expedition on the Columbia, he can serve as an inspiration to others.
“I live life to the fullest,” he said. “I don’t let my disabilities prevent me from doing the things I love.”
The logistics
Just getting to the starting point isn’t without challenges.
“I’ve got a filter, so I drink water out of the river,” he said. “I’ve got a sponsor who helps with dehydrated food, so that alleviates a lot of board space and allows me to bring just a small cook stove.
“Transportation is always an issue,” he said. “Usually, I have somebody who will basically leave their car at the end point, drive me up to the drop-off point in my car with all my gear, and then they go back and leave my car at the end. I’ve got a spare key, and when I finish, I get in my car and drive home.”
Curtis has had to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as park services and public utility districts, to navigate around river dams.
“The Columbia River is a federal waterway, and because the dams, a lot of them being privately owned, block the river, (the organizations are) required by federal law to help you with portage,” he said. “Once I learned that, I started working with them so they would pick me up at the dam and coordinate me around. Logistically speaking, that could be a bit of a nightmare because I had to set hard dates and try to be there at a specific time, and sometimes I didn’t have cell service.”
Curtis has raised enough money to fund two service dogs, according to Shannon Walker, founder and chief executive officer of Northwest Battle Buddies.
“It has been a humbling experience watching Michael over the past seven years push his mind and body to its very limit, all in support of NWBB and the veterans we serve,” Walker said.
“(Those dogs will) forever change the lives of the veterans who received them,” she said.
Curtis said he feels good being able to help other veterans.
“Seeing that one person and some crazy ideas can make a difference, it makes me want to do more and inspire others to go out and find unique ways of promoting awareness and raising funds to help those in need,” he said.
Curtis said he hopes to remain affiliated with Battle Buddies in the future.
“I’ve lost a lot of friends and soldiers in the military to suicide, most of which as a result of post-traumatic stress,” he said. “Seeing what the Northwest Battle Buddies were doing with service animals to help combat that, their success rate, the ‘befores’ and the ‘afters’ for the veterans? It’s literally like their life takes a 180-degree turn.
“They’re back in public. They’re doing the things they love, and they’ve got their ‘battle buddy’ to lean on and care for, who also loves them and helps guide them and is trained specifically to accommodate their needs.”
