The Columbia River Canoe Project finally streaming

The Columbia River Canoe Project finally streaming

Published 4:00 pm Monday, October 19, 2026

The Columbia River Canoe Project is an exciting, innovative, and informative film that takes an intimate look at a river dammed.

Inspired by Butte, Montana native Robert Lester, the paddling Odyssey navigated waterways from the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean.

Lester’s expedition took the 25-year-old and his cousin Braxton Mitchell, 18, a total of 52 days to complete the 2,000 km journey starting in Butte on May 12, 2023 and reaching Astoria Oregon, and the Pacific on July 2.

The film debuted in August, 2024 and was released in theatres for a limited run in November, 2024. Yet, it took more than two years to reach TV audiences, not making it to live stream until October, 2026.

“I know many of you have been waiting a long time to watch this film, and I can’t express how much I appreciate your patience,” Lester said in a release.

Lester says the process of getting the film out and available to the world was one of the slowest, most frustrating experiences of his life.

“It was almost as difficult as the expedition itself!”

The two men and their team of videographers documented their journey and drew attention to the historic impacts of resource extraction, its effects on Indigenous people, and the Columbia River watershed.

The Trail Times spoke to Lester in June 2023 when they stopped at the BC Hydro (Buckley’s) campground, after he and photographer Jonathon Stone paddled across the border and down the Canadian portion of the Pend d’Oreille River to the Columbia.

Mitchell was unaware of the Pend d’Oreille’s egress into Canada and didn’t receive his passport in time to make the paddle international.

Their brief run into Canada took them down a 25 km stretch of the Pend d’Oreille and a 12-km portage around the Seven Mile Dam and Waneta Dam before putting their canoe into the Columbia River and returning to the U.S.

On their journey, they bypassed 19 hydroelectric dams and navigated extreme weather, spending nearly 175 miles of their journey portaging and physically carrying their canoe.

The detour also made Lester appreciate the beauty that still exists along these rivers, and is hopeful that the impacts dams, industry, and technology have had on the natural world and its Indigenous people can be remediated and in some cases restored.

In the end, it’s all about a much bigger picture that needs attention.

“One domino falls in one of these ecosystems changes everything,” Lester said.

“Natural resource extraction is a big part of our society but it leaves scars, and we need to make sure those scars are cleaned properly.”

Lester encourages everyone to tune in and watch the film, even those who had seen it already on the big screen. Adding that there has been 10-minutes of additional footage that cannot be missed.

One review said, “Absolutely incredible film! So amazing to see a multi-month long expedition across the American West documented in such a beautiful way.”

Lester personally thanks director Neil Larson, photographer Stone, videographers Orion Herman and Ben Kaden, Erich Cannon and the band TopHouse for its richly flavoured Montana music.

The Columbia River Canoe Project is now available to stream on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and YouTube Movies.

“If you would go watch the film it would mean a lot to me,” Lester added.