Paddle Oregon 2012

In August we kayaked over 100 miles down the Willamette River from a bit south of Corvallis to Newberg -- Paddle Oregon 2012.  Five days on the river and four nights of camping at parks, breweries and wineries.  It was a great trip.

Take a look at our photos from Paddle Oregon.
They show what our days were like on this trip.

Paddle Oregon has a gallery of lots of pictures of this trip, many taken by outdoor photographer Neil Schulman.

Paddle Oregon is organized by Willamette Riverkeepers, a conservation organization whose goal is to protect and restore the Willamette River.  Paddle Oregon gets a group of about 100 people out on the river for a week so they can really experience it and build a connection to the river.  Of course Willamette Riverkeepers hopes that will inspire these people to vote and take other actions to continue to restore the river and nearby habitat.

For example, I have driven across the Willamette on I-5 hundreds of times between Portland and Eugene, but I had only kayaked on it a few times in the Portland area.  I had no idea what the river was actually like south of Portland. Willamette Riverkeepers folks note that "I-5 is a jealous mistress."  I-5 wants you to focus on I-5 and not on the land just a few miles away from it.

So we signed up for Paddle Oregon to learn more about the Willamette, to get in five consecutive days of kayaking with like-minded people, and to enjoy their company over good food and drink at camp.

This year Paddle Oregon started at McCartney Park south of Corvallis near Harrisburg and ended at Newberg.  107 miles.  The itinerary:

Day	Mileage	Camp
Monday, August 13	24	Start at McCartney Park, Harrisburg. Camp at Crystal Springs Park, Corvallis
Tuesday, August 14	12.5	Bryant Park, Albany
Wednesday, August 15	18	Chatoe Rogue (Rogue Hop Farm) near Independence
Thurssday, August 16	30	Arcane Cellars Winery (north of Salem)
Friday, August 17	2	Newberg

Monday: Harrisburg to Corvallis

The first day was long. Because it really pretty much started the day before with getting all the gear together. We had the sense to get a motel room in Newberg on Sunday night instead of attempting to battle Monday morning traffic to drive from Portland to Newberg. Bright and early on Monday morning we were at the take-out in Newberg where the Paddle Oregon folks had setup a shuttle to the put-in in Harrisburg. I'm not a morning person, but the river was beautiful at dawn.

We handed over our boats and gear and we boarded a comfy bus where I could relax for a while.

Once we got to McCartney Park in Harrisburg we met the people we'd be paddling with for the next week. We were organized into "pods" with a couple leaders who were very good paddlers and knew the river. Our pod leaders were Suzi and Russ, who you'll see a lot in the photos. Our fellow paddlers spanned a range of skill levels. We enjoyed hanging out with them over the coming days.

After getting gear together we got on the water about 11am. Actually not bad considering the long shuttle, the welcome announcements, meeting our pod, and getting gear together. It was a beautiful day. I'd never seen the Willamette this far south (well, except from I-5) and I was impressed and thrilled to see how clear the water is there. It also moves along pretty quickly. There were often riffles and more than a couple (small) rapids. Actually, the river stayed much like this til joined by the Santiam near Salem.

Many of the people who do Paddle Oregon are not highly experienced paddlers. And the first day we were kind of bunched up more than on later days. So not surprisingly there was a bit of carnage at some of the rapids the first day. Kristin did very well considering she had not been in moving water in a *long* time. I was having a great time. It was such a free feeling kayaking on a hot day in paddling shorts and a Patagonia t-shirt instead of a drysuit, helmet, neoprene gloves, etc.

So after driving to Vancouver from San Francisco on Friday night and Saturday, packing gear on Sunday, getting up *way* too early on Monday and then paddling 24 miles, I was tired by the time we got to Corvallis. We got off the water and carried out boats up onto the grass to find that a nice grassy park with plenty of places to put up a tent and the Paddle Oregon folks had already setup tables for us to relax and enjoy apres-paddle drinks. As promised all of our camping gear had also arrived. We found our gear bags with tent, sleeping bag, clothes, etc., setup the tent, got changed into non-paddling clothes, and sauntered over to the dining area where there was a nice selection of local beers and wines. This was a great way to wrap-up a challenging couple of days. Then after a couple beers dinner was served -- prime rib and salmon. We could tell this was going to be a good vacation.

Tuesday: Corvallis to Albany

Sleep felt great on Monday night and on Tuesday morning I was feeling ready to enjoy the day of paddling. Our camp on Tuesday evening was Bryant Park near downtown Albany. It was going to be a pretty short day mileage-wise, only 12.5 miles. Today I really started to have fun. The river was beautiful and our leaders led us into a number of backwaters that I would have never found and talked about wildlife, habitat, and about how the route of the river has continually changed over thousands of years. Many of these backwaters had been part of the river's main stream at one time.



Bryant Park in Albany turned out to be a nice park to camp in. Drinks again from local breweries. Dinner was BBQ. And in the evening a group of Taiko drummers performed, who were excellent.

Wednesday: Albany to Chatoe Rogue

Wednesday we paddled to Rogue Brewery's hop farm on the Willamette, Chatoe Rogue, near Independence. It was a really nice day of paddling. Today I really started to feel like I was getting into the groove of the paddling days.

Chatoe Rogue is hop farm with a small pub and hotel. And a nice park-like lawn for camping among nice shady apple trees. Not surprisingly, drinks were Rogue beers. A fun addition to the afternoon were the chickens wandering among our tents.

Thursday: Chatoe Rogue to Arcane Cellars

Thursday was our longest day -- 30 miles from Independence to well north of Salem. But compared to our first day, it did not feel overly long at all. We even had a long lunch break at a nice park in Salem where they brought us ice cream :) It was a hot day, so it helped to cool off by rolling the kayak once in a while.



We camped at Arcane Cellars on Thursday evening. A small winery near Keizer. They were fabulous hosts! They were thrilled we had come and invited any of us to return and camp there again. They had some nice wines. We focused on ones that would be refreshing on a hot day like their Pinot Noir rose. While we were relaxing over wine some Flamenco dancers put on a great show. For our final Paddle Oregon dinner we had steak and crab.

Friday: Arcane Cellars to Newberg

Friday was bittersweet. It was still great to be out paddling on the Willamette, but it was becoming a much slower, wider, bigger river. No longer swiftly flowing and crystal clear. And by the time we got to the Newberg Pool it felt like we were paddling behind a diesel truck with all the power boats. We found a slough behind an island to get away from the power boats. The sudden peace and quiet was such a relief. Then I recalled that this was what I had gotten used to over the past week. Though we had not been paddling in a wilderness, we had been away from the noise of traffic for days. It's impressive that you can get a "away from it all" without having to really go far at all.

We made it to the take-out at Rogers Landing in Newberg well before I expected. The parking lot was hot hot hot. The Paddle Oregon folks had organized various Newberg groups to come down to give us cool drinks. We needed them before we could face loading boats on Kristin's car! Some Newberg Chamber of Commerce folks gave us good restaurant recommendations. After we got boats loaded we had a great dinner at Subterra, a very nice wine-oriented restaurant. A very nice way to wrap up a great vacation.

First BASK trip: Paradise Cove

At the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium I was introduced to a number of people in the local kayak club: Bay Area Sea Kayakers. This past weekend I went on my first paddling trip with them: From Sausalito around Tiburon to Paradise Cove Park. A nice 11 nm paddle.

ParadiseCove_Feb12

This trip was focused on being a good trip for new BASK members. I'd talked with Krista, one of the organizers, at GGSKS and it really sounded like it'd be a good trip for me to meet people and a nice enjoyable trip for me.

We started from the beach at Sea Trek Kayak in Sausalito. Nice beach, but parking is a pain. (Which is so very typical of San Francisco.) It was a pleasant late morning start. And the currents were pretty favorable:

Predicted currents for Bluff Point (the tip of Tiburon) for Sunday Feb 26, 2012:
6:59 am -2.07 kt Max Ebb
10:53 am 0.00 kt Slack, Flood Begins
12:42 pm 1.43 kt Max Flood
4:20 pm -0.01 kt Slack, Ebb Begins

It was a nice day. So many of them are here -- I can't complain. And not nearly as windy as the GGSKS days the weekend before.

It was basically a pleasant paddling trip. Some of it was familiar from trips I did the weekend before at GGSKS: paddling from Sausalito across Richardson Bay to Belvedere Point and then going across Belvedere Cove (watching carefully for ferries and other boats). We stopped and regrouped a couple times before going around a couple points and cruised onto the beach in Paradise Cove Park on the east side of Tiburon. Had a nice time at lunch hanging out and getting to know the BASK folks. Nice folks. I enjoyed both hanging out and paddling with them. I'll definitely get more involved and do more trips with them.

And the paddle back was also just plain nice. The wind kicked up, and I was gearing up for real exercise, but it calmed back down after only for a short while.

Once back at the beach, folks took the opportunity to do a bit of self-rescue practice. I practiced my roll, which is always pleasant on a warm day. A good day on the water.

Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium 2012

I'd heard great things about the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium for the past few years. And since I live here now that makes it pretty convenient to participate. And I really wanted to see a number of my friends from the Pacific NW would be coming down here for it. I was thrilled that so many of them would be in San Francisco at one time.

GGSKS_2012

The symposium was Feb 17-19 this year and the weather was great. I do miss the Pacific NW, but a guy could get used to this weather!

I took part on Saturday and Sunday. Since it had been awhile since I'd been paddling in dynamic water I decided to take this opportunity to get back in that saddle. On Saturday I took a tides and currents class. I wanted to do some paddling with Gordon Brown while he was over here so on Sunday I did the Bay Tour that he and Steve Scherrer were leading.

I got to Horseshoe Bay and the Presidio Yacht Club bright and early on Saturday morning. People were already getting gear together and hauling boats down to the beach. It was great to see so many kayakers in one place again. And lots of very attractive boats.

One of the first people I met was Johnny from Bay Area Sea Kayakers (BASK). He was very welcoming and over the course of the weekend would introduce me to quite a number of people. Thus far I've done all my outdoor adventures here in California on my own. Since kayaking can be dangerous I've basically done very safe trips. I had heard that BASK is a good club, but hadn't reached out to them yet. Well, within minutes of showing up at GGSKS I was meeting them. And yes, one of them helped me carry my boat to the beach. Nice start to the day.

GGSKS is very organized. At the time stated on our registration they did a safety talk, introduced the leaders of the classes and got us all into our class groups to start the day. Well done.

My class started off in Horseshoe Bay with the coaches just wanting us to warm up, do some edging, low-brace turns, etc. Good - checking to see what our skill levels were. We then headed out into San Francisco Bay. My first time in the Bay. It was morning with pretty much no wind and near slack tide so the water was calm. We headed east around Yellow Bluff and stopped at a beach just south of Sausalito for the lecture part of the class. I was thrilled to find that I remembered all of it from previous classes with Shawna, Leon, Paul Kuthe, Karl Anderson and Gordon Brown. Though I remembered the theory, I was under no illusion that I could still paddle effectively in current.

We headed across calm waters of Richardson Bay to Belvedere Point. Our goal was to get to Angel Island for lunch. The tide was ebbing by now and the channel between Belvedere Point and Angel Island would provide a good place to practice paddling in current. The ebb turned out to be not that strong yet, so it was both easy and not much of a learning situation. But hey, I was out of practice enough that easing into it was just fine.

I'd seen Angel Island many times since I moved here, but had not yet been there. It's both larger and has more historical interest than I knew. It also has a number of great beaches for landing your kayak. We had lunch at Camp Reynolds, which has not only a nice beach but picnic tables, historic buildings, and even nice restrooms! I was glad to have finally kayaked there. It also has lots of trails, so I'll have to go back there sometime just to hike around.

As we had lunch the ebb grew stronger. We should get more current practice on the trip back to Horseshoe Bay. And we did. There was an appr. 2.5 kt ebb with a 12 - 15 kt west wind against it kicking up some 2 foot waves. Ok, I hadn't done this in a few years. But I felt good. Things were coming back. It felt great to be out there with the bow of my kayak slicing through waves, a moderate breeze in my face.

It was also a good bit of work. There were definitely people in the class who were working pretty hard to get back to Yellow Bluff from Angel Island. And I noticed something. I was near the front of the group the entire day. In the past I have often struggled on kayaking trips. I enjoyed kayaking, but just wasn't in good enough physical shape to keep up on the kinds of kayak trips I wanted to do (and foolishly signed up for). Like this trip for example. The time working at Microsoft when I basically got no exercise didn't help. So when I moved to San Francisco I decided to do something about it. I joined a gym and started working out with a personal trainer. I told him that I wanted to improve my endurance for kayaking, hiking and climbing and also lose some weight. I told him about the various outdoor activities that I love, but for far too many years I just haven't been in shape enough to truly enjoy. He came up with a plan and we've been executing on it. He started off just getting my body used to exercise and working on good form for various exercises. We do lots of weight training and training with TRX (webbing straps that you use for various rowing and push-up exercises). Over the past few months he's been working me pretty hard. Much harder than I would have ever pushed myself. With workouts alternating between ones where we focus on technique and form and ones where we focus on endurance. I'm certainly feeling better. But I didn't know if my conditioning had improved enough to help my paddling in wind and waves. Well, it did. I felt great.

So I want to thank my trainer, Ash, at Crunch Gym in San Francisco. I highly recommend him.

When we got back to Yellow Bluff the ebb was still strong enough that there was a tide race there. Being a class on currents, it would have been a letdown not to finally get the chance to practice in that tide race. (It was far from being as big as it could be.) Well, I got out there and did not have a Zen experience. I was a little gripped being out in bigger waves than I'd been in in years. The muscles were not moving gracefully. But I did manage to get on a couple waves and surf them. A nice way to wrapup my first day back in dynamic water.

It wasn't far from there back to the beach in Horseshoe Bay. Got my boat strapped onto my car, got out of my drysuit into hiking shorts (yes, it was that nice in February) and Johnny of BASK caught me and invited me up to hang out with the BASK folks at Presidio Yacht Club's bar. I'd never been there. Turns out to be one of San Francisco's hidden gems. I would have never found it. It's a comfy place with nice people and great local beers. And it was full of happy kayakers who'd had a great day on the water. Johnny introduced me to more BASK folks, we had a couple beers, and they invited me to go to dinner with them. Found a nice Chinese restaurant in Sausalito.

We didn't linger long over dinner because we didn't want to miss the GGSKS Saturday night festivities. The main feature was a talk by Jon Turk, who did a presentation on his expedition kayaking around Ellesmere Island. Yowza. It was an excellent talk. I will likely never go there. I also had a chance to hang out and talk with Paul Kuthe and Kate, which made me happy.

On Sunday I was signed up to do a trip with Gordon Brown. I'd taken some classes with him when I visited Scotland in 2006 and got a lot out of them and very much liked him. I was looking forward to the opportunity to paddle with him again. Gordon Brown's style (at least for intermediate kayakers) is to do a tour and insert lots of learning opportunities in it. He and Steve Scherrer were leading just such a Bay Tour on Sunday. Interestingly the basic plan was to circumnavigate Angel Island and gain various lessons when we hit interesting current.

Which is just what we did. Again, most of the time we were out the tide was ebbing (near slack when we started). Like the day before we had lunch on Angel Island. Again it was a beautiful day with a west wind. After lunch we paddled counter-clockwise around Angel Island. By the time we got to the SE tip of Angel Island the tide was ebbing strongly. The tide rips there were impressive (to me). You know, with waves that looked about six feet high but in actuality were probably just three feet. Most of us did not have the skill yet to navigate that. Steve Scherrer led us through some rocks that gave us a little rock garden experience, which was definitely fun. We paused for a break at the old Immigration Center on the NE side of Angel Island. Once we got round into Racoon Strait we knew we'd be going with the strong ebb current against an appr 12-15 kt west wind. So we knew there'd be waves. And just as predicted there were. It was excellent practice paddling in much larger waves than yesterday. And yesterday's practice made it easier. Once again I was paddling near the front of the group and feeling strong. I was pretty happy.

We got to Yellow Bluff and the waves in the tide race were much bigger than any of the students were up for. Turned out Paul Kuthe was coaching a more advanced class there so we stopped, chatted, and watched his students work on getting onto the waves. Educational and great fun watching. I'm looking forward to gaining the skill to do that.

We then headed back to the Horseshoe Bay and got boats strapped onto cars, got out of drysuits, and headed for the bar. I had the chance to connect with a number of people from the Pacific NW. I was pretty happy. And again I was also hanging out with the BASK folks. They invited me on a paddling trip the next weekend that was focused on new club members, which sounded like a great idea. All in all, a very good weekend.

For a richer perspective on the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium, and some great photos, see Paul Kuthe's blog post on it.

Kayaking on Tomales Bay

In just a week I would be taking classes at the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium. However... I really haven't been in my boat enough to either a) get value out of the classes, or b) paddle very well at all in more challenging conditions. I needed to fix that.

So I went up to Point Reyes to get back in the saddle and put some nautical miles on my boat. There are several good paddling options up in that area. I chose Tomales Bay. One reason is that the most reasonably priced motel that had rooms available has a nice beach right on the bay, which was very convenient.

I drove up on Saturday (Feb 11) and scoped out the area. Had a nice dinner at the Farm House Restaurant in Olema (just south of Point Reyes Station). Nice food. It isn't a "special night out" kind of place, but rather good comfort food. I had excellent prime rib along with some local wine.

On Sunday morning I had a great breakfast at Station House Cafe in Point Reyes Station. They focus on local food. I liked them a lot and will be back.

After breakfast I fumbled around with gear. Took longer than it should. But then, since it had been quite a while since I'd paddled", I expected it would take longer than it did when I was in practice. Better to fumble around now than at GGSKS when I'd have a real schedule to keep to.

My plan was to paddle north on part of the ebb, then keep paddling against the flood as long as I felt like it, have lunch, and then ride the flood back to my car.

And that plan worked pretty well. It was a bit of work carrying my boat across the beach at a low-ish tide, but the exercise must have burnt some calories. Once on the water I definitely was not in my best paddling form. But I focused on the details of my forward stroke and just kept at it. I was feeling rusty, but it was good to be on the water. Seems like so much of the work of kayaking is just getting the boat to the water!

I landed and had lunch at Hearts Desire Beach in Tomales State Park. A very nice beach.

On the beach I talked with a nice German couple who had just started kayaking this year. They had plastic recreational kayaks and were really enjoying kayaking. Now that they know they enjoy kayaking they anticipate getting better boats. They of course need much more practice and I suggested taking classes somewhere where they would use the Nigel Dennis Romany for teaching. That boat always makes me feel like a much better paddler than I am.

After lunch I headed back south toward my car. I now had both the flood current and a north wind at my back. So speed was easy. I was having problems with the cable on my skeg so it wasn't deploying at all. And the wind with the long fetch was kicking up some wind waves. Nothing huge, butt that gave me the opportunity to practice rudder strokes more than I might have.

Once back at Inverness I loaded the boat onto the car and went back to Point Reyes Station for dinner. A good day!

TomalesBay_Feb2012

Holidays in the Pacific NW

I drove up to Portland and Seattle for a few days over the holidays. The drive up was gorgeous. From Lake Shasta all the way through Southern Oregon it was a clear crisp early-winter day. A great day for a road trip.

I got into Portland in the afternoon on Christmas Eve and had enough time to relax a bit from the drive before we went over to a Heilige Nacht party hosted by good friends Wendy and Dan. It's an annual party and I knew that it'd be a great opportunity to see many of my best friends at once. And it did indeed turn out to be a great time to reconnect with friends.

Over the next few days I relaxed alot with Kristin and friends. On Tuesday after Christmas I drove up to Seattle. Always one of my favorite cities. I had several things I needed to get done there, but the key one was visiting a cat at Cat's Exclusive that needs a new home. Cat's Exclusive was my cat's vet when I lived in Seattle so I know the people pretty well. They of course remember my old best buddy Boris and were wondering when I'd be ready to have a cat again. I'm still not quite sure myself, but I wanted to visit with the cat they now have that needs a home. He's a 7 year-old male named Shepherd. I talked alot with the nurse who's taking care of him and she said he's a very cuddly and mellow guy.

I need to talk with my landlady about him and make sure she's fine with me getting a cat. If so, I'll head back to Seattle and pick him up. I'll keep you all posted! For the moment, here's a couple pictures of him:

Shepherd Dec 2011