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.