Hebb Park to Willamette Park

Spring is just a week old. The Daffodils are still in bloom. The Willamette water is still really cold, but the Sun is out and the river is calling.

Here is a short downstream suburban float with a little bit of adventure toward the end.

We started out at Hebb County Park just up river from West Lynn. This is a lovely part of suburban Portland. Lots of big houses and small farms. Driving the roads is a bit like driving out in the country.  From Portland, you pretty much follow the signs to the Canby Ferry and then hang a left at the last moment and follow the signs to Hebb County Park.

The park is pretty much a picnic and water access park. Lots of places to park a car and small boat trailer, plus there is nice boat ramp. There is a floating dock that is only accessible from land during the summer (they take a section out in the winter). On this section of the river, there is a pretty well pronounced bluff, which is good because it puts the houses above the "High Water 1996" Flood sign that is 30 or so feet above upon a pole when we are launching.

See the high water sign on top of the second pole in?

This is a shuttle trip. So we first spent a little time putting some cars down at the take out (Willamette park in West Lynn. Not to be confused with Willamette Park in Portland).

The river in this first section is broad and deep and slow. Easy to launch and not much going on once you get on the water. Might as well sit back and enjoy the warm sun on your head and the view of the nice homes and floating docks that line the river bank. I think some of these people have spent more money on the stair cases that go down to the river than I have spent on my car.  Must be a pain to varnish and clean.



Just as we started out, I took a glance at my compass and saw that we were going South East. Pretty funny to be paddling South East downstream on a North flowing river. But if you look at the map you can see that the river is making a pretty big bend right then. Pretty soon we hit a hard left turn and now we are going North again.

Right there at the turn is this big mansion that appears to be under construction. Our leader says it has been like that for years. 20 years, to be exact. The land was originally purchased by the founder of Hollywood video, I guess he had big plans for building this huge place (bigger than the White House) with a huge garage to show off his many cars. His excuse is "I was just in my 30s". Unclear if there is a connection between the house never being finished and the whole "Video Rental" business.

For this stretch of river, down the East side, runs a busy rail road line. While we were paddling we saw too passenger trains going by, the Commuter Amtrak line (Cascade) from Eugene to Seattle (and on into Canada)  and then later we saw the Coastal Starlight on its way south from Seattle to LA.  The Coastal Starlight is a multi-day train and it has double decker cars along with a lounge car, a few sleeper cars, a dining car, and a viewing car. You can read about it HERE.

Now we are approaching a more interesting part of the river. In fact, from this view, it looks like the river just ENDS. Where does it go?
This is a section where an ancient lava flow constricts the river and forms the Narrows. There are 3 main islands that obstruct the river and make for a number of fast flowing little features and fingers. We took a little entrance into the River Right current flow. It is a little challenging to navigate in a long boat. Not dangerous, just constricted. During the summer, you often can't get over to the east part of the Narrows because the water is just too shallow. But right now, we road a little ripple in, paddled a bit on that side, and then had a fun paddle up-stream agains a short fast flow to get back out to the main river where we found a little mud beach and a place to stop for a rest and snack.

Lots of big trees and stags sitting up high on the rocks in the this area. Gives you an idea of how high the river can flow. And this is how much the river can change WITH modern flow control and the extensive Dam system up in the mountains on the many river tributaries.
Back in the 1800s, the river used to flood all of the time and the many towns and villages along this part of the river (including the historic capitol of the area, Champoeg, used to washed away every couple of years until people gave up and moved to higher land further from the river.

The Narrows is a semi protected natural setting. It is at least hard to get to and there are not many places you can easily land. So you may see some nature out there. I saw a very nice stand of Oregon Grape, just in bloom, as well as many Madrone trees. The Madrone do really well right in this little micro-climate of the Narrows. We also saw a pretty impressive display of beaver chewing. A couple of huge trees gnawed up and toppling.

If you paddle up the Narrows, keep your wits about you. There are plenty of places where the current is calm and protected, But you can duck through some little pass in the rocks and find yourself in a place where the current is whipping by faster than you are used to and you may have to either turn around (which may be tight) or remember how to do a swift water eddy line entry (hint: moon the current).

After the Narrows, the river opens up and slows down. We are now approaching the falls of the Willamette, which is pretty much death to consider paddling (and illegal). We don't go anywhere close to those, however, but get out a the nice boat ramp at Willamette Park, right at the confluence of the Tualatin river. This is a wonderful little town park. Free parking and a couple of places you can launch a kayak. It is also a pretty easy up river paddle to go play in the Narrows for a couple of hours if you should not want to do a shuttle trip.

I sort of lucked out on the entire shuttle thing. My partner did the car transport to the bottom and all I had to do was load up the boats and we were ready to go.