Off River Activites - Paddle Oregon 2022

Off River Activities:

Food:

Over-the-top gourmet meals have long been a draw for this annual event. Covid and time has evidently put a little bump in the road for that particular luxury. The caterer that had done ALL of the previous 17 years of the event had decided to retire. Perhaps he didn’t want to do the Covid fight, perhaps it was just time. This guy and his team were REALLY good. Every meal was set out as a work of Art. Lots of selections of fresh vegetables and fruit. Delicious main courses. Great Deserts. Well thought out portable lunches. Coffee at 6:00 Every Damn Morning !!.  Roast Beef, Roast Pork. All you can eat Crab. Salmon. Oh Boy. Needless to say, he was a tough act to follow.

The team had decided to replace him with several caterers local to the spot we were camping on that night-morning. The idea sounds really good and it worked out pretty well…… but not universally great. I think the main problem was that the previous caterer had a lot of tricks and practices that he knew about and did but were not the usual caterer thing. For instance: He knew that the lunches were going to be going into a bag and then be stuck in a kayak in a hot hold for several hours. Bounced around and such. So he presented a supply of bounce ready food. Sandwhiches (how were they wrapped?), chips, Apples, Oranges, wrapped cookies. Things that wouldn’t spill. He also had a cold canned drink (like sitting in ice) that people were encouraged to take and put in their insolated lunch bags to keep everythng else cold. These drinks were sodas but also just carbonated water, which is very popular these days amongst the over 50 gang. I think he also had a good handle on what proportion of the meals needed to be special, like Vegan or GF. 

Music:

Every Afternoon, starting around 4:00, there was live music up by the food area. The offerings varied a bit but tended to be what I think were semi-professional groups doing older folk or country music. And they were all fabulous. I mean, they were really good. I am going to do a little guessing here based on things that the performers said. 

In Corvallis, the group was 4 people, a younger woman on rhythm guitar, two older guys on banjo and base, and a younger guy on mandolin. They played all sorts of country and light 80’s rock. People sang along and bugged them for many encores, which they delivered. It was a very hot day and the shade was crowded close to the band so all of us paddlers grabbed chairs from the dinner tables and cozied up close to the music with our sparkling water and beer.  They played for over 2 hours and were evidently very happy with their tips. On one song, that really impressed me, the banjo player was leading and playing a song where it seemed like he was tuning his banjo during the song. He would be picking away with his right hand and then reach around with his left hand and turn the pegs to the melody of his song. Twang up Twang down, two strings changed and then back. I talked to him about it afterwards and he said it was a method introduced by Earl Scruggs and that he cheated a little in that there were stops on his tuning pegs that marked the positions to turn to during the song. Still, I was impressed. The woman said she was a professor of music at the local college and it is possible that this was true for the group in general. 

At the farm near Independence we had a more Rock and Roll younger group. Still had a banjo. They were a bit louder and people tended to group further away, but they still did some excellent music. They did a semi-rock and roll version of (what I think of) as the Kingston Trio song “Long Black Veil”. Hey, it reminded me of another song I can now play on my Ukulele.

Speaking of which, a number of paddlers brought instruments along. A couple in my pod had brought a Mandolin and a hand drum and they would go off every night and form a little circle with other players, singers, listeners and just have a jam session for an hour. Price of admission, you had to let other people pick and lead songs. What fun. I joined in with my Ukulele. It was the first time I have played with other musicians in like a decade and it was great. Also I had an audience for my singing, which is pretty much priceless.

Education:

The Riverkeepers supplies numerous opportunities to learn about the river and the surrounds. There are displays, stops on the river with speakers, and experts that come to “pre-dinner” time with talks and fun things. 

Riverkeepers, in the last few years, has started a new phase of their development where they are actively trying to acquire lands that they will then administer and preserve. They have a couple of parcels now that they encourage camping on. I also learned that there are several “Porta-poties” at public places along the river that Riverkeepers pays for in an attempt to reduce trash and human waste at those areas. (San Salvador Landing was mentioned in particular). 

The talk on Freshwater mussels was interesting. The Mussels, as larvae, attach themselves to the gills of certain species of fish and then drop off later to live the sedentary life of a shellfish. This means they an only move up river with the help of fish. They can’t move away from an area if it becomes too hot or dry. They are dependent on the presence of their host fish and if those go away, so do the mussels.  And they live to be over 100 years old !!  See how much I learned. Oh, and there are 3 species and they seem to have foreign names, Greek or Latin or something.

At the nice family’s farm near Albany a local Bird conservatory was there with 2 of their birds of prey they are protecting. They had a Peregrine Falcon and a little Kestrel. Both were on the arms of their young human protectors and were very happy to be constantly misted with cool water on such a hot day.

Camaraderie:

Although the people that go on these things are everyday normal people, they are everyday normal people who have been through a bit of a self selection process. They are people who have decided to spend their vacation time and a good chunk of their vacation money to paddle down a river for 5 days with strangers and sleep on the ground in tents for 4 nights. They are adventurous, usually retired or teachers (or both), and often have some money. Every one of them has a story. In our pod, the youngster was in her late 50's, this means that the stories that everyone has are longer and more complex than one might think.  My partner loves to engage with each person and get their story out of them. I like to float around and be close to people while they are talking and hear their stories that way. Some non personal highlights: One person was a teacher and then principal and finally head of a school board. He said he hadn’t camped in a tent in 50 years. He was never without a smile on his face. One pod leader was an EMT, a retired teacher, and a certified alpaca shearer. Most couples were not long term couples, they were second marriages or just late in life dating. Mixed in there was a fair share of grief and sorrow. I hope the river washed them all in joy and serenity for a few days.

The dinner tables were not quite large enough to sit a full pod, though we tended to sit with mostly our pod for meals. This gave a chance to have more shared conversation and really bad “a guy walks into a bar" jokes. Turns out that if you travel with teachers you are subjected to a vast supply of non-dirty jokes.

Showers:

I cannot begin to describe to you how nice it is to take a clean water shower after 3 days of hard paddling on the river. Well, except that I just did. Once or twice during the week, seemingly dependent on the availability of clean water and drainage showers are available. These showers show up in the form of a large white trailer that contains 8 (I think) shower and changing rooms. The trailer has its own propane water heater but has to be connected up to water and electricity. This year, the closest water supply was up on the hill near the farmers barn (and the main road). This was about a 1/3 mile walk from the food/entertainment and since the day was HOT, mainly people elected to go for their shower after the sun went down a little bit. My partner and I snuck off just before dark and were rewarded by a trailer with no lines. We allowed ourselves a little evil mischief and shared a shower. We found out later that most couples were doing this, something about being out in nature. One of the problems with the shower trailers is that inside tends to be a bit warm and wet. Pro-tip: lodge a shoe in the door to keep it open and let in some cool dry air. 

Now that we are clean, we are faced with the dusty task of  walking back down the dirt and mud road to our campsite. And while we were in the shower, the sun has set and it is truly dark now. We were rescued from this by a Paddle Oregon Volunteer who was there to shuttle people down the road. Turns out this happened because the farmers wife didn’t want people walking down their farm road at night. She was afraid people might trip and fall or wander off the trail. She was going to drive people back and forth herself but the volunteers stepped in to help out. This is an example of a little hick-up which I bet gets fixed by next year.

Work (camping):

Although the volunteer and professional staff keep reminding you that you are on vacation, there is a hell of a lot of work to do. 

1. Wake up. If it is past 6:00, walk to port-a-poddy and then  walk to coffee.
2. At 7:00 breakfast is served. There is usually a line, you can wait until 7:30 if you want. 
3. Break Camp.
1. Pack up your belongings in 2 duffles.
2. Pack your tent in the duffles.
3. Take your duffles to the Truck for transport (could be a long carry)
4. Pack your chairs and your river equipment.
5. Fill your water bottles for the river.
6. Pack your Lunch
4. Go to a stretching class (18 min). This is optional but very nice way to get going.
5. Meet your Pod for morning launch. This is somewhere between 8:15 and 9:15 depending on distance to cover and how the pod is feeling.
6. Carry boats to river (distances vary), load them up, and launch.
7. Paddle for 6 or so hours. See Eagles. Pee. Swim. Hydrate. Hunt for Agates. Meet you pod mates. Pee. Eat Lunch.  Pee. 
8. Get in and our of your boats a lot. Good upper body exercise. 
9. Secure boats for evening. Might mean a carry of many boats up a hill. 
10. Carry your paddle gear (that you don’t want to leave in the boat) to the camping area.
11. Find a campsite.
12. Find the truck and get your camping gear.
13. Set up your tent and put your gear inside.
14. Go have a beer (or other beverage of your choice).
15. Drink a lot of water and listen to music. 
16. Dinner
17. After dinner talking.
18. Hit the sack and wish it was cooler.