Paddle Oregon - 2022

Riverkeeper Pick

Welcome:

This is the 20th instantiation of Paddle Oregon, a 100-mile 5-day luxury camping/paddling trip down the Willamette river from (around) Junction City to (around) Salem. The trip has been on hiatus for the last 2 years because of Covid but was revived for 2022. There have been a few changes made necessary by the pandemic (we lost our caterer) but the river is still the same ever changing presence and people and boats remain as predictably unpredictable as ever. 

Instead of my usual blog about a sequence of events and a per day diary, I decided to divide this entry up into a series of thoughts and observations, more occupation oriented than time oriented. So feel free to skip around if that floats your canoe.

I am looking back over my pictures from the trip and realize the I wasn't a very good photographer this time around. Part of that may be the heat.... just not thinking so well, but the real issue is that when fun exciting things are happening on the river,  like some fast moving water or some obstacles to maneuver around, you don't really have opportunity for pulling out your camera. I guess I need one of those head mounted cameras that all of the cool kids have. So I may have to borrow pics from Riverkeeper, but I will credit them. So please don't sue me.

Participants:

Paddle Oregon is not an event that attracts the young. Perhaps it is too expensive. Perhaps it is not a destination vacation event. Perhaps it is not enough excitement. Whatever the cause, the result seems to be a multi-day river paddling and camping event populated almost entirely by retired old white folk. Take our ‘Pod’ for instance. 14 people. 6 women and 8 men. Youngest person was a 57 year old woman. Oldest was a 80 something man. Average age was probably around 68. Everyone was retired or mostly retired. Many occupations, though they seemed to lean toward the medical profession and/or school teacher. (I guess this makes sense, one is used to taking the summer off or working at ‘camps’ and the other has a lot of money). 

We discussed this phenomena in camp whilst hiding in the shade of the dinner truck and having a cold drink (The sun was killer that afternoon). Where are the young people? There was one 14 year old in a canoe, but he spent the day reading his book. There were some young women volunteers, it was unclear if they had been begged to come along or had sought out the experience. The only young man I remember was the guy who was running the baggage transport service. We old people all agreed that we needed more young people to get involved on this trip else in 10 years we wouldn’t have anyone available to help us carry our boats. 

But how to promote such an activity. Start a scholarship fund? Make a ‘bring you grandkids on the paddle’ discount? Develop the event into some massive online game? Hide virtual pokemon along the river? It is a poser. 

Of course, the other thing we talked about was how to make the event more interesting to us. I think that Travis (The WR Executive Director) is already talking about doing some things. I heard him mention things like:

1) Straddle a weekend with the event, so people don’t have to take off so much time. 

2) Make the days a little shorter paddles (some are pretty brutal at 22 miles). 

3) Fewer days. 

I would prefer things like:

1. Better food (I think this is a glitch they are working on).
2. Better access to showers (at least every other night)(This is a logistics problem, finding a place to         camp that has access to the water and electricity necessary).
3. A glamping option. Perhaps rides to a local hotel after dinner instead of being in a tent on the rocks.
4. Shorter days (I like that one) with more planned places to stop and swim and/or skill learn.
5. Skill classes in safe places on the river. There may not be enough safe places for this.

In general, the event will need to change and evolve, with the changing weather and political climate if nothing else. I look forward to it !! One of my goals is to be out next year assisting my beautiful and talented partner in leading a pod down the mighty Willamette on PO 2023.  (I may have to make GET PO'd T-shirts).

The Staff and Volunteers

Paddle Oregon doesn't just happen. There are many trained staff and expert volunteers that donate of their time to plan and execute this wonderful excursion.  The Willamette Riverkeeper Staff have the long term responsibility of planning. They must find places to camp, set up the shuttle (100 peoples cars must sit someplace during the paddle), and arrange for the timely arrival of good food, drink, entertainment, and education. Those shower trucks don't just show up because they feel like it and finding a farmer that wants to share their land and water with a bunch of liberal riverfolk (some with Ukuleles) can't  be all that easy. 

In addition it takes a large number of volunteers with some special training to have a safe and fun paddle. Each 10 participant 'pod' has a couple of pod leaders. These are people who have done the river before and have some level of expertise in reading the river, assisting in water rescues, and being understanding and nice to people that are having a hot day going down the river. (Oh, you should take  a swim and cool off. I will go with you!). There are also a number of safety boaters. Some safety boaters go down the river the day before and scout out any tricky areas. You may see one floating over in the eddy beside a wood hazard and pointing with their paddle to the safe part of the river. They are all wearing orange safety color vests and have things like first aid kits, extra water, tow lines, and a radio for calling for help or reporting problems. 

Then there are the on-land volunteers. These are the people that load and unload the entire land-based part of the show everyday. The guy who takes your camping gear and stows it in the truck and then unloads the entire thing into the grass to wait for you at the end of your daily paddle. The others that load and unload the tables and chairs and water stations onto that truck. People in charge of registration and tracking individuals and running the information table in the evenings. There are also people way behind the scenes who are ready with vehicles with boat trailers that can zip in and pick up someone that is having a bad day. 

One year, there was a person in our pod who just seemed to have everything go wrong for her. She was a physician from the midwest, so she was no slouch. She also was extremely game and didn't want to ask for help. So it took a while before some of us in the pod began to notice that she often flipped over when she was getting in or out of her boat. I think we notice she was wet and a little bloody and asked what happened. Then when we were all on the beach taking a break, she was the one that got stung by some wasps. Later, on the river, she mentioned that she might be alergic to the stings. She was given some benydryl but that didn't help much and the pod leader ended up calling in help. We paddled her to a little boat landing near Albany and she and her boat were picked up by a nice on-land volunteer and whisked away. Don't worry, she was at dinner that night and right back on the river the next day. 

So, tons of work. Tons of help. Lots of trained personel. 

My hearty thanks to all of them for planning and executing such a fun and renewing adventure.

Choose Your Read: 

For some strange reason this
picture is NOT on the 
Riverkeeper FaceBook page.
Go Figure.

Now is your chance to choose your reading experience. Pick a link to more about Paddle Oregon 2022

Getting Some Wood - obstacles on the river.

On Global Warming - dealing with unusual heat on the river.

Off River Activities - what you do when you are not paddling