This weekend myself, my wife, and my youngest son participated in a Level 2 kayak training put on by Alder Creek Paddling shop. This is a 2 day class that introduces a paddler to some advanced paddling techniques as well as some more challenging water and wind conditions and group management. No one else signed up for the class so it turned into a 2 day family guided adventure session. We went to two locations (one I have never paddled) and did a bunch of new things.
Willamette Falls
The Falls of the Willamette are the second largest falls (by volume) in the USA. Think of that, only Niagra has more water going over it. These falls have the potential to be a destination spot but right now they are surrounded by abandoned factories. They are somewhat the victim of being too close to Portland. The deal is that Portland is just a couple of miles down the river North (yes, this is also the second largest North Flowing river in America) and that proximity made the falls extremely valuable... for electricity production. There was a time where there were commuter train lines all over the Portland area, running as far south as Salem, that were all powered by the hydro generators at the falls. Think on that, in the early 1900s there was great commuter rail in Portland. That hasn't quite recovered from the invention of the car but they are working on it. These days the Electricity comes from the falls that were drowned by the dams on the Columbia.
But if you are in a boat, the falls of the Willamette are still pretty and you can get up pretty close to them especially this time of year when the water flow is low.
And that is what we did. We paddled from the confluence of the Willamette and the Clackamette. This is called Clackamette park and there is an old boat launch there. It isn't used anymore because the Clackamas river flow changed and there isn't deep enough water to safely launch a fishing boat anymore. But it is still a great place to park your car and launch a kayak. We paddled up the Willamette talking about different safety and paddling issues and "eddyline jumping". When there is moving water on a river there is usually protrusions into that water flow, either rocks or trees or bridges.... something. These protrusions create water current diversions that often make a swirling back current that is called an 'eddy'. You can sit in an eddy behind a little rocky outcrop and be in water that is relatively still with a slight current the opposite direction of the main. The main current can be only a few feet away racing down the main channel. This means that in front of you is a place where the current direction changes rather suddenly from upchannel to down channel. This change in water direction makes a very visible line in the river and that line is called the eddyline.
Crossing a eddyline line can be challenging especially if the current differentials are large. The trick is to rock your kayak up on its side to prevent the fast moving 'other current' (the current you are not in) from building up water on the side of your boat and rolling you over. You do this by lifting one of your knees such that it engages with the hip pads on your boat and lifts that side of the boat. But which side do you lift? This was always confusing to me because it seemed like you alway get different advice on this depending on whom you ask. Well, it turned out I was getting identical advice just in situations that were different. The first time I was told about when to do this 'don't flip over' edging was when I was trying to learn how to surf small waves in the ocean. The advice was to 'moon the beach'. In other words, lift the knee that causes the bottom of your boat to face the beach. This puts your torso facing the wave and also lets you put your paddle in the water to help keep you up right while the wave tries to roll you over toward the beach. Works great. When you cross an eddyline in a river the advice is 'moon the current'. This means pointing the bottom of your boat toward the current. So if you are crossing from a slow moving eddy into the main river you would point your bottom up stream. This seemed to me like the opposite of pointing my bottom at the beach when surfing. An instructor pointed out to me that I was thinking about it wrong. He said that when surfing, the dominant current isn't the wave, it is your boat slipping across the top of the water toward the beach. So, effectively, the current your are mooning is coming from shore. So mooning the beach is mooning the current. Ain't physics grand?
Sorry, that was a lot of reading just to get across one damn eddyline. Today, that wasn't even the hard part. Our job was to 'ferry' all the way across the river (about 50 feet) from the eddy on one side of the river to the eddy on the other side of the river. Eddy hopping. This meant that no only did we have to cross the eddy, but then we had to deal with the fast moving, bumpy, swirly, scary water of the river and then cross back into the eddy on the other side. Which is what we did. The 'ferry' part was trying to keep yourself pointed enough up river to cross the moving water without losing too much distance downriver before you made it across. Important to not be pushed backward into things you can't see.
We did this ferrying a couple of times back and forth. Our instructor was giving us hints and directions along the way, but mainly he was getting us used to the lumpy water and more confident of our abilities to stay upright in the adverse conditions. Then he demonstrated a crossing to us and I noticed he was using a stroke I had not seen before to go in the opposite direction than I expected. I asked about it and he showed us how to do it and said it was a good stroke to use in these bumpy conditions. Well that may be true it turns out it is very hard to try and learn a new stroke when you are doing everything you can to stay upright and freaking out a little in the process. The first time I tried it I almost flipped and ended up abandoning the crossing and being swept downstream a ways into calmer water. Before I could work my way back upstream Nick tried the same thing and he did go over. So now we have someone in the water and our instructor took off after him.
I think the essence of these advanced classes is that Someone has to go swimming. It helps the people in their boats practice rescues (or just staying out of the way) and it gives the person in the water the chance to realize that flipping over isn't that big a deal. It is just going for a swim. Note: If you are in a situation where 'going for a swim' is dangerous, you probably should not be out boating. At least not at our skill level and physical abilities. Nick has been practicing his self rescue lately and he got back in his boat pretty fast unassisted. Then we pumped him out and decided it was lunch time.
We stopped on a local beach for lunch. After lunch it was getting pretty hot (we were having a scorcher in Portland that weekend) so we all did some rescue practice in the calm water near shore. Just flip over and get someone else to pull your boat up on there boat, dump out the water, and then help you get back in by holding you boat for you. It is a bit of a chore but something that I have decided that I need to do at least once a year just to prove to myself that I can still do it. Once again, if I can't get back into my boat, I probably should go anyplace where I can't just swim to shore.
For our next trick we went back to the confluence of the two rivers and were going to see how far up the Clackamas we could paddle. Maybe find some fun water. Well, it turned out that we had launched at high tide (yes, below the falls the Willamette has a tide) and the falling water level had made a great little standing wave in the Clackamas right at the old boat launch. Our instructor didn't think we could get further upstream so he taught us how to cross a fast small current like this. It is essentially a very quick and hard eddyline cross. He said it was called an "S" turn. You moon the current hard as you enter, it pushes you bow down river and tries to swamp you, then you enter the reverse current on the other side and you have to reverse you moon and you bow swings the other way. Your boat makes a nice S shape in the water. I went first (after the demo) and made it through the rough water but switched my moon to early and went right over in the water. It is sort of funny how this works. I am a little apprehensive about going over but once I flip and find myself upside down in the fast moving water with my boat on top of me, I am really OK. I am not afraid of swimming, just of flipping over. I got of my boat and thought I could just stand up, but the current was having none of that. I had to pull my feet back up because of was hitting some rocks. The instructor was there with me but I think he wanted to see what I would do. I ended up leaving him my boat and just swimming to shallow water on the opposite shore. I took my paddle with me and the instructor (Andrew) brought my boat over so I could empty it out and get back in. Paige and Nick were waiting back up by the fast water and we went back up there and tried it again. This time all of us made it across with different approximations of the S curve. We sort of wanted to play more in the standing waves that were there, but the water was a little shallow for people that didn't have their kayaking helmets. So we called it a day.
Rooster Rock and the Cliffs Of Insanity
On Sunday, we went to Rooster Rock state park on the Columbia. The plan was to launch at the boat ramp there and head up the Oregon side of the Columbia. When we got to a relatively narrow section we would cross the river to the Washington side and then paddle more upstream to the "Cliffs of Insanity". Andrew told us that all of the local paddlers called them that, evidently a reference to the movie "Princess Bride". We told him that we thought their actual name was Cape Horn, which is just a different copied name, but this one is on the maps.
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| This Mama Merganzer had somehow adopted 20 babies perhaps they adopted her. |
Today we are practicing pretty much the same skills as yesterday but on a bigger river. We also did a lot of talking (whilst paddling) about the importance of weather monitoring and how things can quickly change when you are out on the water. Andrew had used an app called 'winds' to check on the weather forecast for the area. He said this app pays a lot more attention to wind variations than other weather sites. The forecast was for 3-5MPH in the morning and then building to 10 to 15 this afternoon. He said he wanted us back on this side of the river and in a safe area by 3:00 to avoid any trouble. Sounded good to me, one thing I have especially hard problems with is padding with the wind. That is, a following sea. Paige likes to ride the wind waves but they freak me out a bit. We crossed the river right below the cliffs. Cape Horn sticks out a bit into the water and it make a larger eddy there. This means you can ride this back current right up the sides of the cliffs and enjoy the view. It is quite a view too, the cliffs are stunning and the rock is beautifully textured. We road some wind waves into the calm of the eddy and then got to take some great pictures.
There is a train track line that runs up both coasts of the Columbia. The one on the Washington side carries Amtrak travel from Chicago (The Empire Builder) and we saw it run by going West when we were taking a break before the cliffs. The line is actually drilled right through the Cliffs of Insanity and a train went Eastbound through the tunnel right above us while we were floating there taking pictures. Such fun.
As we were floating up river in this back eddy, further and further East, we were also getting to a place where the river was more constricted by the cliffs on both shores. This was causing the wind to funnel and build and the water to funnel and build and outside of our little eddy things were starting to look pretty bumpy and challenging. Andrew was planning this. Now we were going to enter the rough water and be paddling with the current but against the wind. He said if we had trouble we could just dump back into the calm eddy to recover. If someone flipped, they needed to hold on to their boat so the wind wouldn't blow it away from them, but the river current would soon take us to a calmer spot. A complete rescue in that bumpy conditions would have been difficult, but I guess it wouldn't be impossible. When two boats are pulled up side to side, they are pretty stable. We paddled in this rocking and rolling water for 20 minutes are so. It was a little scary and very exciting. I was getting a bit tired when we finally pulled out of the rough water and back into the eddy along the side of the river. At this point, we had rounded the turn in the river about were we had crossed over the first time and things were settling back down. Please forgive me for not really having any pictures of things when they were "rough". I guess I need a go pro.
Across the way we could see a nice sand beach with people sitting in the sun, we decided to head over there for lunch. That side of the river is funny this time of year, it is a foot or so deep for a few hundred yards into the river. We were running aground before we got very close to the little island. I was wondering how all of those people got out to the island, turns out they walked from Rooster rock. We finally got to land and sat down to have our lunch and we found another surprise; this is a clothing optional beach. Wow. Did you know that the original name for Rooster Rock was Cock Rock? Because of its shape. But the map makers changed the name when they made the public maps. Who cares what Lewis and Clark called it !! Not sure what made me think of that.
The afternoon wind never did show up so we didn't get to do even more practice in bumpy water. Instead we found a shallow place and did brace practice. This is where you tip yourself until you are no longer stable and definitely going over unless you do something and then you slap the water with your paddle and try to save yourself. If you don't flip over, your probably aren't trying hard enough.
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| Paige does a great self rescue |
Anyway, a great weekend of lumpy water and new learnings. Now I want to go back to both the falls of the Willamette and the Cliffs of Insanity and practice. Need to make sure and bring along people that can pull me out of the water when I fall in.
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