It is pretty wild that Portland has a nice set of Falls right in the city. They are Falls of the Willamette and sit just a couple of miles upriver from downtown Portland in the neighboring town of Oregon City. These are wide falls that encompass the entire 1500 feet of the Willamette right where an ancient lava flow made a narrow basalt canyon for the river and forced the 50 foot drop.
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| Lots of old industrial foundations near the Falls. |
Back at the start of the 20th century, the power of the falls was too convenient to save its potential beauty and several industries that could rely on the water power were built on the cliffs just down river of the falls. These industries were not necessarily clean and the remnants of the old paper mill and Electric Generation facility are still in place. For a while the Falls generated all of the electricity for a growing Portland and powered the many electric railways that ran all over the area. There was one train that ran from Portland, along the East bank of the Willamette right up the cliffs of Oregon City to a flat spot above the falls. Passengers and goods could take this train to connect from river traffic on the Columbia to paddle boats that operated above the falls. This practice remained in use until the locks (which are still in place on the West bank of the river) were put in that allowed riverboats to bypass the falls. The locks are still there and presumably still work but have not been open in a decade or more due to National Parks funding issues.
Today the OOPS trip that I joined was going to travel the short distance from the Oregon City boat ramp to the base of the falls to play in the active water, rapids, and eddylines. I have been up to the falls area a couple of other times before but never when the water flow was so intense. I was very happy to have the OOPS experience and safety training going for me on this adventure.
We launched from the public boat ramp which is essentially right under the interstate bridge. They are doing a bunch of work to widen the bridge and add seismic enhancements. Because of the scale of the thing, there are a lot of temporary structures in the river to navigate. To make things even more fun, today was Memorial day and everyone with a boat was in line to use the ramp. Park early, Park Often.
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| Sea Lion Traps |
We paddled up the East side of the river, staying out of the way many fishermen. Along the way we passed a set of docks that I remembered as being occupied by a small colony of Sea Lions. Today those Sea lions have been replaced with large wire traps, presumably to catch said sea lions. What does one do once one has a few sea lions in large traps on floating docks?
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| There is the Falls! |
Now we start to enter the narrowing part of the canyon and the current starts to pick up. On the left bank (River right, in this case) was a nice back eddy that let us glide peacefully upstream toward the falls, which were visible, big, and starting to get loud.
Steve, our lead TO, indicated that we should ferry across the current to the other side and hang out in the calm waters up against the cliff face. Now things began to get a little exciting. The current wasn't moving all that fast but it was really squirrelly. Currents going every which way with upwellings and whirlpools coming into being and dissipating. I heard Lori give advice on this, she said something like, "Paddle the boat where it wants to go". The boat is going to turn, you can't force your will on it suddenly. It is more of a negotiation.
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| From our protected area looking across to the generation plant |
Once across we came to a side current. Across the water, on the same bank as us but high up on the cliff is the old power generator. A significant channel of water is being diverted through the old system (and perhaps partially through the locks) and is coming down a big concrete shoot and gushing out into the main channel right in front of us. Steve selects this for warm ups. I suspect Steve wants to make sure he doesn't drown me on the first skill level. He gives us good concise directions and then heads into the swirling current, does a neat edge and brace and paddles his boat around and zips back into the relatively still water of the eddy behind us. Jerry goes next with similar results and then I follow.
There is this thing about entering an eddy, which is the line between two sections of water moving in different directions. I am going to relate what I remember and felt, but for gods sake don't assume it is technically accurate. I was told that the important things are some acronym that I can't remember but . Something like AMP?, Angle of attack, Momentum, and something really important that starts with P. Perhaps don't in your dry suit? Anyway, In I went. I do remember from previous lessons in eddyline crossings to Moon The Current. That is, edge your boat such that you face your bottom toward the current and brace on the opposite side (the side you are leaning toward). When your bow hits that current the water will build up on your upriver side and try to flip you over in that direction. Edging away from it gives it less to push on and gives you some lever arm to hold against the pressure. And then, Boom, the current pushes your bow down stream and your boat makes the turn and you are riding in the current. Keep Paddling. Paddling is effectively bracing. Keep Paddling. You know, it is hard to paddle when you are petrified. Don't believe me? Google it.
Part of my objectives on this trip was to raise my game a bit and enter conditions that I had not paddled before. I sure got a chance to do that. I entered that current 4 or 5 times and only almost went over once. (not sure how I didn't go over, truth told). The the team crossed the current and waited in the eddy on the other side up against the foundation of the generator. Frak. Ok, I am coming. I got into the current and now paddled crosswise instead of letting it sweep me around. Right away I see a little problem. Up ahead this cross current hits the main current and there is this place where the two currents collide and it is very.... unsettled. Keep Paddling. It bumped me around. Once my boat went into a hole in the water and a wave came over the bow up to my skirt, but my new little boat didn't flip me out and I was quickly in the calm water of the eddy. Such excitement. I asked Steve how to get out of that confluence. He said "Oh yeah, I saw you in there. That is rough. I try to avoid that area". Alrighty then.
I came back over with the team and then we did that again. This time Steve lead people into the main current for a bouncing ride down to calmer water. I had reached my limit, however, and everyone in the team had made it very clear that no one should do what they didn't feel comfortable doing. So I did what I had done before and crossed back into that downstream eddy by the cliffs and watched these experts play. They were fun to watch.
Oh oh, that appears to be an upside down boat. I went after it, but Jerry had self rescued before I could get across the river to him. Man he was good. I wish I could self rescue that fast. I must practice that cause I didn't even KNOW you could self rescue in those swirly conditions.
Later we were all sitting back over in the calm area near the cliff and talking and suddenly, Steve just flipped over. What? And then he flipped back up. And Lori flipped over. And back up, and Jerry flipped over and back up. Geeze, you could warn a guy your were doing rolling practice. I almost flipped over just to be funny. Of course, I would have stayed flipped over so that may not have been as funny as I would have hoped for.
A little more fun. I got to do one rescue and then we were all a little pooped. We rafted up and had a very pleasant 10 or 15 minutes chatting and just floating down current while we all caught our breath and relaxed a little.
Did I mention what a wonderful sunny day it was. A terrific outing with terrific people.
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