South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

It was 100 degrees in the Willamette Valley this week so my partner and I took our boats to the Oregon coast for a long weekend and managed to actual get out on the water one day.  We had made it down to Charleston (a little fishing town near Coos Bay) and decided to do a paddle up into the National Estuarine Reserve that is the historic South Slough.

The local kayaking guide book I had recommends that you start your paddle in Charleston at low tide and then ride the tide up into the estuary, getting out at a tidal creek about 5 miles into the slough. It advises to be aware of the North wind that often blows in the afternoon. 

The book leaves a few warnings out.

The Launch

We launched at the well marked kayak launch on the east side of the Charleston bridge, right next to a big oyster catching factory (Lots of oyster shells) and the local ship yard. There is a little dock there and a ramp that is blocked such that only small boats (hand carry) can be launched. We had to carry the kayaks down through some shallow mud (muck?) to get to the very low tide level. But the tide was making fast.

We launched and headed up the slough. We immediately noticed that there were mud flats all over the place, including dead in front of us. So we ran aground in the first 15 minutes of the paddle. Not very pleasant to run aground. The wind is blowing and the tide is flowing fast over the mud flat and so you get pushed around a lot. I guess in the worst case and you flip over, you can just stand up and get back into your boat. As long as you don't let your boat blow away while you are doing that.

We got past the flats and now tried to stay more in the main channel. We were looking for the island that is shown on the book map. Our plan was that it would take about half of our time (an hour) to get to the island, at such time we would stop and have lunch and then continue our way up the slough to our car. We figured it would be difficult to get lost as long as we steered toward the west side of everything.

And now for some history:
The South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, besides being quite the mouthful, is a 4700 acre area that preserves a number of estuarine habitats. It was established in 1974 as the first in a national network of such reserves. It is managed by NOAA and Oregon BLM. There is a interpretative center and a number of trails that snake around the property, including a long boardwalk over a marshy area. For today, we are going to be paddling past the interpretive center, maybe we will see some of the paths or some hikers out walking. Our car is parked up on another piece of the Reserve where there are additional (though perhaps not marked) trails that go up the peninsula between the sloughs two large south fingers. There is a full time science staff working on the property and they host visiting scientists doing various studies.

Meanwhile, out on the water, we are making good time. Hell, we are flying. We are not paddling or anything and the wind and tide is ghosting us along at at least 4 knots. There are a lot of marker sticks in the water.  We were not sure what they were for. We were trying to stay out in the central part of the channel where the current was strong, but that was also where the wind and wind waves were strong and farthest away from the cool stuff that I was sure was happening on shore.

Our problem was that we couldn't find the island in the middle of the slough. Things just didn't look like they did on the little map that was in the guide book. Perhaps it was because the tide was so low. It would have been nice to pull out our phones and check things with a live map update. Here is another Warning: Cell reception out on the Slough is really poor. Like..... no bars. So it is difficult to get a live map. I guess if we had downloaded a map previous to the trip, the phones internal GPS would work just fine to locate us on the map. Do that. But you can't call for help.



So, speaking of calling for help. I know that they have those satellite tracking and messaging systems that can let you call 911 from a lot of situations, but do you know what I think places like this should have? I think the Reserve should host at least one (perhaps a few) base stations for a mesh net. Have you seen these things? There are a few of them on the market, they are little walkie-talkie transmission boxes that hook by bluetooth to your phone and then proceed to establish a little local area Mesh Network with any other compatible boxes that they happen to be able to ping. With them, you can send text messages to people on the mesh, even if you are not close enough to the particular node that you want to message. I think they will also allow you to message outside of the mesh (like through the internet) if one of the mesh nodes is a internet host (a base station). So you keep one of these in your kayak (or your backpack) and then you can have some level of network access through your phone even when yo can't see a cell phone tower. I believe these things have a range of around 2 miles for voice and up to 4 miles for data (text).  I have seen them advertised a lot on Facebook and with kickstarter, but haven't really seen the products in the stores yet. They are not very usable unless either a number of people have them (and they are compatible with each other) and/or the various ranger stations start having base stations for people to ping. Here is one kind on Amazon .

Well, my partner is trying to get me to stay out in the main channel, you can sort of see where the water must be deep, but I am straying off toward the shoreline, where I think we will be more protected and out of the wind. We 3 have strayed a little apart from each other, perhaps 50 feet separation. And then I hit something. It made a good crunching sound. Looking down I see a post sticking up all encrusted with Oysters. Ouch. Hope I didn't hurt my boat. Where did that come from..... shit, there is another one. Crap, and another. Some waves come sloshing through and reveal that I am in a field of oyster encrusted punji sticks of death stick up from the bottom. How long are they? A couple of feet? If I hit them will they high side me and flip me over? If I flip over will I be impaled? This seems non-ideal.
 "Don't Come over hear" I yell to my companions. "I am in some sort of old dock area or something. Don't come over here". I am a little too bush being scared and trying to stay calm so I don't flip over. I figure I may take one of these things through the boat bottom, so I am trying to float between the rows. That isn't working so well. I yell again for the other 2 to stay away from me.
They really aren't listening to me so much. They are both trying not to get high sided and flipped over and implied and yelling for me to stay the hell away from them. Holy Shit all three of us were in trouble. We all floated clear in 20 seconds or so but it was very frightening. Like, what do you do if you land in that mess? You may not be impaled, but you will be surrounded by razors and if anyone tries to come get you they are going to be in trouble. If we had come by here 10 minutes later, the water probably would have been high enough that we wouldn't have noticed these things and would have cruised a couple of inches over the death punjis. hmmmm... Maybe we did.

When we went around the corner we saw another field of these things, but they were clearly out of the water and easy to avoid. What are they? I am guessing they are some sort of remnant of a commercial oyster fishing area. Hell, perhaps still an active area, that might be what all of the marker sticks are.

Dike Remnants

Pretty much the only wildlife we saw.

Now that the excitement is done, we continue our streak up the slough. We really are not having much time to look at wildlife and enjoy the day, we are just moving too fast. And we can't find that island that marks the midway point. I thought it would be easy to see.  We come to another bend and see some interesting hillocks in the water. They sure look man made, but what are they? Turns out they are the remnants of dikes that had been built in order to isolate a marsh area from the slough such that the water could be pumped out and cows could be grazed in the freshly made field. But in recent years the Reserve staff have dynamited the dike and let the tides flow back through again to flood the field. Returning things to nature.

But we still don't know where we are. I am beginning to think that we must have passed that island someplace, but how could we have missed an island? We turn another corner and now were are in an area that looks a lot like the coastal areas I used to play in when I was a kid in South Carolina (a different Charleston). We have the inflowing tide and a lot of sea-grass and mud. This is also what the place would look like where we left the car. Could we be at the end of the Slough already? We have only been traveling for one hour and it was supposed to take us 2.5 hours to get here. But we are either at the car or we are completely lost and will have to turn around and fight our way back up against wind and tide (which waits for no man).

The Bridge !!

But no. We turn a corner and there is the bridge. Go under that and the car is on the right.

By the way, the water under the bridge at this time was about 2-3 feet deep. When we parked the car I would have said it was 2-3 inches deep. So. Incoming tide. If it was a high tide, you might have trouble getting under that bridge.

Wow. What a whirl wind.

The next time I do this trip I might try it a different way. Perhaps coast up on the tail of a high tide and then ride the falling tide back to the car we launched from. The only problem with doing that is the wind. It was blowing pretty good and it can be very hard to paddle a kayak upwind. Would also have been nice to go on a sunny day, but those are hard to come by on the Oregon coast. And, or course, when the tide is falling, if you get stuck in the mud you will be stuck there for a long time.

So. Here is my final advice.
Don't go on a Sunday or Monday, the Interpretive Center is closed on those days.
Do go by the Interpretive center before you paddle and ask for a kayak map and perhaps some advice on things to see or be careful of. Get and extra map and send one of them to me.

Don't trust the map from the local guide book. It is not to scale and very misleading. Make sure and have a compass.

Oh, and where was the island? It turns out we were right next to it when we ran into those Death Punji sticks. We just couldn't recognize it as an island because the tide was so low.

Paddling Portland - by the Bridges

Paddling Portland - By the Bridges

My partner was working this Weekend Tuesday and I needed some exercise, so I decided to take myself on a tour of Portland (OR) via the Willamette river. Lots to see, so I took a lot of pictures. It was a great paddle but it took a few hours (9 miles round trip) so lets get started. Since a river city depends on its bridges, lets take note of each bridge as we pass it.

Sellwood Bridge

The Sellwood Bridge is a recent replacement of an old bridge that goes from the Sellwood district to the John's Landing area of Portland. This is the first crossing of the Willamette since Oregon City and used to be the busiest 2 lane bridge in Oregon. When they replaced it they first lifted the old bridge and moved it over 50 feet but left it operational while they built the new one.

Sellwood Bridge

I launched at the community park at Sellwood. This park is just across the Sellwood bridge from Portland, over by the Oaks Amusement park and Oaks Bottom wildlife preserve. I wanted to start sort of at one end of the city and see how far I could get. This park doesn't have a whole lot of parking, but it is free and not very busy at all on a Tuesday morning. There is a dog park there, so a number of people playing with their dogs. There is also a dock that just about always has a few boats tied up and a decent river beach for soaking your toes or taking a little family swim. I launched from the sand next to the dock (I used the dock ramp to get my boat down to the water as the other access points have stairs).

The sun was out bright with scattered clouds, but there was a pretty good breeze blowing down the river and it was a bit chilly in the shade of the cottonwoods at the river's edge. So I got out on the river. Right away I ran into a pod of kids (high school or maybe college) learning how to row and skull. A few people in doubles and one quad. The people in the quad had not been out before (except for the guy rowing stroke). They were turning around just when I was getting started. I wonder who they belong to?

Just down the river a few hundred yards from Sellwood, still close enough to hear the screams of the kids on the new roller coaster at Oaks Amusement park, is a row of fancy floating homes. More on them on the return trip, but for now, I was sitting in their lee and using the flat water to take some pictures of the floating homeless encampment that has grown up across the channel on the South tip of Ross Island.

Floating Home-Less?

 

These all appear to be non-operational

There used to be just a couple of boats, and some of those still in sailing shape, but more and more boats have been showing up and these are looking in worse and worse shape. And they are starting to aggregate. It looks like you have one, say 40 foot cabin cruiser. Something with a kitchen and a sitting room and a head. And then tied up alongside you have one or two old 25 foot sailboats. I was thinking of them as extra bedrooms. So you have a three bedroom floating house. There were 5 or 6 of these aggregates plus a few solos all in this little bay. I sort of wonder that the authorities let these boats float there. Last year there was a floating dock with a porta-potty on it. But this year there is nothing like that and I don't think these boats have any regular servicing. They certainly aren't sailing to the local marina to have their holding tanks pumped. The local kayak store used bring their classes to this bay for water rescue practice. A good place to go swimming on a hot day. I don't think they are doing that now.

Eagle on Blue

As I glide through the boats there is some commotion overhead. Not one, but two bald eagles are flying around up there. And both of them are being harassed by little birds. One has a seagull chasing after him, and the other has some little black bird literally nipping at his tail. And I use the word Literally advisedly. I saw the bird grab the eagles tail feather right over my head !!

On the other side of the little bay was a group of Canada Geese, I think they were sitting on their eggs on the little rock cropping. I paddled around them and then through the channel between Toe island and Ross Island. My partner and I like to go to Toe Island. It is only 100 feet long (at low water) but it is not visited often and we like to hunt agates there (or go swimming).

This part of Ross Island gives you the impression that the island is very big. What is hard to tell from here is that the steep embankment leads up to a stretch of treed ground that is only about 40 feet wide. Right on the other side is the Ross Island Lagoon.

John's Landing Area

To my West is the John's Landing area of Portland. Down by the water is the sailing club, with all of the little Lasers out with new sailers. Next to the club is a number of condos for those that like to live by the river. It is a nice area. And there, at the end of the condos, just before Portland Proper, is the blue roof of the Spaghetti Factory. This is a great big beautiful building right on the river with that Iconic blue roof and food that actually tastes like it was made at a factory. Go Figure.

Spaghetti Factory and New Condos

Ross Island Rock Beach

 

I stopped at the North Tip of Ross Island (did you know that the Willamette is the longest North Flowing river in North America?) for a little stretch and to hunt for Agates. Across in Portland is one of the areas that has been having rapid growth over the last 10 years. Six or so tall glass condos have gone up. I bet they have awesome views of the river. Also right in this area is the big OHSU expansion where the Arial Tram runs down from the main OHSU campus up on the hill. Portland State University (PSU) also just built a new Computer Science joint facility (with OHSU) on the other side of the Ross Island Bridge. The only old thing over there is the small barge building ramp where river barges used to be built. The last barge rolled down the rails last year. I hear they are going to tear that site down and put in either more OHSU or more condos.

OHSU up on the hill. Barge Production by the River.

Ross Island Bridge

The Ross Island Bridge carries Route 26 over the river. This bridge was built in 1926 during a mass bridge building boom. It was originally painted black, but in the 1950's it was decided to paint all of the Portland Bridges a different color and Ross Island Bridge was painted Phthalo Blue. It has four lanes of traffic and one pedestrian walkway.

Ross Island Bridge

New PSU Science building (I think)

When you paddle under these big bridges, it is always a little eerie. No telling what might be coming down from up high. In this case, there is a bridge crew working on the underside of the bridge and a couple of guys in hardhats riding in a medium sized power boat running around making sure boaters don't get in the way. I was just starting to push out on the East side of the channel to avoid the construction when I realized that the big thing in the water out ahead of me was moving. It was a tug boat pushing one of the big barges full of gravel and dirt out to the Ross Island Gravel processing plant. I let it have the right of way.

Gravel Barge and Tug

Work Crew Safety Boat.

Just shortly after crossing under the Ross Island Bridge you come to Portland's newest bridge. This is my favorite bridge in Portland (and I watched them build it). It is named Bob (OK, Tillikum Crossing)

Tillikum Crossing

This is a light rail, street car, bicycle and pedestrian traffic bridge. It is the first bridge in the United States that was designed to carry only mass transit and emergency vehicles. With its completion you can ride the Portland Street car in a big circle all around the city. It is a beautiful suspension bridge.

Tillikum Crossing Bridge

The next big thing on the river is the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. OMSI. This is fun to paddle by because of two features, the terminus of the Willamette Jet Boat rides, and the big huge Submarine. They used the interior of this sub for some shots in "Hunt for Red October". This is the last modern NON-Atomic hunter killer submarine and is available for tours on a daily basis. And hey, while you are there, why not go on an exciting Jet Boat Ride!! I recommend the tour that takes you up to the falls of the Willamette in Oregon City. Go on a hot day. Wear sun screen and clothes you can get wet. If you get motion sick, don't sit up front.

Jet Boat

But meanwhile, Holy Moly, it is time to pass under another Bridge. This one is the Ugliest bridge in Portland. It is very noisy under this bridge, what with all of the big trucks and such.

Marquam Bridge.

The Marquam Bridge was built in 1966 to carry Interstate 5 across the river. It is the busiest bridge in Portland. It is two levels with 4 lanes of Northbound traffic on top and 4 lanes of south bound on the bottom.

Marquam Bridge

The Marquam casts a large shadow. Once under, the big shiny part of Portland opens up to the west across the River. I don't know the names of any of the big buildings, but there are new ones going up every year. You can see the Marriot there down by the river. That is where the Big Float is going to be in a couple of weeks. The big float is a Portland Summer party where people get into all sorts of crafts (mainly inner tubes) and paddle their way across the Willamette. The river is a few hundred yards across at this point. It is supposed to be quite the site. My kayak club does safety boats for this event, I should probably volunteer and go see what is up.

I would also like to note that every time I look up a bridge in Wikipedia it is listed (for some reason) as "The Busiest Bridge". Each one has more cars, or more busses, or more pedestrians, or more cars per lane or more pigeons ...

Hawthorne Bridge

Hawthorne Bridge is the country's oldest operational vertical lift bridge. It runs right into the heart of downtown Portland and is one of the busiest bridges in the city. It was built in 1910. It originally carried cars, pedestrians, and the street car. But now is has busses, cars, and people.

Hawthorne Bridge.
You think you can live up there? Looks like a 3 bedroom apartment.

Along the river on both banks is a walking path. Here on the East side starts a part that runs very close to the river and will eventually come down to the water and follow along a path on a floating dock. Not as much wildlife here, as the East bank is mainly highways and overpasses. I did run into a few Canada Geese and 2 goslings. (Not Canadian Geese, mind you. Canada Geese)

Spirit of Portland.
Dinner and River Tour in Style

The Morrison Bridge

This bridge is the largest mechanical device in Portland. It was built in 1959 and like all of the older downtown bridges is a draw bridge. The Morrison swings up and open from both sides. The footings of the bridge have large wooden wharves which have controllable colored lights for artistic display that one can evidently rent out.

Morrison Bridge

Just past the Morrison the shore just below the esplanade looks like some sort of sandstone cliff. But at the base of the cliff, embedded in the rock, is what are clearly the remains of wooden pilings. And then some layers of the sandstone look very much like concrete. I think this must be a place where over the last, say, hundred years, a lot of cement and gravel and sand and such have been dumped and that has built up to make this cliff. (see the picture).

Man Made Layering?

Across the river is the downtown wharf area. This is a cement wall going 20 feet above the water with a metal railing separating the drop from river walk. Floating there is also the steam powered stern wheel tugboat, the Portland. The Portland was an active tug at one time and I had assumed that time was like the 1850's because of the paddle wheel. But it turns out this boat was built in 1947 and was the last steam powered stern wheel tug in America. At first the boat was supposed to be diesel powered screw driven, but the stern wheel design was chosen evidently because all of the pilots and tug operators of the day knew how to use that kind of tug. She is still operational and goes out every few years. They power up the engine and turn the wheel once a year during the Rose Festival. She is now a museum and you can get a tour for a few bucks. Pretty cool if you like steam power. (She was also used in the movie, "Maverick").

Now the East Side Esplande comes down to float on the water for the use of bikers and pedestrians. The people going by seemed a little surprised to see my kayak right there on the water.

The Esplanade comes down to float on the river

City Scape

The Burnside Bridge.

The Burnside Bridge was built in 1926 and is similar in appearance and draw bridge style to the Morrison. It continues Burnside street from one side of the river to the other with 2 lanes of traffic in each direction.  Burnside divides the city into North and South sections.

Burnside Bridge

Below the Burnside on weekends is the iconic Portland Saturday Market. A great place to shop for local crafts and street food. Standing up over top of this bridge is the another Icon, the Portland Old Town sign with the white stag on it.

In December, this sign has a red nose.

When my partner and I went down to the Waterfront a few weeks ago it was Rose Festival and a number of large military vessels were tied up on the wharf along here. A Canadian Frigate was there just South of the Burnside bridge and on the side North were a couple of US Navy vessels. I paddled along the Eastside Esplanade for a while until I came to a little city floating dock. I guess you can tie up a boat here and then walk up to the Convention Center. Perhaps see the Trailblazers play some basketball. Right now I just pulled into the calm water and rested a bit. Over my head the I-5 to I-84 on-ramp soared. Just down river the old Steel bridge had all kinds of traffic on it.
Two different MAX trains going over at the same time in different directions.

The Steel Bridge.

Opened in 1912, the Steel Bridge is a double decker lift bridge with Amtrak Train rails and pedestrian traffic on the bottom level and car and light rail traffic on the top level. The lift spans can be independently operated, the only bridge of this kind in the world. The bottom level can be lifted up and telescopes into the upper deck such that upper deck traffic is not disturbed. The Bridge is named after the new fangled metal that was used to build the original bridge.

I did not cross under the Steel Bridge. I was too tired. Time to start home. I crossed the river here and fetched up against the west coast embankment just in time to see an Amtrak train heading South out of Union Station.

Amtrak on the bottom

On the way back up the river, I stopped at Ross Island again and then took the east channel round. I got some pictures of the Ross Island Lagoon. This lagoon had been used by the Ross Island Cement and Gravel company for decades as a source for round river rock to make Portland Cement. This lead to a huge enlargement of the Lagoon and deepening it to some 100 feet. In more recent times the company has started to fill in the lagoon with clean fill and is doing restoration work on the island. I think the plan is to turn the island over to the city as a park and nature preserve at some time. Currently there is still this huge ugly piece of machinery that apparently does sand and gravel sorting and loading.

Conveyor Belt Sand and Gravel Sorter

My last little piece of scenery is the return trip down the line of expensive floating homes that sit right next to the Oaks Amusement park. I should probably dedicate a complete blog covering each house on the line. Suffice it to say that there is a eclectic mix of old and new, traditional and Avante-Garde, Expensive and Less so. They are all built on big old logs and they all float (as a community) up and down on the big poles stuck into the bottom there.

Look at all of the trees.

My arms are tired. I turn the corner and there stands the Sellwood bridge again with the little beach park there on the East bank. Time to go home and have some lemonade.

But First, a quick wildlife recount from this trip:

1. Bald Eagle
2. Osprey
3. Great Blue Heron
4. Lesser Merganser
5. Canada Goose (many, and 2 chicks)
6. Sea Gull
7. Some little black bird who thinks he can pick on Eagles.

What else might you have seen?

1. Deer (on Ross Island)
2. Beaver (you can see their sign all the time. A friend of mine says they will come out and mess with you at night).
3. Mallard Ducks. (Usually all over the place. Not sure why I didn't see any).