Nautical chart of trip route
* Image not for navigational purposes

Start Day One

Early Morning Start - Lake Oswego, Oregon

The trip started in late September at the brake of dawn at a privet dock in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The weather out look for the rest of the week was looking great. My grandfather called them “Indian Summers” some times lasting up to two weeks in late September with temperatures reaching the high 80’s.

Two kayakers dwarfed by this fantasy home still under construction. The home is built on top of the old Dunthorp waterworks constructed in the late 1800’s. When I was a teenager we would paddle in through the large intake pipes that drew drinking water from the Willamette River for the elite community of Dunthorp. Once inside revealed the pools and there cavernous chambers that had been abanded for decades. The structure is made of red brick and cement towering in to the air like a haunted cathedral. The house is now completed and is worth a paddle located just upstream from the Sellwood Bridge.

Many commercial barges operate in the downtown area so keep a good lookout especially on the back side of Ross Island small fast gravel pit barges work there.

Downtown Portland skyline, tall buildings, luxury hotels and on the water the Newport Bay restaurant where they have a great boater take out window. I like to pickup my fish & chips and float in front of Tom McCall Water Front Park eating and listening to good live music from the “Portland Blues Fest” you should try it out some time.

Portland is the city of bridges most of them just plane wore out.

The River Queen is a floating restaurant built on a barge made to look like an old-time sternwheeler and probably has never left the Willamette River but from the stories, my father would tell us it had crossed every sea in the world at least twice. As a child, my father would bring my brothers and me here for a Sunday brunch and while he and mom chatted it up with the rest of the adults we had control of the ship until the restaurant manager cornered us and returned us to our seats and that is when mom took back control. My brothers and I killed many a Pirate aboard the sturdy “River Queen”.

Here the steam-powered sternwheeler “Portland” is being refitted for the movie “Maverick” staring Mel Gipson, James Gardner and Jodi Foster The movie is about a old-time river boat gambler. The sternwheeler movie shots are near Cascade Locks on the Upper Columbia River and look very authentic. The Sternwheeler now houses the Portland Maritime Museum tied up along the seawall at Tom McCall Water Front Park. On her decks lies an original 1920 vintage Astoria gill netting boat hand built of white oak and Port Orford cedar materials that are all but imposable to fined today. In my opinion, this little 32’ boat is a thing of unsurpassed beauty and craftsmanship how else could it survive a lifetime of hard fishing and still be in pristine condition today.

Just before I reached, my destination for the night Coon Island State Park located along the Multnomah Channel a 26-mile short cut to the Columbia River. I passed this ship graveyard as the sun was just setting there was not a sound in the air it sent a chill down my spine. By the time I reached Coon Island, it was dark and I ended up sleeping on the dock listing to strange sounds coming from the woods, which later turned out to be raccoons enjoying a feast in the metal trashcans.

Start Day Two

Early morning silence shattered by an army of crows that rose all at once from the cornfields just across the channel from me on Sauvie Island “the pumpkin patch capital of the world”. They rose with such commotion it startled me out of my sleep the lightning blue-sky filling with black from the shear number of birds and as soon as it started it was over as the murder of crows flue away. I took this photo of the still morning and rolled over and went back to sleep.

A loan Hawk waiting patiently along the canal for its next tasty treat I think he kind of dug my Grateful Dead blasting from my headphones.

Cows walking on water whats next, flying pigs.

I could see the cooling tower of the now decommissioned Trojan Nuclear Plant from over ten miles upstream. It will not be there much longer there plan on imploding it this summer.

A quick stop at the Port of Rainer boat ramp in the late afternoon to meet up with some friends who our joining me on the second leg of the trip.

The Blakester is ready to go.

The wind picked up as we left the beach at Rainer making the short trip to Lord Island take over an hour. In the background is the Longview to Rainer Bridge spanning the mighty Columbia River connecting the sates of Washington and Oregon.

When we finally reached Lord Island the wind settled right down and made for a great evening.

Blakster making up his secret recipe for disaster Long Island Ice Teas more on the near disaster later needles to say midnight paddling and alcohol do not mix.

It was a beautiful moonless night the stars were blazing brightly as we sat around the campfire consuming the last of the Long Island Ice tea. We decided to play James Bond 007 and paddle across the Columbia River to the factories lit-up like a Christmas tree with thousands of lights strung along the high conveyer belts in full production. The lights of the factories can be seen in the background of the photograph.

As we were about halfway across the river to our surprise a thunders blast came from up stream and as we looked in that direction to complete darkness we must have looked like a couple of deer in the headlights of a hunters truck. Seconds later a more urgent blast came and in amazement Blakster said “hey were did all the factory lights go”. That’s when we realized they were being blocked by a very large ship or tugboat. So we sprinted back the way we came just being misted by a large tugboat. Several people on deck were yelling something but we could not hear what they were saying.

I remember saying to Blakster “man I am beat” he replied ”disaster just nearly diverted” as we were going for the high fives the last of the tug slipped by. That’s when they laid on the horn again sounding like thunder exploding right next to us. They were riding the horn to high heaven and that’s when we noticed the lights of the factory had not come back in view yet.

We realized the tug was towing a massive load so we sprinted with what little strength we had left. We where almost run down by the tug’s massive load that whooshed by unseen just feet in front of us. The large five foot wave it created caught us by surprise masked by the moonless night.

We slowly paddled back to camp like puppies with our tails tucked between our legs. We did not say another word to each other till the next morning. It is an example of pore judgment and too much liquor so please paddle safe.