Two days after nearly drowning in the Willamette River (see previous post), I met up with my kayaking buddies and we traversed Foster Reservoir from the Sunnyside boat ramp. We had decided, rather than going out into the reservoir, we would paddle up towards Green Peter Reservoir.
First and foremost, I was absolutely shocked by the extremely low water level. In fact, of all my trips on Foster Reservoir this winter, the water level was definitely at its lowest point today. I know the “powers that be” are trying to fill up Green Peter Reservoir from having released nearly all of the water over the winter, but Foster Reservoir is really suffering. As I said, I was just shocked.
These are some of the boat docks along the river accessible via Sunnyside Campground. Yes, they are out of the water all winter, every year. But, as I said, there’s even less water now than when I was up there last month. I’m not very good at guessing measurements, but I think Foster needs at least 15 ft. of water still. And, it’s probably more than that.
However, despite the water level, Foster Lake was gorgeous! I have noticed, compared to my previous trips this winter, that the water condition has improved greatly. It is now very clean and healthy looking. Stated another way – gorgeous.
I was late arriving to Foster and so I paddled hard from the boat ramp, trying to catch up with my paddling partners. I eventually caught up with them at the furthest point you can go right now due to the low water level.
This very shallow area is located where the yellow sign is posted warning about changing water levels from the dam at Green Peter Reservoir. As you can see, it was so shallow that it was impassable. I have never seen it like this! However, we got out and wandered around. Of course, we were looking for agates and only one was found.
I want to point out that despite this being the furthest point we could reach, it was absolutely gorgeous. All of the trees and bushes have new growth, the temperature was right at 70F, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was just perfect! It was the kind of day where I would have been very happy sitting on the shore and reading a good book!
A part of the beautiful scenery were the huge rocks.
Normally, the water level is high enough that you don’t see very much of them. But today, they were absolutely gigantic! There was still quite a bit of water running down the sides of most of these rock formations, which just added to their beauty! They were really interesting to look at as they had so many notches and patterns in them from the flow of the water.
If you haven’t seen these at Foster yet, go now! The water level is supposed to start going up and filling by the middle to end of May. In fact, I just looked up last year’s levels and the specific time frame.
The water level was 615 ft today and by the end of May (last year), it will rise up to around 635 ft. So, when I guessed earlier about needing 10 ft, I was wrong. Looks like the water level will rise 20 ft. total for summer recreation! But, as I already mentioned, going now will allow you to see so many interesting things before they’re all under water again. Go check them out.
This trip to Foster Reservoir really was perfect. Even though we didn’t paddle very far, we thoroughly enjoyed looking at all that mother nature had to offer.
When we returned to the Sunnyside Boat Ramp, and as we were loading our kayaks on to our vehicles, we received a visit from the cutest squirrel. He hung around for a bit, hoping for food, I’m sure. But, I like to think he was making sure we were ok.
The perfect end to a perfect paddling day!
Special thanks to Melanie and Kelly for allowing me to use their photos!
2024 – Kayak Trip #17
