Yes indeed, my kayaking adventure involved three different rivers today! It was absolutely beautiful. The Fall colors are beginning to show everywhere and it was well worth the time spent!
My kayaking trip today began at Buena Vista Boat Launch in Polk County. This area underwent a significant update last year which has improved water access dramatically. If you haven’t launched from this park, you need to! Our plan today was to paddle “up the river.”
Because the Willamette River flows North, we turned right from the boat launch and traveled south, against the river’s current. This may sound too difficult to undertake, but I promise you it was NOT. Stay as close as you can to the river’s edge and for nearly the entire route, we couldn’t feel the current at all. The other point to remember is that mid summer to whenever the daily rain returns, the river is a lot lower and the current has slowed significantly. In fact, here’s a view of the river gage height from January 1st, 2024 to today.
You can see the gage height was at it’s highest on Jan. 27th when it was 13.34 ft. Today, it was 9.55 ft. As I already mentioned, just stay close to the river’s edge and you will find it to be very doable!
I’m getting distracted – HA!
The reason we kayaked south is because we wanted to explore the Luckiamute River.
It was approximately a mile on the Willamette before we reached the Luckiamute River. Today was my first trip on this river and it was AMAZING!
The water is very still and the scenery was unbelievable! It helps, of course, that everything is beginning to change colors. We didn’t kayak that quickly because it was just so beautiful and there was so much to view and admire.
All of the trees were beautiful shades of gold, yellow, red and orange. But, there were others sites to be seen as well.
I loved this bunch of old tree stumps and the reflection upon the water was just fabulous. And then, amongst all of the deciduous trees and bushes – one lone Pine tree was visible from a long distance. It was so beautiful – standing lone and proud!
We were hoping to kayak a long distance on the Luckiamute River, but alas – river blockage. Somebody – hint! hint! hint! – needs to show up with their chainsaw and cut a path through this giant fallen tree!
We considered getting out and carrying our kayaks around the tree, but it was still going to be difficult and time was a concern as well. So, we turned around at this point. If you go back and look at the map I shared earlier, we never even made it to Buena Vista Rd. But, as I mentioned already, we weren’t disappointed at all. It was just so incredibly beautiful throughout.
We meandered back to the Willamette River. Once we reached the river, we continued our journey south because we wanted to go across the river to the Santiam River (see map above). We continued our journey until we had passed the Santiam River. It is on the other side of the Willamette and with the river’s current, we wanted to make sure we could cross the river and make the entrance. No problem!
This was my view paddling against the current of the Santiam River. My paddling partner didn’t want to wrestle the current and so she walked on the shoreline keeping step with me as I paddled hard. I know I could have paddled forward and around the corner to the right where I could see the water was calmer. But, I shall save that adventure for another trip!
And that made for three rivers kayaked in one day!
We turned around and went back to Buena Vista Park. Along our journey today, we saw several Egrets and I think one Eagle. Normally, I see more wildlife, but we didn’t actually kayak that far.
By far, my favorite part of the journey was the fall foliage. The colors were just magnificent! If you’re interested in this trip, go soon – before the rain returns. I’m guessing that in another week or so there will be even more colorful sights to see!
As always, be safe and have FUN!
2024 – Kayak Trip #40
