Columbia River: Fresh Water

The mighty Columbia River has many names attached to it; “The Bar” – the graveyard of the Pacific, the Gorge, the mighty Locks, the numerous dams, the beautiful river, the treacherous river, and many more.After talking with a few people who have been on the Columbia River and their warnings of the wind in the afternoon, ”You don’t want to be out there in the afternoon when the winds kick up”, and “The current is mighty strong”, those comments grew in our minds.Did we really want to tackle one more adventure where we felt clueless of the surroundings? Common sense kicked in and we said we would go ahead and get our feet wet, not literally we hoped. If it went badly we would haul her out of the river, put her on the trailer, and head for home.Isn’t that the reason we purchased a trailerable boat.Plus, we just got the boat back from the factory and this would be a good opportunity to make sure our “leaking” problems were a thing of the past.

September 6, 2006

Port of Camas-Washougal was where we put in, about one hundred mile east of the coast and just west of “The Gorge”.It is a busy little place, especially when we were there because the salmon were running for a couple of weeks and the fishermen were out in droves.The launch ramp was in a constant state of movement, either fisherman putting their boats in the water or taking them out.The boats here are more our size and it is amazing how many are anchored out in the river to get their chance at catching a salmon. Our first lesson would be the strength of the current.Launching the boat has been wonderfully easy, but when we went to tie it to the dock you would have thought it was the first time we had been in this boat or any boat.She was all over the place and that wasn’t because of Boris, it was our first lesson of how to deal with this current. We finally got her tied up with a minimal amount of words exchanged between Boris and myself and had a discussion of lessons learned later.

The end of summer is closing in on us and the evenings are shorter.As we sat in the cockpit, enjoying the beautiful quiet summer afternoon and into the evening, we observed the Columbia River in its glory.It is maybe a half-mile wide here, we watched the tugs pushing their barges up and down the river tooting their horns to announce their presence to the small uncaring fisherman, a cruising Paddlewheel boat trying to dodge the small boats, a hawk up on a piling with a salmon clutched in its talons, in the distance the dark mountains where the Gorge begins, and the quietness of the river now that the sun has gone down. A huge moon started its ascent, peaking over the mountains as it rose up directly next to Mount Hood; it was amazingly bright and absolutely gorgeous. Not a bad way to start out adventure on the Columbia River.

The following morning was beautiful, sun out with a few clouds, and calm waters. At 7:30 a.m. it was 52 degrees. The Gorge was going to be our first adventure, so at 8:30 a.m. we left and the first corner we came to we met a barge and for our safety we pulled off to the side and let him push his barge by; they grow in size when you see them up close and personal. There is a three or four knot current that we are fighting as we go up river but the water is calm and smooth. Our thought was, “What a great ride, all our earlier concerns were for naught”. Boris turns up the throttle till we hit twenty knots, we ran west and then we ran east; Boris was enjoying the boat. As the Gorge lay in front of us we marveled at the view; dark mountains made from many events of lava flows, steep vertical cliffs, waterfalls hundreds of feet high, the trees that are so abundant in the Northwest, the rock formations left along the side of the river caused by the many catastrophic events, and the reality that the Columbia River carved through these built us lava flows not just once but many times; the river was determined to keep its course. Our first destination was to be Rooster Rock up the Gorge. When we reached that point it was still a pleasant ride so we decided to continue up to Beacon Rock, which was named by Lewis and Clark. This was not a long trip, it was only twenty miles up to Beacon Rock from Camas but the wind had picked up. The upside was that it was a great test run for the boat to check for leaks: no leaks so far. The downside, it was nasty. We had heard that they have kite surfing contests around this part of the Gorge because they can always depend on wind, so another lesson learned: expect wind in this area of the Gorge. The opening off the river finally appeared for the entrance to Beacon Rock State Recreational Park. We pulled in and snuggled in between two boats. After we secured the boat we stopped and realized how beautiful it was at this spot on the river. Beacon Rock is located right on the water in front of the dock and is 840 feet high.The state built a switchback path that goes all the way to the top and as we watched people through our binoculars we saw others repelling down a part of the rock that looks like Devil’s Post Pile in California, columns of rocks that are vertical. After watching them, it made me feel like our adventure was like a trip to Disneyland.

A front was supposed to come in on Friday night, or we would have stayed another day. Laura and our granddaughters, Jade and Tiffany were to meet us on Saturday for the weekend, so we did not want to be stuck up at Beacon Rock because of bad weather.

To beat any rough water, we got up at 6:00 a.m. and left, but the wind had already kicked up. The water was choppy but it wasn’t as bad as going up river because we were now going with the current and soon the ride was smooth and pleasant as we left the Gorge, which funnels the wind. We were able to see a train which goes through the river point "Cape Horn", so named because this is where the winds start (or end, as Lewis & Clark found coming down the river.)

The entire day was spent at the dock in Camas/Washougal marina. In the late afternoon, on my way to take a shower, there were two young men fishing off the dock and as I approached one was reeling in a fish. The other guy took the net and pulled it onto the dock. It was a big fish and both the guys were excited and busy, not necessarily wanting to answer any questions, but I did ask what kind of fish it was and they said it was a Sturgeon. I left them to their excitement of measuring and all the other things they needed to do. On my way back from the shower I didn’t see the fish and asked him where was the fish. He said it was only forty inches long and it needed to be at least forty-two inches before you can keep a Sturgeon, so he threw it back. Needless to say I was surprised they had to throw a fish that size back.

Since it was suppose to rain that evening, we put the plastic enclosure around the cockpit and had a lovely evening being warm and dry, watching the full moon rise up next to Mt. Hood again.

September 8

Laura, Jade, and Tiffany arrived, got settled and off we went exploring the western part of the Columbia River. The river became wider and the terrain flatter. The river is busy with many barges going east and west, large ships coming in from the Pacific, numerous small pleasure boats, bridges that span the river connecting Washington and Oregon, and train trellis that span the width of the river and thousands of salmon fisherman. It is exciting to see all the activity.

The next stop would be St. Helens, a quaint little town with a lot of character. The county had built a beautiful dock and the boats were crammed in because it was windy and there aren’t many places to anchor along the river, maybe back in the slough, but not on the river because the current is too strong. We squeezed Journey On into one of the inside docks. It had been a long day on the river but all went well. We had dinner, Laura got the girls ready for bed and the five of us sat in the cockpit and watched all the activity on the dock and enjoyed the full moon rise up over the river.It was gorgeous.

It was early Sunday morning and Boris went up and bought some large cups of coffee and muffins for us adults, which Laura and I greatly appreciated. After taking our turns getting up and cleaned up, we got everything ready to leave and start our trip back up the river. Little did we know that leaving this dock would end up being such an entertaining experience for others on the dock. To start off with the boat was facing the wrong direction, so every time we tried to leave the current just pushed us up against the dock. Several men rushed to our aid and we finally got off the dock and then one of the men cried out, “Don’t hit my boat.” By now everyone was standing by on their boats to shove us off. Our boat is so light with no real steerage that if we are not careful we end up like a pencil just bobbing around on top of the water. I think it will be an experience Laura, Jade, and Tiffany will not soon forget. Everyone waved and laughed as we left because we have all been the entertainment at one time or another. The ride back was nice, the girls played in the V-berth most of the way giggling their heads off. It was fun watching them enjoy the boat.

The following day we decided instead of getting to the coast by water, we would haul the boat out and drive sixty miles down the road and put in back in at a little town called Cathlamet on the Washington side of the river, which someone had recommended to us. What a sweet little town, just a couple of blocks long. Its heyday has long since passed, but like many old little towns they have turned to tourism with several restaurants, antique, and book stores, which were a blast to go through. The county maintains a marina with great facilities, probably the nicest on the river that we had been to anyway. Someone had built a small walking bridge from the marina over a slough as a shortcut to the town. As you came out from under the trees there sat an old iron train surrounded by a chain-linked fence located next to the town museum. It was such a bueatiful way to walk to town.

Rain is predicted so we have changed our plans somewhat. Originally we planned to stay at Elochoman Slough Marina for a couple of days to rest up, but now with the rain we have decided that we will head for Astoria located next to the Pacific Coast and “The Bar”, the graveyard of the Pacific. We rose up early and got the boat ready, which meant washing off the gnats that covered the boat because we are located next to a slough. The view while traveling on the river is awesome. You see how the water sculptured the surrounding land, how it goes from the flatlands of the sloughs and islands to the shear cliffs, then builds to the higher hills that the river runs through going to the sea. Also you can see the tributaries that flow into the Columbia River as you slowly meander through this amazing waterway and once in a while run across an old cannery no longer in use. There are numerous low islands, with meandering channels and sloughs. We pass Elochoman River entrance with fog, and then go by Pillar Rock. Notice the rock is a channel mark, don't go outside it. There are no trees to obstruct the view, so we see the continual changing vista all around us. As we get closer to the coast the river gets wider, but we need to keep a sharp eye on the chart because there are many shallow areas. After about two hours the whitecaps were building along with the wind waves. It has to be at least 15 – 20 knots, the spray is over the bow and the windows are continually wet with spray. Found the marina in Astoria tucked behind a metal breakwater that seemed to run on forever, for it looked to be the only protection for the waterfront on the south side of the river. There was a lot of surge inside the marina, so much so that the boat was in constant movement. This was not a pleasant marina but certainly better than outside. We put up the cockpit covering since it was suppose to rain the next couple of days. As we sat in the cockpit, protected from the weather, just over the top of the metal breakwater we could see the large ships being brought in from the ocean by the Bar pilots and surprised as to how close they were. Much closer than I would have dreamed, but then I guess that was where the deep water was. Also, as shown in the picture, the bridge crossing the Columbia River goes right over the marina.

Astoria has a trolley car that runs along the waterfront and starts in front of the marina. So glad that someone had told us about the trolley because we boarded her in the early afternoon and took this lovely ride along the waterfront to the Maritime Museum and received a history lessons on the buildings and town along the water’s edge by the volunteers running the trolley. The museum was great, it went into great detail about “The Bar” and how dangerous it was, how the Coast Guard and the Bar and River pilots guide the large ships through these inhospitable waters where hundreds of ships have gone down around the “Bar” (the opening from the Pacific Ocean to the Columbia River). The reason it is such a dangerous location is because you have the current of the river going out, the tide and waves going in, if there is a storm the waves coming in are more violent and bigger, and the continual shifting of the sand. A friend of our was bringing their sailboat up from San Francisco to Puget Sound and needed to go across the bar many years ago and he said that the Coast Guard came out and escorted them through the waters.

The next morning when we woke up it was cloudy with the sun peeking through every so often and not much wind. We decided to leave as soon as the boat and us were ready and head back to Cathlamet to wait out the rain. Since there was no surge at Cathlamet it was an easy choice to be there instead of Astoria.

Friday, September 14

Today would be the last day on the water for this year’s adventure, but we were OK with that. All that we have seen and experienced has been wonderful and will take a little time to actually absorb. We hope you have enjoyed this summer and maybe given you some thoughts on new places to explore.