Election Day - vote & watch the returns

Program for december

Long Distance Paddling

For some of us, a long paddle is maybe eight miles - ten on a good day. For Jack Cobb, that wouldn’t even merit a note in his daybook. He likes to take at least one long paddle a year, but he defines "long" to mean a 600 mile marathon race or a couple of weeks in the wilds of Northern Canada.

The first part of the program will be on the race. It was the 600 mile 1998 Dyea to Dawson race, which was held on the centennial of the Klondike gold rush. It covered the exact route of the gold rush, and consisted of 35 miles over the Chilkoot Pass, then 565 miles down the Yukon River system. The field was limited to 55 teams, and attracted some of the best marathon paddlers in the world. My partner was my 18 year old son.

The second part of the program will be a showing of Joe Emashowski's video of a year 2000 summer trip down the Cree River. The Cree is a remote, seldom paddled river in northern Saskatchewan that flows from Cree Lake to Wapata Lake, thence to Lake Athabaska.

Dr. Robert Jackson and Barbra May from International University Studies Institute presented a slide show on Costa Rica. IUSI offers several programs to learn about and study the culture, language nad customs of Costa Rica. We got a glimps of lushious rainforests, sandy beaches, clean cities, and beautiful people. Along with many cute frogs and colorful tropical birds.

Join us in Dec. No meeting in November remember to VOTE

Janet Towar

Siuslaw River trip

The sun shone brilliantly as we slid our boats onto the smooth waters of the Siuslaw at Tiernan Landing. Within minutes of launching we saw our first fish jump. About 3 feet of shining chinook lept out of the water. The people fishing weren't catching much but everyone we passed was having an enjoyable day on the water.

We drifted lazily along with the current and the tide enjoying the sun on our bodies and the wonderful fall colors and textures. As we paddled along the south side of Duncan Island we saw more fish jump, great silvery slabs shining in the bright sun. We passed very close to a great blue heron who watched us but seemed to realize we meant only to enjoy its beauty.

Under a willow there was a family of river otters, the young ones barking and staring, the elders watching cautiously. We watched for several minutes. Each of us, human and otter, jockeying for position to see the other better. Around the next bend a harbor seal showed its head and carefully observed us carefully observing it. Then a big splash behind my boat- a salmon leaping nearly into my stern, another jump, the fish almost into Dick and Rosemary's boat. Then across the river yet another huge leap out of the water. Question- if the fish catches us do we need a fishing license to keep it?

After a pleasant lunch stop we get to the end of Duncan Island and realize that we are not making as much progress as we expected due to a combination of lazy paddling and less than expected current. We raft up to discuss the options, stay with the plan and go behind Cox Island to Florence, stay in the faster main stem to Florence or if the wind picks up do we abort at Cushman.

Shortly after going under the railroad bridge at Cushman the wind picks up and the chop gets high and we decide that we're not having fun anymore so we take out at Siuslaw Marina where the owners of the 2nd Hand Coffee shop generously offer to take Dick to Florence to pick up the shuttle car.

All day long the seven of us- Robert and Cheryl Horner, Joan and John Skarda, Dick and Rosemary Mulligan and myself kept saying "It doesn't get any better than this, we couldn't ask for a better day." And we couldn't, it was a perfect day on the water.

Omar

UMPQUA ESTUARY OVERNIGHTER

Sept. 6-8 seemed like the perfect time for a paddle trip in the Umpqua estuary. The weatherman was predicting sunshine, high 60's, and little or no wind.

We left Eugene about 10:30 am on a bright sunny Friday, and arrived at

the boat ramp at Winchster Bay between 1:30 and 2 pm on a cool and foggy afternoon ( visibilty about 1 mile ). Being optimists at heart, we put-in and paddled out to the river - - - after all there were still five hours of daylight, and the sun could still come out. The river is about half-mile wide and we immediately headed across. The canpsite we wanted is about 2.5 miles up the river. Unfortunately, the site we wanted was taken by two duck hunters in full camouflage and painted faces - - - we paddled on. We settled for a site a mile farther north. Our tents were located 30 or 40 yards from the
water in a clearing in the dunes. We left our kitchen and our boats on the beach just above the high tide line. Dinner was finished about dark without ever seeing the sun. Since we were surrounded by firewood, we built a large fire and enjoyed it for three hours, thus avoiding 12 hours in a sleeping bag.

Saturday dawned to fog, really thick fog. Paddling in the fog wasn't very inviting, so we hiked across the dunes to the ocean and down to the north jetty. I thought it would be a 5 or 6 mile round trip, and I only missed by a factor of two. On the bright side, a 10 or 12 mile hike in the sand with no lunch really makes one appreciate an early dinner and makes those 9 hours in the sleeping bag easy to bear. We had another great campfire, but we never saw the sun all day.

Sunday was our only sunny day. High tide was 11 am so the water came up to float our boats about 9:45 . We did a leisurely 6 mile paddle around the north end of The Point and then back through The Cutoff and got back to the boat ramp by noon.

All told it was a good trip even if a little dreary due either to the fog or the weatherman's predictions. It could have been grim if Sunday had been as foggy as Saturday; we would have had to paddle along the north shore 4.5 miles to Gardiner and then walk or hitchhike 7 miles back to the car at Winchester Bay.

Footnote: When we got to the jetty we found an older (70-ish ) fellow with a Jeep buried to the hubs in the sand. He had talked to a man in a boat who said he would go back to Winchester Bay and send help. We walked up the beach for 2.5 hours on our way back to camp and no help had come. Hope he isn't still waiting.

Phil Bachman

(ed. note: Phil’s trips all seem to be like this.)

Excerpted From: The Sunday Oregonian

October 22, 2000, Pg. C16

The Associated Press

During the quiet seasons, Cove Palisades park staff guide kayak trips. . . .once fall hits The Cove Palisades State Park, crowds thin and the lake's canyons are left to wildlife and the occasional visitor. It's the favorite time of year for Steve Janiszewski, park manager; Jeanette Bondsteel, assistant manager; and Paul Patton, visitors' services team leader. And all three would like to more Oregonians taking advantage of the park this time of year. With more than 750,000 visitors a year, Patton said the park doesn't need to promote itself. But, the majority of those visits are jammed between Memorial Day and Labor Day, leaving what are referred to as the shoulder seasons relatively empty. To help promote these shoulder seasons, the park sold three of its four houseboats and bought 10 sea kayaks, six singles and four doubles. At least once a month through the fall and spring visitors can join park rangers for three-hour tours of different sections of the lake. Along the way, guides will point out historical sites, offer lessons in geology and help spot wildlife. Patton said wildlife viewing is especially good in the shoulder seasons because the deer herds, river otters and osprey all move back to the lake.
Jack Doyle
 
 

events of interest

Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, 3 A.M., Thanksgiving Day, Alton Baker Park, trot back and forth on the DeFazio Bike Bridge, just upstream from the bike lanes on the brand new Ferry Street Bridge.