Full moon, Friday 13th., and lunar eclipse. . . Had me on the Columbia River in Portland at 11:00 AM where I headed downstream (west) along Hayden Island. First on the south channel, houseboats and wall to wall private craft. The herons were sitting in their nests this morning on the east end of the island. Hayden under the I-5 bridge rapidly turns into undeveloped woodland with swards of grass running through it. (Must be zoned!) Coming up on the mouth of the Willamette, the land becomes "North Portland Harbor" with cranes and piers. Once around the west end of the island and in the north channel, the river shifts to commercial shipping. The water gets rolly and choppy. Today was the first day this season that I paddled without gloves! Later in the afternoon I was compelled to take off the dry top. Actually warm in a long sleeve thermal top and wetsuit. Now that the air is warmer (water still cold), I'm ready to paddle close to shore and work on carved/leaned turns in my "new" Solstice GTS. I'm finding that I'm able to really plant the paddle and lean the boat to carve, and the boat is a "tracker." Once around the island, some episodes with "rips" coming around wing dikes which divert the oft times strong Columbia current around the different islands and points, I horsed a bit with wakes in the 3/4 mile or so width of the river as tugs and commercial traffic passed by. Time to put the tent in the boat and stay on the beach overnight! ------------------------------------------------------- George Bergeron, Secretary OSWEGO HERITAGE COUNCIL P.O. Box 1041, Lake Oswego, Oregon 97034 Web Site: http://www.europa.com/~heritage/welcome.html Email: heritage_at_europa.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Mar 13 1998 - 22:27:41 PST
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