It's been a while since I've been on the water. Ear infections, projects, really crappy/rainy weather. Finally I decided that I didn't need an early start (sunset no longer at 4:30 PM), and I didn't need an exotic venue. . . just put the boat in the river and get on with it. So I launched at about 2:30 PM Tuesday at ramp near the Sellwood bridge. This is the widest area on the Willamette River. . . still only a few hundred yards from shore to shore, and in the midst of downtown. I held on to a dock and practiced my leans to the edge of tipping over in this new boat. Paddled into town and had a river view of the restoration of the Hawthorne bridge. A young girl on the "seawall" downtown wished she could have traded places with me, waved and smiled. That was nice. Paddled around the "Spirit of Portland" --a large tour boat, then next to the submarine at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science & Industry). . . Sneaked into the "back side" of Ross Island. . . the Great Blue Herons decided that a quiet paddler could be trusted to within 30 feet. Got to see the colors and the fancy feathers on the neck, maybe a half-dozen birds. Big yellow carp are jumping out of the water at bugs. Several people on the shore near Oaks Amusement Park, tossing sticks for their dogs. Blowing my whistle, I get a Black Labrador to paddle out toward me. His mistress on the shore laughs. . . No rain. . . this week-end is Summer-Solstice, the forecast is for sun and warm. Maybe a tent, and some good wine on an island in the lower Columbia. . . birds, ships, sea lions. . . Shrimp and veggies over noodles. . . that sounds good. . . Summer is here, don't miss it!!! ______________________________ George Bergeron, Secretary '99 Oswego Heritage Council www.europa.com/~heritage/" *************************************************************************** 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 Thu Jun 18 1998 - 01:10:10 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:29:57 PDT