Re: [Paddlewise] Trip Report - Columbia River Bar

Doug Lloyd wrote:

[snip]

> I headed for Ilwaco the next day on my own, downstream on the Washington
> side. I had reconnoitered bar conditions from McKenzie Head and the cape
> the night before. [snip]
> 
> The Columbia Bar is two miles wide, located between two massive jetties
> extending far into the open ocean. A swell against ebb can see waves
> form up to 90-feet high  -- challenging even the biggest vessels. As I
> passed the Coast Guard training center at Cape Disappointment beside the
> ever shifting Sand Island, it took real determination to make seaway
> against the growing flood-tide and threat of building onshore wind,
> while attempting to avoid “pop-up” breakers that had refracted around
> the north jetty. After the successful and far too easy crossing, I
> headed north to take a peek off the end of the mile-long north jetty,
> looking for some action.
> 
> As I drew closer a dull roar coming over the top from the jetty’s blind
> side intensified. Two jet skiers passed, swinging half a mile wide (just
> like the State Marine Board’s directions suggested) to avoid the mayhem
> off the end of the jetty, where Peacock spit extended 2000 meters
> further offshore. A wall of waves broke randomly atop a building current
> -- some tumbling forward, some backwards -- as far as the eye could see.

Hey, Doug, good to see you posting again.

BTW, the area you transited has possibly been made worse, over the past few
months (years?), by gratuitous dumping of dredge spoils to form a "mound" off
the end of the North jetty, courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers.  Two
crab boat crew members died there a couple months ago, owing to "peaking" waves
from the mounding, according to some of the local crabbers.  Check the Tidepool
for updates as they occur:  http://www.tidepool.org/ and
http://www.columbian.com/09202001/clark_co/218020.html

(The latter link is to an article in the Vancouver Columbian, and may have
expired by the time this reaches you;  hit the Tidepool link if it has.)

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************